Traxide D4 dual battery kit

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Originally Posted by petermummery

I am new to Aulro and about to start setting up a new D4 SDV6. Could anyone tell me if the Traxide Dual Batt system for the D4 does actually fully charge the auxiliary battery and about how long it takes ? I have concerns over the smart alternator interfering !!

Regards
Peter

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Hi Peter, this is an E-mail I received a few weeks ago and should give you some idea of what my kits achieve

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Hi Tim

Sorry for the long email ? in the second half of the email my mate with a 200 series wants to know if you can help him

It seems like only yesterday that we installed your dual battery kits in 4 vehicles (D3, 2 x D4, D2) ready for a big trip. We've been back a while so I just wanted to give you an update on how the battery kits went.

In short, they were brilliant. We installed all 4 kits you sent us in one day. Aside from the fiddly process of removing trim pieces and working in the tight confines of a Land Rover engine bay the installation was straightforward with your instructions.*
Throughout the trip the kits never missed a beat ? and others on the trip had lots of electrical issues.

On a few occasions the battery guard did it's job cutting out the fridges, but this was usually when we were camped in one spot for a few day (very little or no driving) in very hot weather (making the fridges run almost non-stop). It took surprisingly little driving to provide a good bulk charge back into the batteries.

We travelled the Tanami Track, Gibb River Rd, Kalumburu Rd, Mitchell Falls NP Road and the Great Central Road and nothing rattled loose or played up in any way.

Our friends in a 200 series Land Cruiser, on the other hand, did not fare so well when it came to electrics. Following local advice he had a Ctek DC-DC charger installed professionally by a very large and well known auto electrician here in Newcastle. They also installed an auxiliary circuit for his fridges and accessories etc connected to the aux battery.

In short the system never worked properly. Initially the DC-DC was installed in a very hot part of the engine bay making it cut out once the engine warmed up. We repositioned it behind his grill but even then he only got a useful charge on big driving days. On days were we did short trips around camp he was always having problems with a flat aux battery (including the extra aux battery on the trailer). To further add to his woes the auto elec did NOT install any form of low voltage protection on the circuit for his fridges and accessories. He ran his batteries far too low a few times and it didn't take long for the aux in the engine bay and the aux on the trailer to both die completely.

He couldn't believe how well our systems worked. So he was wanting to find out a little more:
***?***Would one of your dual battery isolators be suitable for his vehicle (VX 200 series Land Cruiser)?
***?***All three of his batteries (starter, aux car, aux trailer) are deep cycle sealed lead acids. Would this be a problem (we understand they won't charge as fast as an Optima for example)?
***?***Can the battery types be mixed (if he added an AGM under the bonnet for example)?
***?***He does not have a winch at the moment but may install one in the future. Would this mean the 160 is his best choice?
***?***Can one of your battery guards be added to his fridge and accessories circuit for low voltage protection?

Thanks again for your excellent kit and thanks in advance for your advice.*
Feel free to use my feedback as a testimonial if you wish.

Thanks

I also have had a similar experience in my D4 with the Traxide system while travelling all over Australia.

I think one of the key things is to use an Optima battery, which can accept a much higher rate of charge than conventional AGM batteries and the D4 has a high capacity alternator which charges it quickly. I measured the amps going into the Optima when using my ARB dual compressor connected to the second battery and with the engine idling it was receiving the full 65A that the compressor draws, so no problems with capacity to charge.


Bob

Hi Tim,

I'd like add my support to the traxide as well. Mine has been in for 12 months and has been great.

However, I just started to have some starter problems with a "transmission fault" coming up after starting. Last Sunday, the car wouldn't start at all, which I attributed to a low battery. That seems strange because i do 35k's to and from work each day in relatively free flowing traffic (leave really early in the morning and try to beat the traffic in the afternoon). Later in the day it started OK.

I bought a multi-meter so I could keep an eye on things. After disconnecting the 2nd battery all night, the cranking battery was at 12.69. It then goes up to 14.5 after starting. I double checked on a couple of subsequent mornings after some good long trips and get a similar result.
Question: Is that OK?

If the battery needs replacing, I'd rather do it now as we have a couple of weeks of camping/touring coming up.

While fiddling about in the engine bay, I noticed the positive lead from the cranking battery was a little loose. Once I tightened it I have not had a repeat of starting problems. So I can put that fault down to my own error when installing the traxide I guess.

lpj: I have a traxide kit in my MY11 D4, and have installed a voltmeter via the OEM cig plug, for constant readout.
Observations over several years of long and short trips suggest that a full charge in the cranking battery (via the cig plug) is 12.7, and readings of 14.7 (up to 14.8) occur regularly during first running after overnight stop. Normally this just reduces (as crank charges up) towards about 13V while engine is running (can take several hours to get below 13.5V).
But, I recently noticed very unusual fluctuations - cycling from 13 to 14.5 over 5 to 10 minutes or so while driving - dealer diagnosed a bad cell in the yellow optima (1 month over 3 years warranty!) so replaced, and now happy camper and back to the normal pattern. One more happy tick for traxide system.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trevorj

lpj: I have a traxide kit in my MY11 D4, and have installed a voltmeter via the OEM cig plug, for constant readout. Observations over several years of long and short trips suggest that a full charge in the cranking battery (via the cig plug) is 12.7, and readings of 14.7 (up to 14.8) occur regularly during first running after overnight stop. Normally this just reduces (as crank charges up) towards about 13V while engine is running (can take several hours to get below 13.5V). But, I recently noticed very unusual fluctuations - cycling from 13 to 14.5 over 5 to 10 minutes or so while driving - dealer diagnosed a bad cell in the yellow optima (1 month over 3 years warranty!) so replaced, and now happy camper and back to the normal pattern. One more happy tick for traxide system.

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Seems like I'm pretty normal then. Thanks for the feedback. Must have been the loose terminal.

Will,
Thanks for the response it was my first on Aulro !!
With the D4 the ECU is connected to the alternator and I am concerned about the impact on the auxiliary battery as the ECU turns the alternator into "sleep mode" at 12.4V once the starter battery is charged . If you get any data on charging timing to full charge I would be interested .

Thanks for your input.

Cheers
Peter

Agree with the standard of service from Traxide. Our system goes in Monday to complete the fittest along with the LED black box so we can tow our Utlimate. Fitout has been; RedArc TowPro, Traxide system, Rhino Pioneer roof platform and some window tinting. Looking forward to getting it dirty over Christmas

RobA

Im looking forward to fitting my Traxide system.
Im wiring "everything" at once (UHF,spotties,trailer brakes).Hoping to fit all the hardware this weekend then doing the electrical whilst on holidays(next friday onwards)
Andrew

My traxide system has been in three years and has been fantastic as well.
We have used it a lot,travelled all over the countryside.it is mainly used for the Engle but I also use it while spotlighting so keeps the load off the main starting battery.
Couple of things though.I find if camping for longer than a couple of days,particularly in hot weather the fridge will run the battery down and will need to be charged with a solar panel or whatever.I often take another 120 AH battery(borrowed from my son) with me as well which I fully charge before leaving home ,which suits our needs.
And as I have said previously merit plugs work much better than standard cig plugs.

Like a number of the others I installed my Traxide System in my MY11 D4 around three years back. Easy enough to do following the very detailed instructions provided. Since that time I have travelled over 100,000kms and spent time in the scrub with the camper trailer etc. The Traxide system works as advertised and is excellent in both its quality and performance. The only electrical issue I have had was a main battery failure (replaced by LR under warranty) and that was no fault of the Traxide system. I really like the ability to plug my battery charger into the D4 via the andersen plug at the rear and charge / recondition the batteries without fuss or mucking around under the bonnet.

In summary Top gear, Top Service ,Top Result:D