battery selection

Tim,

I have just purchased a chloride battery for my auxilary. I was told by the local ARB guy here in Broken Hill that it falls somewhere between a deep cycle and a normal battery.

I run a couple of lights and an Engel 40lt and ahve stopped for two days without a problem.

There is a guy in town who has run this battery with a fridge and a small inverter to power the electric blanket in his swag. Sounds pretty soft to me but it is impressive.

Merry Cristmas
Don't forget the reason for the season
Duncs.

Tim,
This is one of these questions where you can never be right, very much a personal requirements type thing. I have a hybrid battery as an auxllay which is I think the same as Duncs mentions a mixture between the deep cycle and the "normal" cranking battery. Works for me so far, make sure you fit an anti surge protection thingy to your normal battery, the amount of computer stuff on these little beasts ( 3.0 litre TD) is worth protecting. If you go onto the 12 volts shop web site this has loads of information, they recommend the Trojan battery, it's certainly heavy enough. I've been advised to stay away from maint free batterys as an auxilary, can't remember why now but at the time it seemed like a good reason. good luck. My opinions as usual.Keep the shiny side up

G'day Tim

Look its a personal choice at the end of the day.

However there are a few things to consider.

(1) How much physical room do you have, as different types and makes of batteries come in different profiles.

(2) How much money do you want to, as opposed to CAN afford to spend.

(3) Do you want to have to service the battery.

(4) Do you want to be in a position where your auxilliary battery continually 'acids' up on the terminals and either boils or spills over.

(5) A deep cycle will give you a crank start if necessary as long as it hasn't been drained flat.

Now having considered all that the 'battery world' is your oyster so to speak.

Having 'dicked' around with auxilliaries, I now treat them the same as tools.

That is, buy the best quality for the application that you can afford and you will reap the rewards of longevity and performance when required.

So Buy the biggest capacity along with the best quality that you can afford.

I have just replaced my auxilliary (deep cycle) which 'dropped a cell' for a Optima marine battery.

In dropping the cell, it gave no notice of same and went immediately to 10.4 volts which affected a number of things.

The new Optima (blue top) just fits, is (supposedly) a quality item, is a sealed gel pack that has extra posts because of the marine configuration ( no extra cost) which I intend using for the inverter.

The only thing I use the cranking battery for is starting and the winch. Every thing else runs off that auxilliary which the experts recommend as good practise.

Hope that gives you some direction

Regards

Ken Robinson

Power crank has dep cycle batterier 100amp for $132 I just bought it for my camper as I have 2 in 4wd already.1991 80Series Std Diesel
2003 Down Under Camper

Martyn and Duncs for my money.
Recently put a "dual" type in the CT. About $130-$140 if I recall and charge off vehicle through relay. Way to go inmho, best of both worlds. But certainly go for the best you can afford (plus a little bit if possible) ... you'll be a happy little camper in the long run.

CheersFidei defensor

Rosco

Many people have different reasons for having different batteries.
1stly, as you will be staying in 1 spot for a few days, stick with a cranking type, or an AGM type battery, as these will recharge the fastest through your vehicles alternator.
Deep cycles are ok for a few days if you also carry a few 100 watts of solar panels, as these cheaper type deep cycles take about 6 times longer to recharge. if your travelling a good 8 hours driving per day, then youll keep the charge up.
The reason why, and not many people know is because of the internel design.
Cranking batteries and AGM - absorbed glass matt like the optima have thin plates and heaps of them so the charge flows really fast and electrons basically fill up quicker.
Deep cycles have thicker and fewer plates so the charge going in builds up a fast surface charge and voltage regulators get a false reading and think hey this batteries almost full so ill cut back on current to a trickle charge.

Tim, I want to to state/ask the obvious, but have you tried and archive search. There are masses of threads on batteries.Smile, you're on ExplorOz
Rohan (Sydney - on the QLD side of the Harbour Bridge)

Surely the reason for a second battery is to ensure you are not stuck in the boondocks without starting power so is not a starter type battery essential for this application or is there a deep cycle that will crank a diesel over??
I have a Delkor some 4+ years old which gives new performance & is lo/no maintenance & has been rather badly discharged a few times into the bargain.
Second battery is a 3 yo Exide starter type which I use as a back up & to run stuff occasionally & its in new condition.

Buy a sealed battery - my 2003 GU 3.0 has acid splatters from a $105 exide deep cycle. Dont get me wrong it did the job well on my 4 month trip however i would opt for an optima or similar next time round.
Also add extra heat sheilding to the ARB tray - being next to the turbo it gets bloody hot. I added some silver coated rock wool bats to mine which helps but compared to the original battery with its ducted cooling shroud (via the wheel arch) the 2nd battery will fail much quicker due to the heat.

OPtima Batteries are the go!

The mob i work for are suppliers to r&j batteries in ballarat and bendigo ( oils, truckwash etc - not batteries) and i was looking for a new battery for the jackaroo, so i rang the guys and had a no bs chat about any and all of the batteries they carry or can get, in short, they no longer reccommend optima as they have had shocking warranty backup from them, and lately have had some strange failures with other gel cels ( the ones that have an orange steel case ) for use in the fourby they said the delkor marine batterys are the go, so i got a n77 marine which was the biggest i could go in the standard spot, it has spare aux posts and acid prof vents, hygro 'eye' huge cca amps and doesn't care if you run it flat. This battery could easily start any diesel or petrol ( you should hear how fast the jack cranks now !!!! ) and has a good reserve hour rating. and the standard price is very competitive. Have a squiz at the Delkor website as it has full spec listings on every battery type. Pretty sure Diamond is running the same marine batterys, and loves em.Moo... everyone knows what a Jackaroo looks like :-)

Tim

You have all the answers above

just remember if you are fitting it now and not just replacing it make sure you fit some form of isolation from you main battery

or there is no point in having it at all

frankCBS
Cant Bl**dy Sitstill

I have a 17 plater Century/Yuasa battery as my auxilliary. It runs everything including the winch. This battery is near on 5 years old. I have a Desert King 17 plater as my cranking battery. It is 18 months old. Both batteries have individual outputs of 700cca. The batteries run in parallel through a Rotronics MH10 isolator. Can run the fridge for 48 hours but rarely do that, as it is not necessary for my application. Luck is on my side as my truck does not have a computer :-)

Cheers,
Willem

Always going somewhere

if you can fit an N70 size I'd recommend the federal 90 Ah 575 CCA deep cycle (got mine from battery world). The federal is a few mil bigger than N70 but fitted in my GQ aux tray ok. Unless over flattened these batteries recharge almost as quick as a starter battery, and heaps of grunt for the dollars.

Due to potential problems I wouldn't recommend mixing AGM (eg optima) and standard batteries as you will be parallel charging them.