The 150 series Dual Battery Guide

[Fred63 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fred63]

AJ.

need some more popcorn to get through the latest episode

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

AJ.

need some more popcorn to get through the latest episode

Don't know about popcorn, I am thinking about taking up drinking though

Cheers Andrew

[Fred63 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fred63]

I have.^^^^^

I was hoping to get some info on what people are using and how it has worked for them and what they are running from the aux battery.
for my requirements I will be going
redarc bcdc 1225 with a battery
when camped with the van I have 2 X 100 Ah batteries with solar 120 + 130 watts panels.
Aux will just be for short trips where we will just camp over night without the van and move on.

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

That's plenty sorted Fred. You'll only run out of cold beers if you don't buy enough


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fred63 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fred63]

[QUOTE=BlakMoth;492070]That's plenty sorted Fred. You'll only run out of cold beers if you don't buy enough

that has happened but I always make sure I am in range of a fresh supply the next day.
then there is always the stuff on top shelf

[AK7 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AK7]

Leigh, my diode has only been in for ~3 months. It worked from the moment it was dropped it in. My batteries seem healthy and my car hasn't exploded. I did lots of reading before buying your diode and found lots of people using it and recommending it, not to mention that your service is above and beyond. It's a pretty good sell mate. Keep up the great work

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

Thanks AK7 and others.

I would have been surprised if anyone had had any issues as all my original test units are still going strong and many units have been in cars for over 6 years now. Personally have never had a complaints all feedback has been from happy customers.

Cheers
Leigh

[drivesafe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close drivesafe]

Hi Leigh, and if you haven’t already, you will be hearing from a very upset LC200 owner.

I referred him to you after this following disaster.

This is an E-mail I received last week and demonstrates the need to get RELIABLE info for equipping a vehicle with a DBS that actually works and not rely on what so called experts in this field claim.

These guys fitted their own DBS and had no problems yet the fifth guy got his DBS “professionally” installed, and look at the results.

Note, the D2 has a constant voltage alternator, the D3 has a variable operating voltages, and the D4s have Regenerative Braking Voltage operation.

This covers just about every type of alternator operation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Tim

Sorry for the long email – in the second half of the email my mate with a 200 series wants to know if you can help him

It seems like only yesterday that we installed your dual battery kits in 4 vehicles (D3, 2 x D4, D2) ready for a big trip. We’ve been back a while so I just wanted to give you an update on how the battery kits went.

In short, they were brilliant. We installed all 4 kits you sent us in one day. Aside from the fiddly process of removing trim pieces and working in the tight confines of a Land Rover engine bay the installation was straightforward with your instructions.#
Throughout the trip the kits never missed a beat – and others on the trip had lots of electrical issues.

On a few occasions the battery guard did it’s job cutting out the fridges, but this was usually when we were camped in one spot for a few day (very little or no driving) in very hot weather (making the fridges run almost non-stop). It took surprisingly little driving to provide a good bulk charge back into the batteries.

We travelled the Tanami Track, Gibb River Rd, Kalumburu Rd, Mitchell Falls NP Road and the Great Central Road and nothing rattled loose or played up in any way.

Our friends in a 200 series Land Cruiser, on the other hand, did not fare so well when it came to electrics. Following local advice he had a Ctek DC-DC charger installed professionally by a very large and well known auto electrician here in Newcastle. They also installed an auxiliary circuit for his fridges and accessories etc connected to the aux battery.

In short the system never worked properly. Initially the DC-DC was installed in a very hot part of the engine bay making it cut out once the engine warmed up. We repositioned it behind his grill but even then he only got a useful charge on big driving days. On days were we did short trips around camp he was always having problems with a flat aux battery (including the extra aux battery on the trailer). To further add to his woes the auto elec did NOT install any form of low voltage protection on the circuit for his fridges and accessories. He ran his batteries far too low a few times and it didn’t take long for the aux in the engine bay and the aux on the trailer to both die completely.

He couldn’t believe how well our systems worked. So he was wanting to find out a little more:
###•###Would one of your dual battery isolators be suitable for his vehicle (VX 200 series Land Cruiser)?
###•###All three of his batteries (starter, aux car, aux trailer) are deep cycle sealed lead acids. Would this be a problem (we understand they won’t charge as fast as an Optima for example)?
###•###Can the battery types be mixed (if he added an AGM under the bonnet for example)?
###•###He does not have a winch at the moment but may install one in the future. Would this mean the 160 is his best choice?
###•###Can one of your battery guards be added to his fridge and accessories circuit for low voltage protection?

Thanks again for your excellent kit and thanks in advance for your advice.#
Feel free to use my feedback as a testimonial if you wish.

Thanks

The Toyota owner is now fitting a similar system to the four Disco setups but with the addition of one of the HKB Electrics “FUSES”

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

Hi Tim,

It is nice to receive positive feedback from customers, your units as usual are performing very well so you also must be doing something write!

[Ben80 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Ben80]

Hi Guys, A question to all with booster diodes. I have one of Leigh's boosters(actually on my second as the first sustained damage) and I am seeing voltages of 14.7(cold start) and 14.3(stinking hot). I have just purchased a 100a/h agm to fit in a portable battery box. My question is will the sustained high voltage damage the agm battery? Specs for the battery recommend 14.4-15v for cyclic use but my concern is long runs when the battery is fully charged as its only load is a 40L fridge.

[Symo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Symo]

I'm confused - if a battery is discharged fully like the optima (but any AGM battery in general) and you get 300 cycles at this rate, surely at that is enough for anyone?

I mean I discharge my battery fully 2-3 times a year, do you really think my battery will last 100 years?

So all this arguing about how much to discharge a battery is all a pissing contest and pointless given that the average user is not 'consuming' their battery as a whole fast enough to out pace the general life of the battery which is only 5-10 years under PERFECT conditions.

Use the thing for what its designed for, spend less time hyper-analysing the voltage in your battery and more time enjoying life/camping/boating/fishing/ prado-ing! Cross the dead battery bridge when you get to it! just like 99.9% of every starter battery out there...

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

Ben80,

Voltage is fine, manufactures generally state that maintaining continuous normal charge voltages for up to 24 hours will not harm the battery. The starter battery sits there at these voltages day in day out.

One point that has been raised above though AGM stands for Absorbent Glass Matt, lots of different types of batteries are now using AGM, just the use of AGM does not make a true AGM battery as most think of it.

Symo,

For your use it would be ok, but keep in mind some go touring for 3 to 6 months a year cycling their batteries daily.

[Ben80 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Ben80]

Thanks Leigh,

Its actually a vrla, the starter battery still tests up fine and its the 5 year old original panasonic so I figured it had no problem with a higher voltage. All information I have found shows the vrla likes a lowish float, thought I would see if anybody had damaged a battery from a higher voltage

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

No problems, maybe others with a VRLA can comment, generally though when a manufacture is talking "float" he is referring to float charging 24/7 and float voltages under these conditions can become critical for VRLA batteries as the pressure builds up due to constant trickle charging, your battery is cycling. I would be more worried about temperature, make sure the battery can handle under bonnet temps.

[Ben80 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Ben80]

Not mounted under bonnet rather in a box at the rear so only subject to ambient temps, thanks for the replies.