Traxide Issue? or DC/DC charger Issue or D4 problem

[Briar]

I'm travelling with the van at present. I have a Traxide system (optima battery), to anderson plug to charge van's batteries. In 2021 replaced Optima battery and D4 main battery. Also, got new alternator installed last year at Timing belt service. Also changed van's batteries from AGM to Lithium and added a DC/DC charger to correctly charge Lithium batteries. Work done by auto sparky.

Last two days of travelling, the DC/DC charger (Victron Orion 12/12-30) does not seem to be charging vans batteries.

Looking at bluetooth readout on Orion smart charger, the input voltage starts high and Bulk charges vans batteries, after 20 secs or so, input voltage from D4 drops to around 10 volts and Orion unit thinks it's an engine shutdown, so switches Orion unit off, input voltage rises after a while and Orion unit activates charging again. Seems to be in a never ending cycle.

Yes I have Solar on van, but winter sun is not great. I could go to van park and use 240v power or run gennie to run 240v van charger but not being able to charge vans batteries properly when driving via DC/DC charger is annoying.

Any suggestions?

Is this D4 alternator/ charging issue, A problem with Traxide isolator/ battery or an issue with Orion unit.

Thanks

3 pics. Orion unit showing input and charging, 2) Battery voltage from Car dropping 3) Orion unit thinks car has shutdown. Cycle then repeats.

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[DiscoJeffster]

I suspect you have a bad connection, maybe at the Andersen plug or a bad earth? The voltage drop is likely a result of higher resistance though a connection somewhere, assuming all cable runs are of sufficient gauge etc. This also assumes you have checked the vehicle voltage at the same time and it’s higher.

[drivesafe]

Hi Briar, do you have a digital volt meter available as there needs to be some testing do to better understand what the problem may be.

Also, is the DC/DC device set to VOLTAGE sense or IGNITION sense.

With a D4 it MUST be set to IGNITION sense.

[Briar]

Thanks Tim. I’ll give the Anderson plug connections a good clean, so hopefully as simple as that. I do have a digital multimeter but left it at home (blast). Reminder to self to always bring. Won’t get one in Hay today but will get one in Broken Hill in a few days if terminal cleaning doesn’t work.

[drivesafe]

Hi again Briar, also check ALL your connection in both the caravan and your D4, especially negative terminals and connections.

Something like a loose nut or bolt can cause similar conditions.

Enjoy your holiday.

[Briar]

Been experimenting with settings. I'm leaning towards suspecting the Victron Orion DC/DC unit has an issue. Have sent email to supplier to follow up on that end. The Orion unit has a low voltage- engine detection cutout setting, to ensure that the van battery does not suck-dry the car (Traxide) battery.

With engine cutout detection enabled, the Orion unit records a variable Input voltage (from car) of between 14v and 9.6 v and continually is switching on and off to supposedly protect the car battery. However, when I disable the low voltage engine detection cutout setting, (which means the Orion unit will charge the vans batteries whenever it's plugged into the car via the Anderson plug, the Orion unit runs perfectly continuously with an input voltage reading from the D4 of 13.2-13.3 volts very steady. It then DOES charge up the vans batteries ok. Clearly, I have to resolve this as this is not ideal, but I can get by by plugging in and out the anderson plug whenever I've stopped for a while.

Anyway will keep on investigating. Thanks for advice.

[Tombie]

Been experimenting with settings. I'm leaning towards suspecting the Victron Orion DC/DC unit has an issue. Have sent email to supplier to follow up on that end. The Orion unit has a low voltage- engine detection cutout setting, to ensure that the van battery does not suck-dry the car (Traxide) battery.

With engine cutout detection enabled, the Orion unit records a variable Input voltage (from car) of between 14v and 9.6 v and continually is switching on and off to supposedly protect the car battery. However, when I disable the low voltage engine detection cutout setting, (which means the Orion unit will charge the vans batteries whenever it's plugged into the car via the Anderson plug, the Orion unit runs perfectly continuously with an input voltage reading from the D4 of 13.2-13.3 volts very steady. It then DOES charge up the vans batteries ok. Clearly, I have to resolve this as this is not ideal, but I can get by by plugging in and out the anderson plug whenever I've stopped for a while.

Anyway will keep on investigating. Thanks for advice.

Change the cut out voltage for ignition sense... You ARE picking the trigger up for the ignition sense from the 12S plug right? Not from the power feed to the unti for charging?

If you ARE using the switched power feed on the 12S, set the ignition detect voltage to 9-10v and you'll be sorted.

[Briar]

Change the cut out voltage for ignition sense... You ARE picking the trigger up for the ignition sense from the 12S plug right? Not from the power feed to the unti for charging?

If you ARE using the switched power feed on the 12S, set the ignition detect voltage to 9-10v and you'll be sorted.

No. The Victron Orion unit is only receiving it's power from the Anderson Plug which runs directly back to the Optima Yellow Top as part of the Traxide installation. It is not connected in any way to 12S or 12N plugs. The voltage "sensing" that the Orion unit does is automatic based on whatever the voltage it is fed. It is a non-isolated unit so it shares a common earth with the vehicle and van. This is why I wasn't sure if the Orion unit has some kind of faulty gremlin or whether the Traxide system varies the voltage in some way (unlikely) or whether the D4 has some kind of smart alternator that varies the voltage. That being said, for todays travel I set the Orion for engine cutout detection, but I set the cutout voltage to be 8 volts. When I stopped for coffee I checked what was happening and the unit had "disconnected" but was quite warm indicating that it had been functioning and the vans lithium batteries had increased in Ah.

Not sure why this is happening, but will get by for the while. Thanks

[josh.huber]

Cheap multimeter,
check the voltage at idle, on the crank battery, the aux then the Anderson plug with nothing connected.
Then plug in the unit and van. Re check the aux and the rear plug. Should be within 0.5 volt of each other.

Check the input of the unit. Should match up exactly with the read out, plus minus 0.2v.

What I used to see allot was undersized or incorrect techniques that were fine to run a 5amp fridge.. But once you get to 40amp the voltage drop is so severe that it causes your issues, then the other issues that something worked loose or wasn't up for 40amp in the first place.. painted stud etc.

[David2ayo]

Suggestion for trouble shooting things like this - always refer back to the car battery negative terminal. I use a loooong multimeter lead, hook it onto the 'house' battery negative, and check all voltages reference to that lead. It doesn't have to be jumper cable, because the meter takes so little current there is insignificant voltage drop along the lead. 10 metres of jaycar WH3046 or similar, which is black 0.75mm wire, put a 4mm plug on one end and a small alligator clip on the other, but don't leave it at home! It is surprising how high the 'earth' voltage can get.

[Odysseyman]

Hi Briar

From looking at the Victron downloads for your Orion charger I would be checking your settings for both the Low Voltage Lock-Out and Engine Shutdown Detection to ensure those setting align with the Land Rover Smart Alternator output, and adjust them accordingly. I note that their blurb says “most” smart alternators…

It seems these settings are the equivalent of an ignition trigger which my Redarc BCDC 1240D uses.

Cheers
David

[josh.huber]

The real issue is the 9.7v not the settings. If the wiring was correct you wouldn't want it pulling any battery down to 9.7v to charge the van.

[veebs]

I had my own D4 and camper out over the weekend, and thought i would check how it was behaving - I had installed the same DCDC as you (non isolated), but haven't yet used it - camper is still brand new.

Anyway, I'm getting the same symptoms, and I'm putting it down to voltage drop over the cabling in the camper, particularly when the unit is starting up.

My findings:

D4 idling, voltage was reading at 14.6 at the front cig plug (cheap ebay voltmeter - take with a grain of salt), 14.55 at the rear Anderson (Traxide) and 12.7 at the DCDC input (not a typo)

The engine would audibly load up every ~20sec, which corresponded to the IID tool showing an increase of alternator amps/load. Lasted for a few seconds, then drop back to 'normal'

Whilst this was happening, the voltage at the cig plug didn't move by more than a volt (always over 13.7v), and the Anderson point at the car also barely moved. Voltage at the DCDC, both measured by the victron and my multimeter showed it dropping to sub 10v. This triggered the just-starting victron to assume the car was off, and so it would shut down.

As a fact finding mission, I could force the Victron to stay on by disabling the voltage cutout, and setting the engine sense volts super low - talking 9v now. Doing that, even with the voltage drop, I was seeing about 20A going into the battery at idle (measured using a shunt). Strangely, once the Victron was running, the volts would come back up to about 12v...

Those settings won't work in practice, as the unit now no longer sensed the engine correctly, and the DCDC happily kept charging from the traxide kit even when I shut the car off.

I dare say a successful fix for my system is two-fold - run an ignition sense wire to the car to bypass the voltage cutout guesswork, and ideally, upgrade the cabling in the camper to something less Chinese. It looks like 6 B&S, but i suspect not all cables are measured equally, and potentially it is also taking a sub-optimal path from the hitch to the battery, with more length than really needed...

[drivesafe]

Hi verbs and your first problem to solve is, as you posted, fixing the trailer cabling ( wiring ) to the house batteries.

Next, in the WHITE plug at the rear of your D4 is the FRIDGE circuit. Use this circuit to control the IGNITION sense on the DC/DC device.


BUT.

Once the trailer cabling is fixed, try bypassing the DC/DC device and you will find your house batteries will charge MUCH FASTER direct from your alternator ( via the Traxide setup )

I have heaps customers with D3s and D4s, towing caravans with as much as three 120Ah house batteries and they have no trouble charging them while driving.

[veebs]

Hi verbs and your first problem to solve is, as you posted, fixing the trailer cabling ( wiring ) to the house batteries.

Next, in the WHITE plug at the rear of your D4 is the FRIDGE circuit. Use this circuit to control the IGNITION sense on the DC/DC device.


BUT.

Once the trailer cabling is fixed, try bypassing the DC/DC device and you will find your house batteries will charge MUCH FASTER direct from your alternator ( via the Traxide setup )

I have heaps customers with D3s and D4s, towing caravans with as much as three 120Ah house batteries and they have no trouble charging them while driving.

Thanks Tim,

Definitely keen to try without the DCDC, however with the batteries being Lithium, I understood the story to be a little different? Indeed my old trailer, with 210Ah of AGMs didn't have a DCDC and never looked back!

Annoyingly, I have previously removed the white socket in favour of a permanently mounted Anderson point. I don't want to undo that, so now I'm considering the euro 13-pin style to replace the black socket, and return full functionality to the back of the car. Change the plug on the trailer to enable one-plug functionality for lights as well as fridge etc.

Keeping an adapter in the boot means the occasional hired trailer can still be used without fuss.

[drivesafe]

Hi again Veeps and sorry, I did not realise you had lithium house batteries and yes, you need the DC/DC.

[Briar]

Thanks Veebs and Tim

I have been in a van park for a few days so it's been good to use 240v power. The weather has been so lousy I wouldn't have been getting any solar input if I was free camping.

Have not been able to get a multi-meter so will wait till I'm home. Appreciate the testing Veebs. Previously in the van I had 250 Ah of AGM. The wire from the traxide anderson plug went straight to the vans (House) batteries. They charged up perfectly. When I changed over to Lithium, I did some testing to find which was the wire to charge the vans batteries. It is a pretty decent size cable and I'm pretty sure it is a 6 B&S. Measured the diameter of the copper and counted the number of copper strands, so I'm fairly confident that there wouldn't be much voltage drop from the Anderson plug to the vans batteries.

As indicated in my first post, with engine detection cutout turned on the Orion unit seemed to have a variable input voltage 9.6 up to 13.3 volts and so was cycling the unit on and off. However, when engine cutout detection was turned off, the Orion unit recorded a steady 13.2-13.3 v as the input voltage and the orion unit continued to charge perfectly.

This makes me suspect that either the Orion unit has a glitch (I have contacted the supplier and they are happy to have the Orion unit sent back to them after I finish this trip). I don't think it's an Earthing issue or a voltage drop issue. I'll manage to get by, by disabling the engine shutdown detection. The traxide's low voltage cutout will still work and the D4's starting battery will be kept safe. It's easy with the Bluetooth monitoring of the Orion unit to turn engine shutdown detection on and off as needed.

[veebs]

Hi again Veeps and sorry, I did not realise you had lithium house batteries and yes, you need the DC/DC.

Let us know when you come up with a better solution to that ;)

[josh.huber]

The other safer option of it has it.. Turn it down from 40 amps to 20amps and see how it behaves. The lower inrush current might help the vehicle maintain a higher voltage to satisfy the charger.

I had a charger do similar on a customer dual Battery set up.. The power input didn't drop on the multimeter.. But the charger thought it did and the same issue occurred. Dry solder joint. Repaired and sent back. (It dropped a little with load, but not as much as the charger reported)

[Briar]

Hi again Veeps and sorry, I did not realise you had lithium house batteries and yes, you need the DC/DC.

hi Tim. Travelling slowly home from the Flinders. Currently at Yunta in SA having left Quorn this morning. I’m suspecting the main problem May be the D34 yellow top. I completely disconnected the caravan battery from the traxide Anderson plug at back of d4 this morning. I left the vans ESC (sway control) plugged into the Anderson plug (has it own red plug). The esc on the van is showing 2 red lights which means it’s not working. Insufficient voltage. I tested the fridge in back of car which is plugged into power socket also powered by traxide. It will not power up. Also, my uhf radio has stopped working after giving low voltage warnings for last 150km.

The green light is on on the SC80 isolator. Pretty sure the D34 has had it. Most annoyed as it’s only 12 months old. First one lasted 5 years. Not going to replace until I get home. The D34 has been connected to nothing except house battery for last 2 hours of driving and it still seems to have no charge. Either the D34 is kaput or the SC80 says it’s connected but is not. What would be the best way to test what is at fault? I suspect battery though based on other threads.

thanks

trevor

[drivesafe]

Hi Trevor, if you have a multi meter.

With the motor running, test the voltage at the cranking b battery.

Next test the voltage at the Auxiliary battery.

If they are not the same, test the voltage on both studs on the circuit breaker on the side of the SC80.

I suspect your problem may be with the circuit breaker.

If it is, it is an easy and quick fix.

Phone me on 0401 404 844, I am here till 7PM.

[Briar]

Thanks Tim

especially for allowing me to ring you on a Sunday. As you suspected it seems like it is the SC80 circuit breaker. I bypassed the circuit breaker as you directed. Ran engine for a while. UHF now working, fridge too and ESC on van now shows green, so all good there. I’ll give the yellow top a good charge on drive tomorrow before I reconnect the Orion dc/dc charger back up in the van. The circuit breaker may have been the issue all along making me suspect the Orion unit. Anyway will test. Thanks so much for your help.

trevor

[loanrangie]

Good result, in my old D1 i had a piranha isolator with i thought was faulty so i replaced it No change with the new one so like you i bypassed the CB and it started working, luckily Tim uses the common CB variety so will be easy to replace. I wouldn't have been surprised if the optima was dead though, they don't seem to last anymore.

[drivesafe]

Hi again Trevor, connect everything up before you start your drive tomorrow.

Your SC80, combined with your huge Alternator, gives you the worlds fastest charging system so let your alternator and the SC80 do what they are designed to do.

If you drive for a few hours tomorrow, get as much charge back into all your batteries during that drive time.

[Briar]

Hi again Trevor, connect everything up before you start your drive tomorrow.

Your SC80, combined with your huge Alternator, gives you the worlds fastest charging system so let your alternator and the SC80 do what they are designed to do.

If you drive for a few hours tomorrow, get as much charge back into all your batteries during that drive time.


Well, a final post (probably) from me on this thread. Have just arrived home in Bathurst. I bypassed the (broken) circuit breaker on sunday afternoon at Yunta in SA. Three days of driving later, the problems all appeared to be solved with the DC/DC charger. It has performed perfectly on trip home charging up vans Lithium batteries fine (in conjunction with a bit of solar).

My guess is that the CB was dodgy and intermittently tripping causing the Traxide Yellow Top battery to have variable voltage and slowly loose capacity. When on Sunday the CB finally carked it and I lost the UHF, ESC, car fridge and caravan reversing camera, it all started to show a linkage. Again a big thanks to Tim for realising that it was the CB. (I'll put this in the memory banks).

Anyway, everything has worked perfectly for the last 3 days. I had thought that I was suffering faults with different devices, but it all came back to the D34 Yellow top losing voltage. (Again, reminder to self, always take multimeter with me on trips).

Tim, I will get a circuit breaker off you if I can so I can replace the broken one before next trip in a couple of months. I'll text you my address and I'll fix you up for the item however you like. Grateful for your expertise in ascertaining the issue. I was thinking that I'd be sending away DC/DC chargers to suppliers and Caravan rear cameras to be sent away for testing. This would have cost me lots in terms of time and wasted effort and would have showed no issues with any of the devices. So paying for a CB is a small price to pay.

Thanks again all for suggestions.

Trevor

[DiscoJeffster]

Funny you mention the CB. I have an SC80 and run the trailer circuit off it. I have a Kings Thumper compressor that draws 45amp claimed continuous. Before the SC80 was installed, it was off the main battery off the same 6B&S. when the compressor was turned on the car would sense the load and the alternator voltage would bump up, clearly heard by the compressor speed increasing.

Once the SC80 was between the main and aux battery, with the 6B&S off the aux battery, now when the compressor is turned on, there is a quick rise in compressor speed (denoting voltage increase), but then it drops back as the circuit breaker cuts out the link between the two batteries. The cycle goes on with the CB reconnecting, the voltage increasing and the CB blocking. Sound of the compressor “brrrrr, weeee, brrrr, weeee, brrrr, weeee, brrrr” lol [emoji1787]

I assume that as the current draw is high the voltage drops increasing amperage pull and I tip the CB over its limit. Anyhow, completely unrelated to your problem other than a CB experience. Sorry for the tangent.

[Briar]

Funny you mention the CB. I have an SC80 and run the trailer circuit off it. I have a Kings Thumper compressor that draws 45amp claimed continuous. Before the SC80 was installed, it was off the main battery off the same 6B&S. when the compressor was turned on the car would sense the load and the alternator voltage would bump up, clearly heard by the compressor speed increasing.

Once the SC80 was between the main and aux battery, with the 6B&S off the aux battery, now when the compressor is turned on, there is a quick rise in compressor speed (denoting voltage increase), but then it drops back as the circuit breaker cuts out the link between the two batteries. The cycle goes on with the CB reconnecting, the voltage increasing and the CB blocking. Sound of the compressor “brrrrr, weeee, brrrr, weeee, brrrr, weeee, brrrr” lol [emoji1787]

I assume that as the current draw is high the voltage drops increasing amperage pull and I tip the CB over its limit. Anyhow, completely unrelated to your problem other than a CB experience. Sorry for the tangent.

Thanks DiscoJeffster

What you have said actually strikes a chord. Last week on Tuesday I did the 70km (or so) Skytrek track at Willow Springs in the Flinders. I had let the D4 rear tyres down from 42lbsfor van towing, down to 32lbs for the trip. Before I reconnected the van I pumped up the rears with my compressor. (Just a mid size mountain devilbut works ok). I usually run it from the anderson plug on back of car (which is connected to the Yellow top), but the speed was variable. I then tried it directly on the D34 terminals but no better. I then ran it off cranking battery and it powered on well.

I had not thought about the CB tripping on and off when running the compressor. Thanks

[drivesafe]

I’ve been using automatic resetting circuit breakers for more than 30 years and up until about 4 years back, they did their job well.

The problems with the sudden failures relates directly to the much large alternators in modern vehicles. The 50 amp auto resetting circuit breakers just can’t handle the continuous higher currents available from these large capacity alternators.

So around 12 months back, I changed to 80 amp fuses.

80 amp fuses are the largest fuse size that can be safely used with 6B&S cable.

I have had no problems since upgrading to the fuses.

But with D4s, as the cable run between the batteries is short and completely in the engine bay, you can safely bypass the 50 amp auto resetting circuit breaker and all will be safe and will work fine.

NOTE, with the 80 amp fuse setup, you can still have the auxiliary battery ( or batteries ) safely draw well in excess of 100 amps for a short time and the 80 amp fuse will not blow.

This is the correct operation of any fuse.

Because of the new setup, my isolators are now the worlds fastest battery charging dual battery setups.

This all means your batteries will now charge quicker than ever.

[DiscoJeffster]

Cheers Tim. I will look into that update for mine.

Do you have a photo of the new fuse setup?

[DiscoJeffster]

Cheers Tim. I will look into that update for mine.

Do you have a photo of the new fuse setup?

I presume something like a midi fuse kit?

Eg similar to this?

WESTEC MIDI HEAVY DUTY AUTOMOTIVE NYLON FUSE HOLDER - BULK (https://www.westec.com.au/shop/p-westec-midi-heavy-duty-automotive-nylon-fuse-holder---bulk-20-pack.html)

[drivesafe]

Yep that is similar to the one I now use, and it is mounted on the isolators in the same position as the old CBs were mounted.

While I can supply these, once post is added in, you should be able to buy them much cheaper locally.

If you get the MIDI fuse holder and fuse, you do not have to modify the cabling as it is a direct replacement for the CB.

[PTCAAR]

Hi Tim,
Can this upgrade also be used in the D3 set up to?
As i have had to previously change out out my circuit breaker in my Traxide system.
Cheers
Peter

[drivesafe]

Hi Peter and yes you can do the same upgrade in a D3.

D3s are not as big a problem because they have a smaller alternator ( 140 amps ) and a much longer cable run between the two batteries, but there have been a few instances where the same problem occurs.

NOTE other than the fuse upgrade, while a number of new features have been added to the latest versions of all my isolators, there is no need to upgrade or modify the older versions of the SC80 or DT90 isolators.

They will easily and safely handle a continuous load of 90 amps for many hours and short surges in excess of 150 amps.

[veebs]

I was completely confused on this for a moment, before realising there is a second 50A breaker on the SC80 units.

Can I assume this rare problem cannot exist at all for the USI160 models?

[drivesafe]

Hi Veebs, with probably 99.5% of USI-160 and the new UST-175 isolators being fitted where both or all three batteries are under the bonnet, as long as you use the correct size cabling, and 3B&S ( 25mm2 ) is the recommended MINIMUM size, you will not need fuses or circuit breakers.

To use fuses or circuit breakers will simply increase the resistance in the circuit while winching.

If you are fitting the second battery somewhere other than the engine bay, you MUST fit fuses or circuit breakers ( circuit breakers being the preferred safety device ).

These must be fitted somewhere in the engine bay, before the cable leaves the engine bay to protect the cranking battery.

And the second battery must have the safety device fitted as close as practical to the second battery's positive ( + ) terminal, so that if a dead short does occur, you dramatically reduce the chances of a fire occurring.

[Briar]

Hi Veebs, with probably 99.5% of USI-160 and the new UST-175 isolators being fitted where both or all three batteries are under the bonnet, as long as you use the correct size cabling, and 3B&S ( 25mm2 ) is the recommended MINIMUM size, you will not need fuses or circuit breakers.

To use fuses or circuit breakers will simply increase the resistance in the circuit while winching.

If you are fitting the second battery somewhere other than the engine bay, you MUST fit fuses or circuit breakers ( circuit breakers being the preferred safety device ).

These must be fitted somewhere in the engine bay, before the cable leaves the engine bay to protect the cranking battery.

And the second battery must have the safety device fitted as close as practical to the second battery's positive ( + ) terminal, so that if a dead short does occur, you dramatically reduce the chances of a fire occurring.

Hi Tim (and anyone else)

Thought it easier to revive old thread rather than start a new one.

After the issues in May and June, with what turned out to be the SC80's Circuit Breaker, I replaced with 80 amp Mega Fuse as you suggested. I had to grind out the opening on one of the traxide terminals that was on the CB. One side fits on the Mega Fuse holder perfectly, but the cable at the other end is a bit small. A portable grinding stone for a chainsaw sharpener worked fine.

Anyway to the purpose of this post revival that you and others might offer suggestions. I am All the time getting the low voltage warning on the D4 even after a day of not driving or even after I drive 20-30km. Obviously the SC80 unit is doing it's job as it's not flattening the main cranking battery, which is also only 1 year old. Yesterday the 12v plugs in the rear of the D4 were all as dead as a doornail. After starting up the D4, in about 30 seconds got power back there again.

There has been absolutely NO load on the Optima D34 Yellow top at all, but it seems like it has a problem and is continuing to draw power from the Crank battery, but the D34 will not hold charge. Maybe the circuit Breaker issue didn't help, but I strongly suspect the D34 is Kaput (and it is also only a year old as well).

So what do I get? I'm not getting an Optima. I have read the loooong 18 page thread about batteries, but wondered if you (or others) have any recent feedback on other batteries that fit in where the Optima D34 does, with minimal modification.

SSB HVT-50D seems to be the go, but does the HVT-70D fit. I also saw a comment about a FullRiver DC85..

In your opinion, what is the best to replace the D34.

Thanks

Trevor

[drivesafe]

Hi Trevor and unfortunately you are not Robinson Crusoe with your Optima.

Over the last 4 or 5 years, so many people have had problems with them that alternatives were looked for.

The SSB HVT batteries are proving to be very good and a hell of a lot cheaper than the Optima’s.

The SSB HVT-50D ( a 60Ah battery ) is a direct drop-in replacement for the D34 Optima. ( no modifications needed ).

The SSB HVT-70LD ( an 85Ah Battery ) can be fitted but you have to remove the battery tray and bend one end flat, to allow the bigger battery to fit.

You will also need replace the lead running from your fuse holder to the Auxiliary battery’s positive ( + ) with a longer cable.

This new cable needs to be 35cm long.

[Meccles]

Resurrecting an old thread I brought an Optima D34 in April its just been returned and accepted as a warranty claim. Have just ordered a HHT battery.

[Meccles]

Resurrecting an old thread I brought an Optima D34 in April its just been returned and accepted as a warranty claim. Have just ordered a HHT battery.

Sorry SSB HVT