Dual Battery KISS

until the day you forget to pull the plug ..
simple things amuse simple minds
good luck
gmd

I Have a 100amh DSB mounted on the drawbar of my caravan. All have is a solenoid circuit breaker wired up to the ignition. It works fine also without all the fancy gizmo's

Hello pixiemops

Sounds like a good set up , but why didn't you put the battery in the trailer ?

It's a shame there are so many hours of time devoted to designing things such as a Redarc.

All those people have wasted their time?

I don't think so, whatever you claim.

I'll complicate mine with the redarc thanks, even if you think I'm stupid.

Frozen Ice-cream is nothing to do with your parallel battery setup, it's only to do with what temperature you run your fridge at. Please keep it simple stupid, and don't cloud your argument with irrelevant information.

pixiemops,

If this post is not a set up and you are really running a wet cell battery in the boot of a vehicle, you probably will not have to worry about connecting the battery for much longer.

Batteries give off a corrosive and flammable fumes. Not recommended for confined spaces such as the boot of the Commodore

The fuel tank is just below the battery and you say that you connect the battery while the motor is running. One spark and they will be picking you up in 3 different post codes.

The isolating system that you are use does not matter, it is where the battery is and the close proximity to the fuel tank.

Do yourself a favour and move the battery, under the bonnet near the start battery. I have fitted a second battery there before. A little bit of mucking about but it can be done and will be a lot lot safer.

Wayne

The issue raised by Wayne notwithstanding, it sounds like your system works for you. Good on you.

But it would not work for me for a number of reasons.

Horses for courses I guess, but I reckon you should treat your system as a workable short term solution. Once you are in a 4B and doing lots of travel and using more power (assuming that's a longer term objective) I reckon an upgrade might be in order.

Goodonya , people forget that even the fanciest battery isolator be it a redarc or a rotronics is still basicaly only a disconnect of 1 battery from another as long as YOU remember to disconnect its no different ,, hope your batt in the boot is well tied down in an appropiate battery box and that you have a venting system in place if the batt is a "wet cell" ,your insurance could /will be void otherwise.

If the battery is a sealed on then I guess no venting needed

Hey Pixie,
Good to see someone saving some money, In my brothers hilux we put a battery box ($14.00 supercheap) behind the drivers seat, cable to the starter battery, isolated by a 500A rated battery isolation switch ($12.00 Jaycar) This was just for the occasional long distance touring trip with the fridge etc and he didn't want to carry all the dual battery stuff around the rest of the time.
Put the switch beside the drivers seat with a lanyard cord to the door handle, so when he went to get out the switch key pops out and is bouncing on the flurescent cord on the inner door handle! (automatic isolation) very easy to remember to plug in when driving also!
The other thing we did do was install a surge protector ($15.00 Supercheap)
Don't worry about any one bagging you, You have just got to remember some people aren't as mechanically minded as they would like to be.

; )

Pix you certainly ruffled a few feathers with many feeling the need to justify the cost of their expensive dual battery systems but if there is one thing that can be learnt, that is everyones power needs & charging systems are different so no one setup is right for everyone. And just because your system is working now doesn't mean it will last very long either. Often fancy dual battery isolating systems are installed to better charge mixed battery's (start & deep cycle batts) so they get 6 years out of them not just 3. My system is even simpler than yours, 2 x 115 ah batts in paralell, no need to even disconnect an Anderson plug & it runs the lights & fridge for almost 4 days but again I wouldn't go recomending it to everyone.
Although it's nice to KISS, a bit of technology doesn't go astray now and again.................otherwise no doubt you would be still be riding on you horse & cart & not driving a V6 Commodore ;-)
Cheers Craig...................

Pixiemops, in an earlier post I said I have a 100AH AGM battery under the bonnet which runs my fridge for 4 days.

You are missing the obvious with your determination to listen to a basically stupid sparky.

Throw out BOTH your wet cell batteries, and install a single AGM under the bonnet.

You will have no dual battery "problem", no dirty big cables running into your boot, no explosive bomb in your boot, more room in your boot, and you can still run your fridge on your mini gas bottle at $12 per week.

As you keep saying, KISS.

Pixiemops,
You have opened up a big can of worms havent you?
Yes your setup works and will work fine. Personally I would not connect the two together when the engine is running as you would cause a large amount of draw on the alternator when doing this with a 'flat' 2nd battery. Isolators, like Piranhas one trickle charge into the 2nd or 3rd battery so as to not cause so much draw on your alternator. It could also spike and do damage to the vehicle computer, ignition system and so on.
Jumper leads do the same job,

$200 Fancy gizmo's are really there as protection for expensive gizmo's

In the end, if your happy with what youv'e got then that's all that matters.

Rob

I know you mention the piranha. If I have one of them trickle charging will that mean I will then ultimately flatten the deep cycle while on the road as the fridge will be drawing more than the piranha can handle.

thanks

Hi Pix,
Good debate, looking at something similar.

I don't believe the amount of Hydrogen given off from one battery in a well ventilated position, with a correctly operating charging system would be a problem.

Secondly I think the cost of a REDARC system is very reasonable.
However we have had 2 failures of the redarc system recorded in the club.
The more techo it gets the more susceptible the system becomes.
But I think the opinions are illuminating.