Thread: More 12 volt power outlets needed !

You will need another battery, its just not worth the risk of flattening your battery.

If you dont want to mess around with dual batteries for the car you could maybe look at getting either a power pack type battery or just another battery to hook up to the fridge whilst camping and put it on a charger when you get home.

Any auto electrician or decent mechanic can do the job if you dont think you can do the job without wrecking your pride and joy.

you dont need another battery but its a good idea. A very conservative low voltage cutout will leave you with plenty in the battery for starting but wont run the fridge for long, If the fridge is decent and you're only doing overnight stops this wont be a problem as the fridges insulation and the lower temps of a night will lower its overall power draw.

if you go one of those batteries in a box style "power tanks" be very careful with the way you charge them good ones have their own in built charge regualtor, cheap ones dont and just plugging them into a decent feed from an alternator will cook them in short order.

Theres advantages to both systems.

If it were me I'd be aiming at something like a traxride setup (I personally use a manually controlled heavy duty relay as this allows you to run the system backwards for charging the main battery from the aux or self jumpstarting) to charge a removable battery in a box on an anderson plug. along with a second plug wired down to the tow pack so that if you later need to you can run a second battery (or 3rd) in a trailer/van.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

(I personally use a manually controlled heavy duty relay as this allows you to run the system backwards for charging the main battery from the aux or self jumpstarting).

Gday Mate,

Could you explain your set up in a bit more detail. How do you charge the main battery from the auxillary? When you say heavy duty relay is that similar to the manual marine switches?

Cheers

Thanks to another post on here, on the weekend I put a second 12 volt socket in the back right hand corner of my Puma. There is already an unused power cable in this location.

I found the best plastic socket at BCF (out of BCF, Jaycar, Super Cheap and Auto One). It has a neat thread and round nut on it. Just had to drill a 30 millimetre hole in the trim next to the speaker.

This cable always has power to it, so would not be suitable for running a fridge etc. I want to use it for pumping up tyres & recharging a jump starter pack while the engine is running, and a 12 volt fluro work light if required.

I like the idea of the "low voltage cutout" Blknight.aus suggested. Where would you get the gear to do this?

Beckford.

the easy way is with a traxride it provides low voltage protection and connection.

the cheap way is with a VSR from a D1 and a remote starter relay from supercheapp.

my setup on a tdi is the big relay driven by the fuel cut off solenoid feed with the ability to manually turn on the solenoid so that if the main battery is flat I can effect a start/charge from the second battery/AUX sockets.