Battery choice

Well for two years I had two Yuasa batteries split with a Redarc controller and they gave good service. Cant remember the numbers but think they were calcium type.

About 650cca that I replaced the originals with which are only about 450cca in a 100ser

I had a 60L Waeco in the vehicle when travelling but hooked it to power when parked.

They died when vehicle was parked for several weeks and proved to have a voltage leak that flattened them beyond recovery.

Neville
I have a 1999 troop carrier and I also have a 40 litre engel.( my main power use )

I run 2 100 amp Century deep cycle batteries , one for starting and one for the fridge .

They normally last about 3 to 4 years are relatively to purchase.

I have them connected in Parallel with a manual cut out switch on the starter battery.

Works well for me and it is really simple .

I thinking the whole battery type and isolation methods is a another example of to many people over thinking a simple task.

Cheers

I also have a 100 series TD, left the original batteries as is and added a 145 Ah Gel battery behind the fridge in the back. Now on the second battery the first lasting 7 years. The heat in the engine bay shortens the life of all batteries with wet cells coping the best but still affected.

More information would help provide relevant advice.

1. Are these gels in addition to your cranking battery, or are they doing that job? Presume auxiliary ...

2. You haven't said where these gels are located. If in the engine bay they are not going to be happy campers.

3. You haven't indicated how they are charged. Direct parallel with a relay/isolator (is that what you meant by low voltage cutout switch or is the LVCO only on the fridge line?) or through a DC-DC charger? Gels require a different charge regime to flooded batteries.

4. Does your vehicle have a "smart" alternator charge system?

Neville.

We have a 2007, 4.2TD 100 series with three Allrounder 105AH batteries under the bonnet. (crowded you say - bloody oath I say) One is set up as the crank (front LH side) and the other two are set up in parallel with a redarc 200am isolator between the "crank" and the this dual 4WD accessory bank. We often run two fridges and this gives us two to three days 12V power without the need for any charging. All 4WD accessories including lights, fridges, camp lighting and 12V outlets for "device" charging and entertainment run off the accessory bank. The winch is cabled to the main with the positive lead disconnected until needed. A switch and bright red indicator light are installed in the cabin for when I need to manually override the isolator and put all three batteries into parallel such as for winching or if the crank battery fails.

In four years we have had one issue with the Allrounder. We recently went for a "little" drive down the Canning Stock Route. The CSR was basically all bad corrugation. One of the batteries failed. We are happy with the Allrounder and installed a similar one in it's place.

Super Charge Gold are my choice.

CAT do batteries.
and are super CHEAP.
warranty is the best by far
no one can beat the 1000cca
175 4390 product code ;-)
All for a measly 140 DOLLARS
yup... THATS right 140 !!
Australia wide dealers.
They even do deep cycle.
massive MASSIVE RANGE
this battery HAS GRUNT
and sooooooo DAMN BLOODY CHEAP.
yet people want you to spend 260 on a century...
and yet you dont GET ANYWHERE NEAR the capacity or starting grunt of this thing.
its got serious starting GRUNT

2years full waranty
2years pro rata

soo if it fails after 3 years
you only pay 80bucks or soo
but I was happy to pay the extra 60 to get the warranty again.

if I paid the 80 I get no warranty
but these things are pretty damn good.
onto my second battery and will never buy anything other than CAT.
soo cheap..POWERFULL and dealers australia wide.
pay by credit card.. they can even look up your warranty period :-) from your credit card details
Cant fault it
BRILLIANT

Thanks for all the advice and comments, always great stuff on this site. Very convincing run down on Cat batteries and will pursue that line with our local supplier.
Cheers and all the best and happy travels for 2015.
Nev. G.

I believe the T/D has two cranking batteries, so you will need to fit a third battery to run your fridge (the same as fitting second battery to most other vehicles).