[crajo]

Here's another one for the knowledge hungry :buttrock: . With out all the expensive boxes of tricks, is it possible to have a second battery installed in the 110 (under the passenger seat) to run my fridge and camp lights and how can i charge it from my cranking battery? any ideas would be great as i want to try and do it over the weekend.
Craig. :wave:

 

[xpower racer]

Dead easy. I've done it one mine for the same reason.

Get any two batts that will fit and stick them in however you want (as long as you can still find a way to secure them. I'd recomend though that you get a deep cycle battery as your second one though.. the type you get for caravans.

Then just connect them in parallel

Now all you have to do is put a switch in to brake the parallel. I've got a standard "engine Kill switch" comming out into the cab from the batt box. It's off when I'm running power hungry kit without the engine on and when I'm parked up overnight, and on when ever the engine is running so it charges the battery.

I have installed an Army (FFR) Power distribution box thats connected to the extra battery and that feeds the Radio, CB, Fridge, Interior lights and 240V AC inverter.. All the other standard connections are on the original battery.

In the winter you have now got an extra battery to fall back on if your main one goes dead.. or you can crank using both and I'm sure that will turn the laziest of engines.

If you need a diagram let me know and I'll draw one and stik it on here.

 

[TerryS]

There are all sorts of isolators and split charge devices available from RV stores, OffRoad suppliers and marine suppliers, but I have always been a believer in the KISS rule (Keep It Simple Stupid) I have two pretty good sized batteries under my seat, but they are the same capacity (800 CCA) and I simply took the original LR Battery switch out and put in a marine 1,2,BOTH, OFF switch. That leaves total control in My hands.

 

[130CC]

There is a problem doing it this way and that is if one of the batteries fails then it will kill the second battery it's a two for the price of one deal.
Senario you are camping running you fridge lights and any other accesory off your second battery after a day the battery is nearly flat so you decide to start the car, being a smart and happy camper you leave the connection between the two batteries disconnected untill you start the car knowing that if you connect the batteries together before you start the car the batteries will equalize between each other (ie the flat battery to the one ok battery, flat takes current from the starting battery in an effort to charge itself) so we start the car and then wait a while before we engage the second battery so that the starting battery has time to top up the current that was used to start the car. This of course was a useless thing to do because the same type of equaliseation that happens before you start the car will, following the laws of physics iwill happen again. If you follow the rule that you only connect the second battery when the car is running you will get away with this type of set up. I have tryed different types of set ups from parallel to solenoids and I am now moving on to the more expensive electronic controller to avoid this equalizeation (it has cost me more by not doing this in the first place). The bigest tip I can give is to not mix type or sizes of batteries if you are going to do a parallel setup then go out and buy two new batteries the same type ( cranking amps and construction) this will ensure that charge times expected life of the batteries will be the same this will decrease the opotunity fore something to go wrong. The parallel setups do work and there are a lot of people doing them they just have some flaws that can cost you more in the long run. This is of course my 2 cents.
Adam

 

[crajo]

Nice one chaps. Thanks for the info. I have couple of 225 amp deep cycle batteries from the TV station I work at. I am going to use booth of these i think and use a cut off switch. Thanks again for the info for my weekend project.
Craig :buttrock:

 

[130CC]

Sorry Craig
The only bugger with Deep cycle batteries is that they only good for small draw over long hours they hate big draws over a short period ie winching and starting sorry I should have but this in the first post if you have a look at ebay there are some smart solenoids that are only going for a $100 or so the advantage to these is that you get the best of both worlds and also get to protect the batteries from each other.
What do you do at the station?
Adam

 

[TerryS]

Adam,
I appreciate what you're saying. I spose the key to my seemingly successful use of this approach, over some 25 years boating ( 42' diesel, downeast style) is that I always use batteries of the same age and size, same holds true in the 110. In fact the date code on the 2 in the 110 are the same. I am not a spiral cell user, and those I know who do, really don't boast the greatest success stories, perhaps as they may be improperly applied. There is one I might try, a little known Blue top Optima, which has the best charcateristics of both the red and yellow. The two 800cca in my 110 are Interstate, a common aftermarket battery used throughout the US, and I doubt any Sears Diehard is as good. Mine are going on 4 years now, and I do a fair bit of winching, either with the Warn 9000 up front, or the Ramsey worm drive 12K on the rear. I have a 130 amp alternator, and the voltmeter never dips below 14 with all the lights lit. I alternate, weekly or thereabouts between Batt1 and Batt2, rarely is the switch in the 'both' position.

 

[130CC]

Hi Terry
The problem that I had was that I wanted the best of both worlds the deep cycle and the cranking battery it works it's just that the batteries don't give the type of life that they should. in the rocky (name give to an older diahtsu in Aus) my old 4x4 it was about 1 1/2 years in the 4 runner before that it was about the same. I swore that when I set it up in the new truck that I would do the best method for mixing types and size of batteries. Older tojo's can use two batteries in parrallel (from factory) for cranking the only catch is that they tell you to replace them at the same time. The optima's are great batteries just a bit over my budget at the moment but after the shocks are replaced and some work done on the suspension again and the long range fuel tank put in and the rear winch baught and installed (envious of you) and the... as you can see the list just goes on and on most likely I will get around to optima's when the two (no name brands) die that I have now. The best thing I find about them is that they don't leak reall handy when your trying to recover your truck when it's almost on it's side. About three years ago acid leaked out during winching in this position eating the paint and etching the alluminium in the battery box and I was thinking that I was light headed from the lack of sleep and fun from the day in the bush the smell in the cab was unbelievable.

 

[crajo]

Right then! Here's what I am going to do? tell me what you think? Leave the 110 as is and add 2 x 225 amp lead acid buggers and keep it seperate from the 110 (Betsy) put my solar panel on the roof to charge the buggers and have my dolby pro logic surround, Xbox(games music and dvds) crap in the back, stay at home wiring the stuff up, rewire the stuff up again or stuff the lot, buy a bag of ice, fill up the drifta camp kitchen chuck the swag/dog in the back and head straight to the mountains and have a beer and think about it all next week. Have a great weekend chaps and chapettes
I love my 110 (Betsy)
Craig :buttrock:

 

[crajo]

Oh yeh. Adam. They tell me I,m a cameraman :clap: