Friday, May 17, 2019 at 14:45
2517
John.
What size is the diesel? It is effectively only cranking one cylinder at a time plus engine drag. Does it have glowplugs for cold start or intake air heater?
Is it 4 cylinder or 6cylinder. If cranking a six of same capacity as four, then the six cylinder is easier to crank, ie, smaller dia cylinders on each compression.
If a turbo CRD engine, then it will have less compression to crank than a conventional diesel engine which has higher compression ratio.
Is the starter a direct pinion on the starter shaft OR a geared starter.
A geared starter which uses far less current and is more efficient to crank the same engine and that leaves more to run glows or intake air heater in cold weather and requires a lesser sized battery anyway.
You may not require an expensive battery at all and a good quality dedicated crank battery may suffice at half the cost. If charged properly and not continually cycled down in charge to stress the battery, the battery should last a fair while. Good quality batteries will last, especially if the weather doesn't get real cold.
If the unit is a pump engine the saving money can be dedicated to a small solar panel and charge controller to keep the battery topped up each day when not used.
AnswerID:
625581