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Old 02-11-2017
nevillebartos  nevillebartos is offline
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Default Dual battery info / tips

With the fridge going in this summer it's probably time for me to get this out of the way but no idea what I'm working with right now. Is optima yellowtop still my best bet for the aux battery? 55Ah doesn't seem like much and not even sure how much of that is truly usable, will anything bigger cram in the little space?

I was considering solar to help sustain the juice especially on sunny days when the fridge is really going to cop it, are there any controllers I can just jack a panel straight into and leave them to sort the rest out? Do panels work reasonably well on most days?

Should I consider a battery box somehow in the cargo area to get more capacity rather than trying to cram something into the engine bay?

Any advice or examples would be useful to me
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Old 02-11-2017
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Nanook  Nanook is offline
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The most convenient way is to get a portable battery box as it saves a lot of stuffing around with dual battery systems.

I don't bother running one though I've been meaning to buy one for a while. I have an Optima red top as my starting battery and run the fridge off that.

For long hot days on the beach fishing where the fridge is running flat out, I mounted an Anderson plug on the front bar to the start battery and keep it topped up with a folding solar panel from 4wd Super centre.

If I know I'm going to be using the fridge, the night before I do, I run it on 240V overnight to get it to temp first.
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Old 02-11-2017
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nevillebartos View Post
Is optima yellowtop still my best bet for the aux battery? 55Ah doesn't seem like much and not even sure how much of that is truly usable, will anything bigger cram in the little space?
The thing is they are spiral and not plate batteries and they recharge much more efficiently (reach full charge much quicker).

However they are now owned by johnson controls and there is very widely reported reliability issues with the batteries that are all now proudly made in Mexico.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nevillebartos View Post

I was considering solar to help sustain the juice especially on sunny days when the fridge is really going to cop it, are there any controllers I can just jack a panel straight into and leave them to sort the rest out? Do panels work reasonably well on most days?
The reality is if you have in mounted in the jeep, you take it with you when you move and solar on the move is not the best.

Problem with allot of small solar kits is they are woefully underpowered and or have complete junk for an inverter. I use a 3 panel foldable with a victron 7515 which is bullet proof and runs upto 75v from the array (which is how i run mine).

Quote:
Originally Posted by nevillebartos View Post

Should I consider a battery box somehow in the cargo area to get more capacity rather than trying to cram something into the engine bay?
Like has been suggested, hardwiring an anderson to the cargo area you can then use when you need to is awesome, you plug and go and when you get to camp you take the battery out and leave it with the fridge and solar so it is convenient. Unless you do allot of winching in which case you want it hard wired with very large gauge wire.

Last edited by ARB87U; 02-11-2017 at 01:20 PM.
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Old 02-11-2017
Krump_7  Krump_7 is offline
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I have one of those arkpak battery boxes hooked up to a dual battery system between the crank battery in my patrol, i plan to swap this to my wrangler when i get it, With the battery box a fixed to the rear and a switch on the negative wire to connect disconnect the management system from the crank battery if for any reason its needed (usually home charging the rear battery is done this way).. Any "cheap battery box" can do the job though, i just like the arkpak as it has lots of ports and plugs to run multiple accessories. As for battery size u really need to add all the power usage u want to run off ur second battery, to give a true indictaion of battery size needed. Things like lights fridges fans uhf loads of stuff. There are plenty of calculators online that can help with this. A 55amp our battery really wont run a decent sized fridge for long with out going flat, also need to bear in mind not really supposed to run deep cycle batteries and the like much below 50% charge as this can lead to shorter life. One more thing to keep it legal u need a sealed battery like an agm if its in the cabin, altho plenty run deep cycle batteries of all types in cabin, just dont get caught ahaha. From the battery box id run a fused cable thats thick enough to handle the current draw from ur accesories (6bs?) to a fuse block with common earth then from their hook all ur gadgets to it. Remember to fuse all positive feed wires as close to the battery ends as possible this is very important, including any positive feeds going into ur second battery and coming out of it.

Hopefully that makes somewhat sense i think i tried to answer ur question.

Cheers
Brad.
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Old 02-11-2017
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Optima yellow top is a poor choice for a aux battery. It's primarily a starting battery. Deep cycling will kill it in no time. Best bet is a pure deep cycle battery, AGM for example. You can pickup a 130A.h AGM from Aust Batteries and solor, or similar company, for $280ish and will last for many many years.
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Old 02-11-2017
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanook View Post
For long hot days on the beach fishing where the fridge is running flat out, I mounted an Anderson plug on the front bar to the start battery and keep it topped up with a folding solar panel from 4wd Super centre.
Where'd you mount the anderson connector on the bar?

Good idea, i'm sick of having to open my bonnet to connect the compressor to the battery or leave the door open to connect in my solar to charge the battery/keep fridge going.
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Old 03-11-2017
OzRick25  OzRick25 is offline
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What exactly are your power requirements? Is it just the fridge if so what size? will there be other loads? how long do you expect to have the vehicle parked and not running?

My small Engel pulls 2.3 Amp at its hardest on a hot day it would go close to a 50/50 cycle for 12 hours and 30/70 overnight and I have 1 amp of led lights for max 6 hours a day so my demands are 2.3×12×.5 + 2.3×12×.3 + 6 would be max 28Ah.

I would say 3 days would be my max stay so that's close to a 90 Ah usable requirement a 130Ah deep cycle will do it but its life will be only 300 or so cycles if you can keep the demand down to a third of capacity your battery should last a lot longer like 10 times longer. I have 2 100 watt flexible pannels that are frankly to much of a pita. A lot of the time I won't take them as they are large awkward to carry rattle around and a pita to set up but for long camping they are good at extending the life of my second battery which is what if aim to have my solar panels do.

If you need it for winching under the bonnet is probably the way to go just because of the cable size you need for high currents. I have seen people try to use auto circuit breakers to limit draw on smaller cable, it's not great, they get quite hot when they trip and cut out and put a huge draw on your starter battery I don't like the idea.

If it's just basically the fridge and a few small led lights a battery box could be the way to go.

The other option for just a fridge and touring is not to get a second battery and run an Aux power port off a low voltage disconnect
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