Dual battery system. Intro. Information for people about to or have installed a dual battery in their 4. WD. Highlighting problems I have incounted along the way and how to significantly extend the lifespan of your battery. I'm a electronics technician with over 2.

Enjoy exploring the great outdoors, 2 months touring East, North and Central Australia, 3 months touring Western Australia, club trip to Simpson Desert and planning Canning Stock Route. Disclaimer. I. On normal setting uses 3. A and economy 2. 4. A (runs for twice as long as normal setting). With two thick cable ties at bottom of freezer/fridge divider to leave gap of a few mm's to allow cold air to pass under divider into fridge area, holes in divider are not enough to allow cold air through. Also placed a high density sleeping mat folded in half for fridge to sit on. Evakool power connector is hard wired to fuse panel via 2.
Use original 1. 2 volt lead supplied for AC adaptor. Dual battery and voltage sensitive relay (VSR) installation. It was time to install a dual battery system in the 4. WD (3. 4. L petrol 1. Toyota Prado RV6 - 9.
Installed a Fullriver DC1. AH AGM deep cycle battery in a battery box (can hold up to a 1. AH battery). in the rear cargo area (warranty void if mounted in engine bay due to heat). In the long run it would have been better installing a 1. AH battery to increase the longevity of the battery by not discharging it as deeply. Flooded (wet) deep cycle batteries are dangerous and illegal inside a vehicle, only use AGM and Gel (spillproof and leakproof).
Battery box is held down by a 3. KG lashing capacity polyester webbing strap passed through two slots cut in a piece of aluminium checker plate bolted to the floor using existing holes under the carpet (so it can not fly around in the event of an accident, a 3. Met a couple in the Kimberleys - Gibb River Road, they were just running their fridge off one/main battery and needed to be jump started on on few occasions, they ended up running thier car engine a few times a day to keep main battery charged.
The MaxiMog Expedition System is a modular high mobility vehicle based on a highly modified Mercedes Unimog chassis.
Was originally going to replace the main battery with a larger hybrid battery (both starting and deep cycle) but decided to install a dual battery system instead. Glad i did. Battery box, fridge/freezer power cable and cigarette lighter socket behind back seat. Current drain 1. 1. A from main battery and 1. A from auxiliary battery, depending on which LED is lit on auxiliary battery status. Also solenoid operates, connecting main battery, when auxiliary battery reaches 1.
This was installed previously on another 4. WD with a BP L1. 00 powerbloc flooded deep cycle battery (9. AH) that died prematurely from sulfation.
Looking through the vent caps on top, the normally gray lead plates were all white. Also fitted a voltage spike arrestor (surge protector) across battery to protect vital engine management computer (ECU) and other sensitive electronic equipment from damage/failure. If in doubt run an earth back to battery or known good solid earth.
This happened to me, measured 0. A across earth on rear external cigarette lighter socket, moved it to a different spot on chassis, now reads 5mv drop.
Power consumption per day. Accessory. Power use per hour (amps)Hours. Total AHFridge/freezer. LCD TV - digital tv. LCD TV - av in. 0. WD TV live + HDD0. For most of the trip, leds showed charged but towards the end of trip was showing inter charge in the morning.
After I got home a week later battery was showing inter charge, so charged over night, a few days later battery was. So took battery back to supplier and they put battery on charge, then later tested it and found that all 6 cells were. So I received a replacement battery at no cost, supplier said they only get a 2% fail rate on fullriver batteries. When camping for a few days in the one spot, would use a 1.
A) sq cable and 6. A PWM (pulse width modulation) solar regulator (old model MP- 3. MP- 3. 72. 0. The JUTA CMP1. A regulator (simple on- off regulator, 3.
PWM, 7. 0% less efficient than MPPT) which come with solar panel. A) to charge main battery. Hot spots (electrical heating) or 'snail tracks' (micro cracks) on Rich Solar RS- M5. Voc and Isc), but for how long? Cycle life 2. 50.
Ideally it should be 5. DOD for long life, 2 x 1. AH = 2. 10. AH, which I do not have the space for. Cycle life 7. 00. At 8. 0% DOD, 1. 05. AH / 0. 8 = 1. 31. AH. Cycle life 3.
The sweet spot is 3. DOD, cycle life is 1. AH / 0. 3 = 3. 50. AH. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The solar regulator adjusts the duty cycle of the switching frequency (pulse width modulation), to find the point where the solar panel is producing the most power. Where as a normal PWM solar regulator uses pulse width modulation to regulate the output voltage.
Once the output voltage on a MPPT regulator reaches say 1. PWM regulator, current mode to voltage mode. Voc = 2. 1. 9. 6v. Isc = 6. 2. 8AVmp = 1.
Imp = 5. 6. 2A1. 7. A = 1. 00w in full sunlight at a particular temperature (standard test conditions)Example charging at 1. Normal PWM regulator and simple on- off regulators: 1. A = 5. 9 watts. 12v x 5. A = 6. 7. 4. 4 watts.
A = 8. 0. 9. 28 watts. Voltage loss in cable: 1.
A = 0. 6. 91v (current cable - park car in shade)1. A = 0. 4. 25v. 12m x 2 x 0. A = 0. 9. 98v (old cable)MPPT regulator: 1. A x 5. 6. 2A = 2. At 1. 0. 5v (1. 00w - 2. A (9. 2. 5w)At 1. A (9. 2. 5w)At 1.
A (9. 2. 5w)As you can see from above, the PWM regulator is wasting 1. A extra into your battery with a MPPT regulator depending on regulator efficiency (9. With any MPPT controller, losses in wiring should be minimised by using heavy wiring, and the wiring should be. This is less important with a basic PWM regulator since excess voltage will be discarded anyway. Also the solar regulator should be mounted as close to the battery as possible.
The excess 3. 4. 2 - 7. MPPT regulator, average energy gain being 1. If temperature of the solar panel is high, you will not get 1. You will get a better power gain in winter than in summer. Under very cold conditions a 1. Solar panels have to have enough leeway built in them to perform under the worst of conditions.
Solar panel will convert about 1. A few manufactures are getting on the solar MPPT band wagon and putting out inferior products that don't perform as claimed.
So buyer beware and do your homework/research. Some MPPT manufactures only use solar voltage and not solar voltage x solar current = solar power to find maximum power point or contain no toroid core (doughnut looking transformer). With 2 x 1. 2v solar panels in series, it will suffer from shade quite badly. If you cover half of one solar panel with shade it will drop the charge output quite dramatically, where as if they. You have to use the exact same model as the original solar panel, or else you. Some items, such as a drill, requires additional start- up (surge) wattage (typically 2- 3 times the continuous wattage required) so will require an inverter with at least double the wattage or surge rating to allow item to reliably start up.
If drawing a load of 1. Watt 1. 2VDC to 2. VAC pure sine wave inverter how much current is being drawn from 1. Sociology Of American Drug Use 3Rd Edition - The Best Free Software For Your. Amps (simple worst case guide).
To allow for inverter efficiency, in this case 8. V (1. 00 / 1. 2) / 0.
Amps. at 1. 4V (1. Amps. As you can see, the amp hour rating of a battery is the most important measure when choosing a battery for power inverter use, to get the required run time you require. If using a laptop or notebook then a. W automatic car laptop power supply 3. A or. 1. 50. W car laptop power supply 6.
A or. 5. 0W in- car mini notebook power supply 3. A. would use less current than using a mains laptop/notebook power supply plugged into a 1. Regulated 1. 2 volt supply. Some devices will only run on a regulated 1.
A 1. 1 - 2. 8V to 1. A DC- DC Converter is required. Multiple batteries in parallel connection to form one larger bank.
Each batteries voltage must be equal e. AH) and chemistry (flooded/sealed, gel or AGM).