ARB Smart Solenoid

Can't believe they got the wiring wrong...it's really simple. I did it all myself and bought split tubing to put on the wires and heatshrink and it looks professional.

I have had the ARB system to my past 2 vehicles and have not had any problems at all. I run a fridge and lights off it and it works great. I also have the link switch which manually engages the 2 nd battery if there is a problem with the main.I dont think footlooses comment is correct as the ignition needs to be on to power the the smart system and link the 2 batteries. So you would need to leabe the ignition and the lights on and if you did this you shouldnt be in control of a vehicle. :-)

Thats a very good point...does it need to have the ignition on ? If so, then mine is wired wrongly. You beauty, I'll rewire it, thanks.

I've got a Sure Power Smart Solenoid too. www.surepower.com

Footloose, don't know what happened, but if you leave the lights on with engine off, it will seperate both batteries. That's because the lights current draw will drop the voltage on the main battery below 12.4v and it will seperate them at that point. Will only parallel them again when you start car and the alternator supplies 13.X volts. (Can't remember the exact). It monitors (and works off) the voltage on the main battery.

Like wheeler said about the link switch, I don't have a switch because I rarely need that function, so all I carry around is a tiny piece of wire with an aligator clip on one end and a female spade connector on the other. Then I can just use that for the rare occasions I need to force it to parallel.

I would go to their website and read up on it (not specifically you footloose - anyone who wants to know EXACTLY what it does) - it's smart enough and does the job.

Pete

Wheeler, not sure what happened when mine was installed, but I accidently left the lights on and BOTH batteries went flat. Something to do with the supply (which is wired to the main) has to have a small voltage to make it work. I'm going to investigate , it shouldnt happen.
I run with trhe lights on in the bush, and if I accidently leave em on then I'm kerstuffled.

You are right - it shouldn't happen.

Of the three pins on the Smart Solenoid, I only have the negative one connected to negative on the car. It's possible that you have a constant voltage going to the "override" terminal making it parallel them permanently. The only time you should force it to parallel them is if your main is a little flat and you know the aux is very good, then it will assist in your starting by having the batteries paralleled.

Testing it is very easy. Start the car and using multimeter measure the voltage of the main, and the aux. They should both be very similar because the main is a receiving a charge from alternator, so the Seperator should parallel them. Turn off engine. They will probably still be paralled, but turn on lights. You should head the Seperator click as it unparallels the batteries. MEasure the voltages and your main should be lower than aux because your headlights should only be drawing current from the main.

I know this backwards because I actually had mine fail a few years ago. It was replaced under warranty and has been fine since. Apparantly failures are very rare.

Thanks for that Pavo. As soon as my fingers defrost tomorrow morning, I'll do that check.
Cheers

No worries. Took me a while to find, but they also have the installation instructions on their website. Under "Company" --> "Tech Support" somewhere.

I'm looking at the Redarc website and I see descriptions of a model SBI12 and it appears to work the same as the Sure Power Smart Solenoid.

I don't think SBI12 monitors the voltage of the aux battery...maybe SBI12D does.

My mistake Derek...I see it now...it seems to be similar to the 'other' Sure Power model (1315) which monitors the Aux batt too.

It appears as though the Redarc Smart Start and the Sure Power Smart Solenoids are both very similar...and both offer the option of buying a model that monitors both batteries.

I didn't know about Redarcs ones years ago when I bought my SurePower, but I have since found out they are considerably cheaper and quite popular too.

Now, now, Derek. Careful mate.

There are other products on the market which, although you may not distribute, work very well.