Thread: Aux battery sugestions

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Lars, I have a number of kits that can pretty well meet most needs, but do you as yet have any idea of how you want to set up, to be able to do what you have posted about?

PS here is a link that might be of interest to you.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/trailers-v...battery-3.html

Thanks for that mate, all I really want is a decent dual battery set up something that I can easily plug solar into when I'm not driving, I'll be running a fridge 24/7 for up-to 5 days and in the near future will be setting up a water pump and hot water so the wife will have some comfort from home. Also the camping lights etc etc I'd rather have a better set up for my needs then not enough if that's makes any sense.

I don't need a cheque Tim,you look after AULRO members,especially those who have bought multiple kits.
Lars,the Traxide/Drivesafe gear is very good.The vehicle specific kits are brilliant.Everything cut to length,easy DIY fitting instructions with pics.
What sort of vehicle do you have????
Andrew

X2

I've had Tim's gear on my last 3 Land Rovers...... never had a problem.

And back to your original question.... I run an Optima D34 Yellow top

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

I don't need a cheque Tim,you look after AULRO members,especially those who have bought multiple kits.
Lars,the Traxide/Drivesafe gear is very good.The vehicle specific kits are brilliant.Everything cut to length,easy DIY fitting instructions with pics.
What sort of vehicle do you have????
Andrew

Hey mate I checked out the site and the kits look great!
I have a 93 discovery v8i, nothing special but will be one day it's a great rig.

Originally Posted by lars04

Hey mate I checked out the site and the kits look great!
I have a 93 discovery v8i, nothing special but will be one day it's a great rig.

I have had Tims gear in a 88 Triton,89 Classic Rangie,99 D2,and now in my 14 D4.
Wouldnt hesitate to recommend his gear to anybody.
Andrew

There seems to be a lot of differing views about DC to DC chargers, following is MY Opinion and my experiences with and without a DC to DC charger (C-TEK).
Before I got my Camper Trailer (CT) whenever I went camping and 4WDriving which usually entailed setting up a permanent camp and venturing out onto the trails. A lot of slow driving and many stops and sometimes some winching.
I had a Redarc (solenoid type,still have it) dual battery system and the largest starting battery (truck) I could physically fit on the drivers side front, after trimming some sheet metal and bending air-con pipes out of the way to fit it in.
After 2 to 3 days my aux. battery (Deep Cycle) would drop to below 10 volts, the Engle fridge was the only thing using the aux battery and I found out that it would still operate at these voltages, so there was no indication that the aux. was getting dangerously low voltage, which eventually killed the Aux. battery.
The problem was that when driving the alternator was charging the main start battery first, then switch over to charge the aux., trouble was the alternator, a Magnetti Marelli 110 amp. was only charging the main because of the slow driving, winching, and multiple stop start.
Even with the drive home the aux would not get a decent charge.
So I fitted a C-TEK DC to DC 250S charger mounted in the passenger footwell (don't like heat), tapped into the main battery and purchased a small solar panel, while driving the C-TEK charged the aux. battery only and when stopped the solar panel took over, haven't had a problem since.
Have now transferred the C-TEK to my CT to charge my 2 Optima yellow top batteries while driving and use the Large solar panel when not connected to the Disco.
So I will be now buying another DC to DC charger to service my aux battery when slow 4Wdriving and winching, BTW you should run your winch from the start battery with engine running, I am looking at a Redarc system, exxy but good, Regards Frank.

I can recommend the Supercharge gold series batteries, last one lasted 7 1/2 years in the vehicle and another 6 months out.
The alrounder is ideal as an aux. battery , also do not wire a winch to your aux. battery as it will drain faster than the alternator can recharge it via an isolator.

Originally Posted by Tank

Even with the drive home the aux would not get a decent charge.
Regards Frank.

Hi Frank, and it sounds like you had a flawed setup, because, while you were travelling at low speeds, the alternator may not have been getting the RPMs to produce enough current to keep it's voltage high enough to charge your auxiliary battery.

That sort of situation is common.

What is not common, is that by adding a DC/DC device, you were increasing the load on your alternator, and as the alternator can not produce an extra current because of the low RPMs, yet you were able to charge the auxiliary battery.

The only way that could have occurred is by the DC/DC device drawing the additional current it needed, from your cranking battery.

Again, it sounds like you just patched over a problem, but had you found the problem, your alternator could have easily done a better job.