Crank and auxiliary battery

[Keithy P38]

Gents and lasses,

My P38 has been getting a jump start for the last few months just so I can drive it (have only put 500km on the odo since November), as such, all my overtime pay has gotta go somewhere and what better place to start than to treat my Rangie to a few new batteries!

My starter at present is a 570cca genuine LR battery which I've had in since I bought the Rangie all those years ago. It has run my fridge as well, but now I'm going to buy a new starter battery and treat myself to a deep cycle of some description.

Have been looking at Century N70ZZ for starter, and have no idea what I should run for an aux. I had a NT70 in an ark power pak for a few months as a second but it was a $50 second handy and didn't last three trips, so this time I'm going new.

I will probably set up a solenoid or smart charger and make the second one a bit more permanent this time.

Thoughts??

[bee utey]

The Besco N70EX "extreme" is a semi deep cycle 4wd rated battery so can easily handle fridge service as well as starting. I have had a very good run out of them in various vehicles, up to 7 years service. Available through Bridgestone Tyre Service centres.

[Hoges]

I bought a Supercharge "Allrounder" see Supercharge Batteries - Car Batteries, Maintenance, Expanded Grid Technology (http://www.supercharge.com.au/products_special_allrounder.php) about 2 yrs ago. 760CCA / 105 AH. Two sets of terminals...one for starter motor etc the others for auxillary feeds. Been quite good. Only issue is that the terminals were slightly smaller in diameter so needed to fiddle with the "original" battery clamps to get a good tight clamping force. I don't use the vehicle all that much so have to be sure to keep it properly "topped up" with the 7 stage charger every couple of weeks... The price was less than $200

[Keithy P38]

I was looking in supercheap the other day and noticed their range! Good to hear positive feedback about it! 105 ah is quite good - more than suitable to run a fridge for a few days.

From what I've seen on the net there's a few crank/deep cycle combo batteries that look good, would be handy to get a pair that are the same and series charge them while driving then separate while camping.

Keithy

[PaulP38a]

I could be wrong... I thought conventional wisdom for a P38 was 800-900 CCA. Pretty sure both of mine run heavy duty starter batteries, and one of them is branded as Land Rover. Mind you, if don't start them every couple of weeks, they still drain down.

[Marshall]

I replaced mine (2000) a couple of weeks ago because the alternator clapped out... (Also since replaced) the NRMA book says the P38 requires 850cca...

[Hoges]

I was looking in supercheap the other day and noticed their range! Good to hear positive feedback about it! 105 ah is quite good - more than suitable to run a fridge for a few days.

From what I've seen on the net there's a few crank/deep cycle combo batteries that look good, would be handy to get a pair that are the same and series charge them while driving then separate while camping.

Keithy

Supercharge... no relation to Supercheap that I know of ;) I bought 2 of them and do exactly that with one of Drivesafe's magic boxes

[Keithy P38]

Yeah I thought so too Paul/Marshall! Mine's about 3 years old and definitely 570cca! Has done well. What finally killed it was the repetitive jump starting of my old man's chev defender a few months ago. Drained it bad...

[Keithy P38]

Supercharge... no relation to Supercheap that I know of ;) I bought 2 of them and do exactly that with one of Drivesafe's magic boxes

I bought one of these today - as you say, 760cca and 105ah and around the $200 mark. That was at mates rates though! I didn't have any problems with the battery terminals being too small.

Will either buy another one or go bigger (130ah) for my aux battery.

Cheers
Keithy

[Green Rover]

Hi, I am a new member.
Just thought I would mention that I have been using Caterpillar batteries in the P38, and they have been good batteries. They are about $150 and have a 5 year Pro-rata guarantee.
There are different sizes and post patterns, and are designed for smaller Caterpillar machines. I can leave the Rangie a month unused and it starts well.
You can buy them at your local Cat dealer.

[Keithy P38]

Welcome to the forum green rover!

That sounds like good value to me!

Cheers
Keithy