What did you do to your Puma today?

**Robmacca** · 3rd June 2023, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by Colmoore

Gday Diesel Dan
I’m replacing my batteries today and have been looking at the superstart HVT units vs yellow tops?

I can’t stretch the budget to decent lithium and I’ve had yellow tops before and rate them highly but Mrs account manager was a bit shocked at the cost of 2 new batteries (‘One thousand dollars?!!! What?! How come you need 2 batteries anyway?!!’

&#129392

I’m keen to save some $ but Superstart really get a lot of bad reviews and I’m not keen to have the bitter taste of poor quality or warranty arguments in future, let alone the acid burns of a shellacking from the accounts dept…..

So, wondering what your experience is?

If anyone else has recommendations from experience, I’d appreciate your comments

Thanks All

I've had bad experiences with 2 Yellow Top batteries on our Prado and would not touch them again...

In the Defender I run the HVT-70ZZD Ultra High Performance Dual Purpose AGM Battery as a 2nd Battery and the Supercharge (Gold Battery) as my main. I just recently replaced my Supercharge main battery after over 4yrs of service as I was having some starting issues that pointed to the battery. I put a new one in and found out I still had the issue. I then cleaned all earthing points and starter term'ls and all is now good. I then tested the 4yr old Supercharge and it came up as still good at 76% healthy so I need to find something to use that on instead of letting it waste away...

Once the Aux battery comes to its end of life i will be going to lithium...

Curious here... I recently have read/seen a few reports on the Kings Lithium battery and to my surprise it got good reviews and said good value for money... Is there any ppl with 1st hand experience here that can give their opinions?

**DieselDan** · 3rd June 2023, 06:23 PM

No issues with my HVT-50D so far.
Mind you, all it runs is a fridge, a few USB charging ports and a few LED lights so it's not massively stretched.
I've got one of drivesafe's usi-160 dual battery controllers and I use a solar panel to keep things topped up, so hopefully it'll keep going a while longer.

**Tombie** · 3rd June 2023, 06:28 PM

I’ve had 2 HVT-50Ds running full time for 6.5 years, only in the last few months have I had issues.

One failed 2 months ago, and was bypassed, the second has finally given up and now both will be replaced.

They ran a fridge full time, Aux lighting, communications, dash cam and various other accessories.

**Tombie** · 3rd June 2023, 08:49 PM

Further to the above, prior to switching to SSB I went through no less than 8 Yellow tops. Nearly all of them failing just outside warranty by less than 2 months.

The 2 that did fail inside warranty - I was accused of failing to look after them and denied any warranty claim.

That is a load of horse manure, I frequently maintained them using slow charging every month as it also linked to my main battery and kept everything happy.

**Tikka7mm08** · 11th June 2023, 05:52 PM

Front Runner side jerry can holder added.

**Tikka7mm08** · 17th July 2023, 03:46 PM

Got the dash how I want it with Mud switches either side of the double din stereo.

**Tikka7mm08** · 19th July 2023, 07:54 PM

No photo, but wired in a 2200 16V Capacitor and diode to the radio so now it doesn't reset itself and the BT connection when cranking to start. One of the cheapest but best mods.

**spudfan** · 21st July 2023, 10:54 PM

Not the Puma but the 200 tdi.
I got new sill rails for the 110 200 tdi and four new steps. Prior to fitting I undercoated and painted the sill rails (with a brush). Considering the existing rails are in situ since 1992 the painting is probably superfluous also the new one's are thicker than the origionals. The steps have been on it since 1996. So taking into account Greta and her crusade, The Green Party who are in government here, the pushing towards buying an EV, painting the rails is probably not necessary!. Then there is the age thing of course. The new rails will out last my ability to get into the 110...even with the new steps