Thread: 12 volt power efficiency.....

Originally Posted by Quiggers

chosen:

the first battery in the x1/9 worked from 1977 to 1998

21 years years on a (Magnetti Marelli) battery must be a world record!

GQ

Well I haven't even heard of Magnetti Marelli batteries although just visited their web page and couldn't find batteries, perhaps they made them so well that once someone purchased one they never needed another one

21 years, that is UNHEARD OF!!!

Battery technology has come a long way in the last 30 odd years, a long way!

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi GQ, to be honest, I haven’t had much to do with them because none of the the jump pack I’ve seen had anything but a small battery and seamed a bit useless as an auxiliary battery.

Others with some experience with these devices would be far better at giving any advice.

Cheers and sorry this is of little help.

Yeah, I think that those jump starting packs are a waste of space in a 4x4 vehicle, they almost certainly wouldn't have the AHrs needed for running fridge for long time, a secondary battery with system often takes up less room and is most importantly MOUNTED to the vehicle - much much safer in the event of a roll/crash/rough bouncy sand dune :-)

Yikes, a lot of bother over another battery. Most things have already been said and I dont feel the need for repeating them but, I'll just add a little bit.

If you are terribly worried about your alternator load, which with dual batteries, spotties, fridges and goodness knows what else; you should be. An alternator may be rated at 110Amps but it would turn into a ball of puss before it got close to putting out that kind of spectacular array. The good thing is, that nowadays you can purchase (often multi fit) higher amperage alternators for heavy load situations. And if you're against the bother of trying to squeeze in the pre-built units, take alternator to a specialist and get it re-wound for the whatever amperage takes your fancy. Make sure the diodes can handle that though...or you'll be very grumpy later.

Hi Relay, it actually doesn’t matter if you have a load that exceeds an alternator’s maximum output.

The only thing that is likely to happen is that your lights will start to get dull and at that point, it’s time to turn a few driving lights off and let the alternator recharge the battery(s).

Alternators are not only designed to operate to their maximum but you would be surprised how often you actually place current loads on your alternator that exceeds the alternator’s maximum output and no harm done.

Cheers

From memory, the output amps of the alternator is normally peak amps isnt it?

Cant recall exactly but I wouldnt be wanting to be pulling 100+amps out of an alternator through a 4 to 5mm cable to your battery, something would fail in a cloud of smoke I imagine.

Originally Posted by mcrover

From memory, the output amps of the alternator is normally peak amps isnt it?

Cant recall exactly but I wouldnt be wanting to be pulling 100+amps out of an alternator through a 4 to 5mm cable to your battery, something would fail in a cloud of smoke I imagine.

I'd be donning the asbestos immediately :P

exactly right.

Originally Posted by DiscoStew

I have just had an SC80 installed as I have an Aux in the car and a trailer battery. This will control the recharging of all batteries while on the go. Many thanks to Drivesafe for his patience with my many questions.

However I do intend to use the inverter-to-recharger option to top up the trailer battery from the AUX battery while set up in camp. This was based on advice from drivesafe in the other thread and assumes that daily driving will keep the Aux battery close to fully charged so you might as well use it at night to top up the trailer. http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php't=37661&highlight=inverter

However I am finding that the Expensive 10A recharger is not performing nearly as well from the 600w Modified Sine Wave inverter as it does from a mains suppy. In fact it makes a clicking sound every 2 secs approx and makes me nervous that I am damaging it. Plus it takes a long time to start putting out >13.5Amps. Any comments on these symptoms would be appreciated.

Note that the Supercheap 10A recharger seems to work fine, gets to 13.5v quickly.

If this is typical then I don't think it meets the objective for charging fasting (which was dubious anyway according to previous posts).

Mate i have been doing this for a while now, not because i have too, but it's for those cloudy days when we can't use our solar panel.

I have Dick Smith modified wave inverter and a 1.25amp Battery Fighter (brand name) trickle charger i got from Supercheap for topping up the camper battery.

Anyway my point is it could be because the amps of your charger are to high, remember the inverter relys on power from your battery and your combination maybe drawing too much power from the battery causing the clicking, try a trickle charger with less amps similar to what i use.

Baz.

Originally Posted by chosen

Well I haven't even heard of Magnetti Marelli batteries although just visited their web page and couldn't find batteries, perhaps they made them so well that once someone purchased one they never needed another one

21 years, that is UNHEARD OF!!!

Battery technology has come a long way in the last 30 odd years, a long way!

The X1/9 has many Magnetti Marelli electrical parts, I suppose they are (or were) the Italian equivalent of Bosch or Lucas
When that battery eventually expired, I tried to get another, but no luck, sadly....with Fiat (then) gone from Aussie and only the occasion Alfa being sold here, that was that, maybe... I vaguely recall MM having some quality issues back then, as well...pity...

GQ