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Thread: Auxiliary Battery Issues

  1. #131
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by CraigE View Post
    The Blue top are technically a marine version of the yellow top with posts and threaded. I used to have one, absolutely the worst Deep Cycle Battery I have had, would never have another one or any Optima for that matter. Overpriced POS..
    Cheers
    Craig
    I would never buy one as a deep cycle. For several of my 4WDs/AWD though the Optima have been good and lasted for many years. My latest deep cycle purchase was a twin pack (ie two batteries) of Fullriver 120 AH batteries. Those were a recommended option from several similar brand caravans to mine, from some knowledgeable people. Not at all cheap though but I thought them worth the try.

    If I was buying for my D4, I'd now consider one other brand, which would cost around the price of a Optima Yellow top. But for my Prado, which gets rougher treatment, and it goes flat quite a lot (its not kept much at my home) I'd still feel the Optima a good replacement. But its 11 year old Optima is still going, but I suspect it is time to replace it as my son uses the Prado and I am starting to feel nervous with a old battery running a fridge in the back and bushfires seem to be more of an issue than they used to be. My son has said he'll get a dual battery setup but still hasn't done so. If he did then no need to replace the Optima until it dies, and after 11 years, surely it's not got that long to go. My son said my wife's Lexus RX350's battery was dead (my wife and I went away for a month). I came back and the 8 year old Optima was flat. A quality charger could not revive it. But I have a charger that does revive low batteries (another way is to link a good battery to a dead battery and that starts to equalise the charge, and then a charger will be able to take over and charge a low battery). Anyhow I charged it and its been fine.

    It does seem though that some here have bought them and had a bad run. Having a manufacturing background, I find it tough to accept that the Optima is worse made that the ones I have bought. All mine are Mexico made. But there may be other issues effecting the batteries such as distributors etc. Who knows. There is much more choice though than there was 11 years ago. The advantage of the Optima for me was ruggedness, fast recharge, run a fridge in the back, able to handle engine bay temperatures. The cylindrical wound design has a big disadvantage though, which is less capacity for its volume. I think I have found an alternative, but since I've not used them, I could not recommend them here.

    Emotionally I'd like to buy UltraAGM or UltraVLSA or whatever they are called. They are now being made by a couple of companies. They have capacitors included in the battery. And have been be to some extent developed by the CSIRO.

    I recall that the CSIRO sold their hydrogen storage invention where a metal alloy could hold large quantities of hydrogen. The company was then sold to mostly various major car makers - I can recall Mitsubishi and Mercedes, amongst several others. The CSIRO sold the tech for $Au10,000. I knew of that years before the technology was floated into those huge corporations. A good example of Australian capacity for Research, and our shortcomings in development.
    2014 HSE White;Tint; Windsor Lthr; 18" Compo & BFG KO2s 265/65/18; ARB-Summit B Bar, roof racks, air compressor Bushranger Night Hawk VLI 9" dimmable, Traxide Ritter Tow Bar, X Air jack Max Trax V1’s Redarc Tow Pro, GME Uhf 2 antennas, 9555 Iridium sat phone, AOR Matrix V3 off road van

  2. #132
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Location
    Perth
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    Hi,

    New to the D4.

    What is the going battery for 2020, max height 21cm under the hood. Preferably deep cycle and the largest Ah I can buy fitting the dimensions similar to D34.

    I’ve made space on the passenger side using a off the shelf battery bracket, and relocated the tcm module to fit a second aux battery in parallel just to give that extra Ah.

    Will run a fridge in the back on those long trips few times a year.


  3. #133
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    Apr 2012
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    Quote Originally Posted by imaz View Post
    Hi,

    New to the D4.

    What is the going battery for 2020, max height 21cm under the hood. Preferably deep cycle and the largest Ah I can buy fitting the dimensions similar to D34.

    I’ve made space on the passenger side using a off the shelf battery bracket, and relocated the tcm module to fit a second aux battery in parallel just to give that extra Ah.

    Will run a fridge in the back on those long trips few times a year.

    SSB - do a search using the search at the BOTTOM of the page (not the top)

    You don’t want a Deep Cycle either Auxiliary Battery Issues

  4. #134
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    Dec 2019
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    Perth
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    Although the yellow tops have left a sour to some, they do have a H6 which fits the dimensions everyone is after at 72Ah/800cca. Box design and not the cylinder kind.

  5. #135
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tombie View Post
    You’re on point when linking batteries in Parallel.

    In my van I have 2x120ah in Parallel.

    Battery 1 has the Pos feed with 2 B&S and a 2 B&S link with the Negative on Battery 2 and using the same 2 B&S cabling.

    Power take off for the van are then done in the opposite fashion - Pos Battery 2, Neg battery 1.

    I also kept all main cables identical length, even though over these short distances the losses are negligible.
    It seems everyone is going by the book for parallel link, which is great. Battery 1(Pos Feed/charging), while Battery 2 Neg exists - With both battery using 2B&S linking both terminals.

    Would it help if you cut the 2B&S Positive link between the two batteries in half, adding a terminal post, link the charger, and aux feed to the terminal post would help equalise both battery usage? And Negative on both battery 1 and 2 grounded each.

  6. #136
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    Jan 1970
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    Hi Imaz, and because you are charging with the DC/DC device, the thicker cable becomes irrelevant.

    Tombie is using the thicker cable so he can take full advantage of the 100+ amps he has available, whereas you, on average, are going to have just 20 amps available, so thicker cabling is actually a waste of money as you can not take advantage of it's high current handling capacity.

  7. #137
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    Quote Originally Posted by drivesafe View Post
    Hi Imaz, and because you are charging with the DC/DC device, the thicker cable becomes irrelevant.

    Tombie is using the thicker cable so he can take full advantage of the 100+ amps he has available, whereas you, on average, are going to have just 20 amps available, so thicker cabling is actually a waste of money as you can not take advantage of it's high current handling capacity.
    Should be -40amps constantly, as opposed to ~100amps. The 2 gauge cabling allows jumping the starting battery.

  8. #138
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
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    Perth
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    Without spamming, do you think the cranking and charge tests do not apply or does not work because I’m using a dcdc charger? The voltage source to my auxiliary would relatively be constant.

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