Thread: Starter battery how to to recharge after cranking?

if your not using the second battery then ID just go an buy a $30 or so dollar 12v solar panel to keep it topped up and then turn the switch onto both whenever you go on a longish drive (call it more than an hour)

just dont forget to unflip the switch it might be a good idea to just double check that the switch is setup so that the solenoide only engages when the ignition is turned on

if your using the second battery providing the solenoid disengages when the Ignition is turned off flip it over to on and leave it there

Also, it would be a good idea to install a voltage meter into the system,
then you will know exactly whats what.
A voltage meter can also be wired with a changeover switch.
Any auto leccy could do the work pretty quickly.

the solenoid is not wired to go off with the ignition, (hence the idiot switch).

I will be hooking up a "cheap-ass" voltage monitor to both batteries, (more in later posts) but they will only give me the volatage of what is going into the battery or battery volateg when stopped.

I suppose I could just keep stopping and reading the voltages every 5mins or so and when it reads virtually full I will know how long it takes to charge the crank bat. back to full.

I just though somone may have been able to ball park a length of time to recharge after crank.

Its an interesting question,,

mine wont start till it has oil pressure and you can count on it taking exactly the same cranking revolutions every time.

I'd PM Drivesafe,,,










(and report back)

Hi HangOver, whether you have an auxiliary battery connected to the alternator or not connected, after starting, it will take roughly about 10 minutes driving to replace most of what you used from your cranking battery while starting.

With older vehicles, even with a small alternator ( 55 amp ), once the motor is running, the alternator is easily capable of topping off your cranking battery while charging a low auxiliary battery at the same time.

With new a vehicle, the alternator is putting out quite high currents even at idle.

So as soon as you start to drive ( raising your engine revs ) you can start charging your auxiliary battery and this will have no effect on the recharge time of your cranking battery.

Cheers.