Sunday, Jun 28, 2009 at 14:58
Gday Bill,
We all know there is no perfect system!! And I like to
tailor my batteries to my needs.
In my case I do desert trips and weekends away. I rarely go for a day without driving - batteries rarely run down and get recharged to some extent every day. I run one or two engels, and have a winch.
So, with a pair of Exide Extremes (dual purpose battery) I have batteries that can survive the heat under the bonnet and have 160Ah capacity and 1240cca cranking power.
So I can run two fridges overnight and still have 12.5V in the morning, so neither battery is being run down.
I have a heap of winching power.
I have the least resistance with respect to recharging - so recharging is quicker than if I use a wet cell deep cycle battery (which requires an electronic isolator).
As far as reliability goes, I have a simple kill switch between the batteries so they can be mechanically isolated, should I wish to preserve the starting battery, or suspected a problem with one battery. In practice, I never isolate them. Its a KISS system - there is nothing electronic to break down.
Thats the plus side. The down side as I mentioned is if one battery suddenly dies. I minimise this by using identical batteries and buy them in pairs. I usually replace them every 4 years and then use them in my kids vehicles, so I'm always taking fresh batteries. And I monitor voltage to 2 decimal
places, so I know whats going on.
I admit I also have a 3rd battery in the back - an AGM that I take on some trips - Its recharged via a Rotronics isolator and I bought it because I'm doing a few trips now where I stay put in
the desert.
Nothing new about paralleled batteries - the HDJ100 LandCruiser and later 3L Jackaroo had them as standard.
Its a very common system at our 4wd club.
Cheers
phil
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