The 150 series Dual Battery Guide

[LeighW]

Traxide unit will work fine with an Optima, cracking of the guards is also a 150 issue..

[Symo]

I have two 120a agm batteries for camping and one 55a optima in the car. The two spare 120s last 10 days easy without a charge running an 80L engel. The optima runs a 60L fridge.

Cheaper than a solar panel and no need to camp in the sun or rely on it.

[BlakMoth]

Or just run the engine for the once in blue moon you need to stay put for extended periods. It amazes me sometimes the lengths and $$ people will spend so they don't have to start the engine for an hour every six months to top up the battery!

On our travels I run a fridge and a freezer of our 90 amp hour AGM, a bit bigger capacity would be handy but I don't think its worth the cost or the weight.

Cheers Andrew

Yeah there is that. It depends on how often you use something as to whether it's worth the expense.


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[AJ120]

Or if you're going for a smaller battery as you're worried about the guards cracking then get a solar panel to keep it topped up


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Or just run the engine for the once in blue moon you need to stay put for extended periods. It amazes me sometimes the lengths and $$ people will spend so they don't have to start the engine for an hour every six months to top up the battery!

On our travels I run a fridge and a freezer of our 90 amp hour AGM, a bit bigger capacity would be handy but I don't think its worth the cost or the weight.

Cheers Andrew

[BlakMoth]

Or if you're going for a smaller battery as you're worried about the guards cracking then get a solar panel to keep it topped up


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[mjrandom]

What fridge and what are the weather conditions? On Fraser our NL and ARB fridges use between 20 and 24 AH per day (data posted in here somewhere). Both are good fridges. Where are you mounting the aux in the 150? Not much space for a good sized battery forgetting any concerns with guard cracking. That's why I put my 120AH AGM in the back. If you go for a 75 AH auxiliary you won't get two days out of it in summer.

[MelbournePark]

I would be wary of fitting anything bigger than a D27 for instance due to the weight
considerations.

The Traxide VSR will allow you to use some of the reserve capacity of the cranking battery
see www.traxide.com.au

The Optimas are good units though I have never been able to get them to supply a
life cycles verses depth of discharge graph, they just state that discharging to 0% SOC
won't hurt the battery but then refuse to back it up with hard data. Have you considered a
Marine pro, they are relatively cheap, have a 100Ah capacity and if you abuse it you can
get 80Ah out of them?

Cheers
Leigh

Thanks for the Traxside link - the D80 looks to do a great job, using both batteries and then isolated the starter battery.

As far as the condition of the Optima, I am unsure about that. Are you saying that the device from Traxside would not be able to analyse the condition of an Optima starting battery?

As far as the price issues ... I realise the Marine Pros are much cheaper. Typically over $100 more, and in some case, a lot lot more. I had thought though, that the AGM batteries last longer, while the resin in batteries like the Marine pro can loose their adhesion and fail much sooner than an aGM battery. The yachts I've been in all now use AGM batteries, yachties think they are well worth it. But I guess they are fume and safety conscious too.

As far as weight goes ... its certainly an issue, although this is not for my 90 series. Its for a 150, which I think can handle the weight.

But with AGM, there are heaps of choice, and perhaps an AGM deep cycle is a smarter buy? I think they can be run down much lower without damage. Some of those can have over 80 AH @25 and some in that capacity are smaller than an Optima and some only weigh 25kg. I don't use the camping side that much, so long life is a big issue for me.

With my camping style, the main draw is the fridge, which runs for 4 hours per day, maybe. At 4 amps that's only 16 amps a day. Stay three days, and its less than 50 amps. Plus lighting. If I go for a drive, then IMO an AGM will re-charge quicker if wired in the right way, which is another perhaps a big plus for me I think.

I put the recommended Optima in my 90 Prado, and I could put that in as the starter for the 150. Its only a year old, and has done little work.

[Mattfunk 120]

Marine pro, they are relatively cheap, have a 100Ah capacity and if you abuse it you can
get 80Ah out of them?

Cheers
Leigh

They are one of the few deep cycle batteries to offer a 2 year warranty as well. For around $220 if you look after it you can't go wrong

[LeighW]

I would be wary of fitting anything bigger than a D27 for instance due to the weight
considerations.

The Traxide VSR will allow you to use some of the reserve capacity of the cranking battery
see www.traxide.com.au

The Optimas are good units though I have never been able to get them to supply a
life cycles verses depth of discharge graph, they just state that discharging to 0% SOC
won't hurt the battery but then refuse to back it up with hard data. Have you considered a
Marine pro, they are relatively cheap, have a 100Ah capacity and if you abuse it you can
get 80Ah out of them?

Cheers
Leigh

[MelbournePark]

I am looking for two batteries, and am thinking the simplist way to go is a auto switch device, and two batteries up the front, and run decent cable to the rear for my fridge and for external lighting via anderson plugs put in somewhere (an Ausfridge Eutectic that doesn't use much power and retains its cold when there is no power). I am likely to pull the rear kidddy seats out (mine are electric ones) and I am likely to purchase drawers from Drifta and also a means to lower the fridge from the top of the drawers.

I am wondering if the Optima D31 battery would fit ... It has 75 amp hours compared to the recommended for Prado unit's 66 amp hours. Compared to the factory battery, its dimensions are 25mm longer and its 28mm higher - which should fit in the main battery space.

It would fit too in the spare battery space, but for the air conditioning pipe.

Are there issues I should know about with moving the air conditioning piping outwards from the spare battery space? Is there a flexible hose for the air conditioning behind the bright alloy air conditioning tubing? Or is the whole of the piping solid metal and hence mechanically dangerous to move the piping 40mm away from the side of the spare battery housing?

I would also like to be able to use some of the amp hours from the starting battery, but it seems devices are more likely to turn the starting battery off when the motor is turned off. Is there a device that can use some of the Optima's reserve deep cycle power but isolate the Optima starting battery when its jump start capability is under threat?

[drivesafe]

What would be the issues with having with having a fridge in the back of the wagon, connected to a portable battery pack, which was then fed by a 240v charger pluged into the factory inverter? Battery pack would charge when car was on acc or on.

Will

Hi Wil and there is no reason why that would not work but you need to know the maximum CONTINUOS output of your AC and then select a battery charger that will not exceed the limit of your AC.

While it is inefficient, so is using a DC/DC device.

The optimum way to do what you are intending, is to run decent cable to the rear, 6B&S twin, and fit one of LeighW’s fuses and you will have the perfect charging and power supply setup you can get and it is the MOST efficient type of setup.

Bearing in mind that this stupid question comes from someone who works in earthworks, not an electrician

What would be the issues with having with having a fridge in the back of the wagon, connected to a portable battery pack, which was then fed by a 240v charger pluged into the factory inverter? Battery pack would charge when car was on acc or on.

Will

It is an inefficient way of doing it, using 12VDC to convert to 240VAC to then charge a 12VDC battery. It would be easier to just plug the fridge into a 12V outlet assuming that the outlet is capable of delivering the current to the fridge.

[Wil]

Bearing in mind that this stupid question comes from someone who works in earthworks, not an electrician

What would be the issues with having with having a fridge in the back of the wagon, connected to a portable battery pack, which was then fed by a 240v charger pluged into the factory inverter? Battery pack would charge when car was on acc or on.

Will

Thanks for all the suggestions. Better get to work on installing all the bits.

[mjrandom]

Crimping on with that crimper will work fine. Or you can cut the lug. Either will be no problem.