• Car batteries are not designed for constant drain situations. In normal car use the battery is only subject to the large short drain of the starter motor as once the engine is running the alternator will provide all the power. A constant drain can cause the battery to fail. Leisure / traction batteries are designed for the constant drain situations such as a caravan where the battery is charged and then used for lights, tv etc., before recharging.

• To cover ourselves RoR Ltd have to recommend that you use leisure / traction batteries for this engine. That said they are roughly twice the price and we haven't had any problems to date. Be aware though any guarantee which comes with car batteries will be void as you will not be using then for there designed purpose.

• The Hercules deck is designed to accept two standard car batterries. By placing them at the ends the loading on the bogies is more evenly distributed.

• If you intend to do most of your running on a club layout where you will have long runs on shallow gradients (long constant power drain) traction batteries should be the preferred choice.

We have chosen flat post terminals on our batteries. Connections can easily be made with a crimp on loop. Round post batteries offer the use of good bolt on connectors but these are around £7+ a pair (require two pairs).

CHARGING YOUR BATTERIES

One charger - charge each battery in turn. Two chargers - Link wire doesn't have to be removed. in fact the two chargers can share the same wire. We would recommend an automatic charger which automatically drops to trickle charge when the battery is full. Over charging batteries is the main reas Using a shielded plug and socket a charging lead can be constructed.This negates the need to remove the body, simply fish out the lead from the cab floor and plug in. The control board should be isolated before charging - turn off the battery isolator switch.

Diagram of charging lead to follow