Thread: Carrying a spare battery

Just a heads up with marine batteries, I had 2 of the batteries pictured purchased about 3 months apart and both died about the 15 month mark.

They were purchased on the advice of the specialist battery retailer as being a good compromise between cranking and deep cycle and able to handle vibrations. The perfect battery for a dual battery setup, except they can not handle heat. Apparently they get a bit hot in the defender battery box. The manufacturer will now only cover warranty for marine applications.




By the way, both batteries were maintained and as far as I know never cycled harshly.

woody

Just a heads up on fitting dual batteries using a well known product. Tim, from Traxide Tronics, is definitely the man to talk to on this forum, but this may give you a bit of an idea. FWIW, I have an ARK power pak, which I strap in the back of my D2. I have a SB1 smart start battery isolator [ yet to be fitted, been lazy] you will see from the diagrams the set up, also you can fit a push button switch for start assist from the 2nd battery [ a deep cycle battery]. The 2nd battery can be charged by solar panels,as well, and the beauty of a battery pak is the battery can be removed from the vehicle, along with the solar panels, if you want to take your frig away from the vehicle. [ Anderson plugs are sold from the site shop] Also the power pak can be charged from a 240/12 V mains connection. Just a thought, Bob


http://www.redarc.com.au/images/uplo...ion_Manual.pdf

I've recently bought a new deca battery. The old one lasted 9 years. It was a 1130cca so pretty big; it was used almost every day though. This was coupled to a cheap $50 bigw battery through a volt sensative relay and they were happy as larry together.

Being used every day helps a lot though.
This was in a late classic - so heavy on the battery too.

Bob,

Keep a careful eye on the battery in your Ark Powerpack! My first Powerpack killed a battery before it's first birthday, swiftly returned to place of purchase and replaced under warranty (they would not replace the battery though).

The one that replaced it did the same thing at 15 months.

The 240v "smart charger" was not supplying the correct voltage or current to my batteries after such a short time, it's now used as a battery box, charged via a 10a Ctek 240v charger when in the garage at home, or via my SC80 in the Range Rover when on the move.

Cheers
Keithy

Originally Posted by bob10

Just a heads up on fitting dual batteries using a well known product. Tim, from Traxide Tronics, is definitely the man to talk to on this forum, but this may give you a bit of an idea. FWIW, I have an ARK power pak, which I strap in the back of my D2. I have a SB1 smart start battery isolator [ yet to be fitted, been lazy] you will see from the diagrams the set up, also you can fit a push button switch for start assist from the 2nd battery [ a deep cycle battery]. The 2nd battery can be charged by solar panels,as well, and the beauty of a battery pak is the battery can be removed from the vehicle, along with the solar panels, if you want to take your frig away from the vehicle. [ Anderson plugs are sold from the site shop] Also the power pak can be charged from a 240/12 V mains connection. Just a thought, Bob


http://www.redarc.com.au/images/uplo...ion_Manual.pdf

bob10 (and maybe Tim/Traxide?) - can I assume your system could also be used in conjunction with Tim's USI 160 isolator in lieu of the REDARC - with of course suitably heavy wire connections via the Anderson plug to the ARK power pak. I also have an original version of the ARK, with a pretty HD and new battery inside and am keen to be able to use this for camping trips - and perhaps even even as winching support in an emergency.

Hi Gavin and in theory, yes you could set up to use the Arkpak as additional battery in a winch setup.

And while my USI-160’s operating features would give you some additional advantages that would make this kind of setup more viable, there are a couple of major requirements.

The first you have already covered in that you would need to run some major sized cabling from the cranking battery, via the USI-160, to where you have the Arkpak mounted.

The other is you would need to rewire the Arkpak with the same major sized cabling and you would need to replace the Arkpak’s 50 amp Anderson plug with at least a 175 amp Anderson plug.

So again, yes you could set up to use the rear battery while winching but it would be at an expensive set up cost.

Thanks for replies to my question.