Thread: How long does your battery last when idle

Originally Posted by mick88

Do you just mean attach the two wires from the 10 watt solar panel straight to the battery, nothing at all in between?
I assume the panel won't drain power back from the battery when the sunlight is insufficient to generate charge.
Please excuse me for asking, but I have always believed a dumb question is far better than a stupid mistake

Cheers, Mick.

Hi Mike and again, I will cover this in depth in my auto electrical thread, but yes connected the solar panel wires birectly to the battery, and this can be done via an Anderson plug at the rear of a vehicle, or just straight to the battery’s terminals.

Nearly all solar panels are supplied with a blocking diode installed, but just check to be sure.

With the blocking diode in place, your batteries will not discharge back through your solar panel at night.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Martin, you need to rest the battery or batteries, between chargers, but I will give a more detailed reply in my auto electrical section, I just need the time to write it up.

Is this the thread you're talking about?

On-Line auto electrical info


Martin

Originally Posted by letherm

Is this the thread you're talking about?

On-Line auto electrical info


Martin

Yes

Originally Posted by Aussie Jeepster

I've just tonight fitted 2 of these to my D3 - one on the main battery and one on the aux battery.

CTX BATTERY SENSE

Attachment 134383

It is currently showing my main battery at 88% and aux at 85%.It shows voltage and battery temp for both.
Have not driven it or anything else yey, and I'll have my solar panel and victron regulator to keep the batteries topped up when it is at home.
Both the CTEK and victron are bluetooth, and send the data to my phone.
Time will tell on the CTEK, but they are a quality unit, and have minimal current draw.

Give these a big miss - I'm returning mine as they either don't work, or the app doesn't work - not sure which, but i'm getting a no questions asked refund on them

Originally Posted by Aussie Jeepster

Give these a big miss - I'm returning mine as they either don't work, or the app doesn't work - not sure which, but i'm getting a no questions asked refund on them

i have the REDARC one and it works well.

sends up to 4 displays to little display screen.

i monitor my van which is at the front of the house and my car two batteries in the garage.

i keep the monitor inside my house.

Rich

My D4 is 4yo, has Tim’s SC80 DBS, and had the original cranking battery load tested while being serviced today at MR Automotive at Redcliffe.
i had noticed the voltmeter on the Tekonsha P3 had been reading well in to the 14+ volts most of the time while driving over the last 12 months, and low battery warning showing after a few days to a week if vehicle been parked up in the garage, and batteries isolated from each other.
Battery failed the load test and was replaced. On the way home (50km) I noted the voltmeter was reading low 13’s.
Certainly a more reponsive startup now.

I have usually put the vehicle on the charger for the first weekend of every month.

Interesting comment re 14v. I monitor voltage by dash readout when iiD is plugged in. It is nearly always at or over 14v. I’d say only 10% of the time it’s around 13.5v I’ll keep monitoring but have come to the view that 14v is basically normal.

Scott

I had similar discharging issues with my D3 for several years, if I didn't drive it for two weeks the battery would go flat, in that time I had fitted three new batterys, all did the same.
Finally had a local workshop check it out and they found that the main battery had quite a drain on when the vehicle was parked which was causing the battery to go flat faster than it should.

They found the Techonsa break controller was causing a substantial drain as was the dual battery charging system. As did the LED on/off light on the ARB compressor. Once they were all disconnected the D3 went back to being able to sit for up to a month without any battery issues.
Some of you with lots of accessories might be surprised at how much extra power is being drained while your Disco is parked. Might be worth getting it checked out.