Thread: Battery Question

Optima yellow top, or Exide Orbital will give you deep cycle and cranking in the one battery. Neither are cheap, but will give you heaps of power. There are others out there, but these are the two I've had personal experience with.

Cheers, Murray

Originally Posted by Ralph1Malph

Hi all,
I need to buy a new battery for my Series 3 ute.
I also want to buy a 'deep cycle' type battery for my camper trailer.
Easy enough, but I had a thought.

Is there a battery that might do both?
Does anyone do this?
It seems a waste to have both batteries sitting idle most of the time and both mounting frames are easy to get to.

I know that they are different applications, one requires crank and the other is deep cycle but maybe....

Cheers
Ralph

I use a semi-deep cycle, Exide "Extreme" part no. N70EX battery which seems to do well in both heavy duty starting, off road and some deep cycling. The last one lasted over 8 years before dying. Available through Bridgestone dealers.

Deep Cycle batteries usually only have a 6 month warranty, and cranking batteries 12-24 months. The deep cycles are usually more expensive and don't last as long, so if yo can get away with it maybe consider a cranking battery.

I know this is a financial answer and not a technical one, but may still give you something to consider.

What is cheaper and superior in capacity to the Orbital et al. is a Fullriver AGM, although I'm not sure how the S3 would go charging it (maybe a drivesafe q). I put a Fullriver HC65 into my D1 and the first time I cranked it over was in Wangaratta at -7 degrees and it damn near blew the starter motor clean off its bolts.

How about looking into the Marine Battery options? They are built rugged (been in a tinny bouncing across waves recently?) so are useful for 4WDs, absolutely have to be reliable (no RAC service out on the blue water!), have to cope with powering all the fridges, lights, navigation gear, etc on trips away just like in a 4WD trip (no "plug in" parking options available out there!), and have decent Cold Cranking Amp capacity to turn over big twin twin outboard setups.
I can't remember what model they were, but I had twin Marine Batteries in my Patrol for many years. Just a thought.

Hi Ralph, picking the right battery for a specific use is a tricky task at any time but to try to get a battery for multi tasking is actually a lot easier because you are limited to just a few different batteries.

The best option would be to buy a couple of automotive grade AGM batteries like Optima or Odyssey or Exide Orbital ( I don’t know enough about Fullriver’s DC range to comment about them) and with these types of batteries, you SHOULD get years of service in the two areas you want to use them in.

BUT, if it was my choice, I would go with JayBoRover’s suggestion and get two Marine Dual Purpose batteries, for all the reasons he posted.

My main reason for this choice is the cost factor and even if these batteries don’t last as long as AGMs they will still be dollar for dollar cheaper in the long run, for exactly the same amount of usage.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

BUT, if it was my choice, I would go with JayBoRover’s suggestion and get two Marine Dual Purpose batteries, for all the reasons he posted.

My main reason for this choice is the cost factor and even if these batteries don’t last as long as AGMs they will still be dollar for dollar cheaper in the long run, for exactly the same amount of usage.

Drivesafe gave me this advice about 18 months ago and I've had no problems

if you can get your hands on it the centry n89 and n90 are a typical non maintenance free flooded wet cell construction semi deep cycle battery, about the same size as an n70 profile battery (typical series landy size) but a bit taller. (perfect for running inverters of the 1kw type)

it delivers enough to start any of the series petrols or a diesel if you have the tdi starter and is good for about 75Ah if you stretch the friendship.

its a little pricey but not as bad as an optima but is bloody heavy.