GQ Patrol dual battery
Submitted: Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 08:59
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Gossy
I have a 2.8 td GQ patrol with a
snorkel and dual battery setup by ARB. Due to the air filter my second battery is only small (50a/h). Would like to fit a larger one but there is no room.
Has anyone else come across this issue and how have you resolved it? My main battery is quite large so maybe I rewire the vehicle and turn that into my second battery tray? If I did that is a 50a/h powerful enough to be reliable to start up a diesel over a long period of time?
Other option is to stay with the 50 a/h but be smarter about it. Currently I have a redarc isolator. Simple but does the job. Am I best to replace this with a isolator/smart charger so the battery is kept in better condition and lasts longer?
I'm only getting a couple of years out of the batteries and they are not cheap to replace. Last trip away the battery died and wouldn't run the fridge after the solar panels stopped working after dusk. Finished up getting food poisioning so 'not happy Jan' and need to resolve this issue :(
Cheers,
Reply By: Dave(NSW) - Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 09:41
Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 09:41
Gossy,
I have a GU waggon and have added a third battery in the rear next to my draw system, May be you could look at something like that.
Cheers Dave..
AnswerID:
441329
Follow Up By: Member - Mark G Gulmarrad - Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:02
Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:02
Dave
i'll bring my extension lead to Levuka .........you can run the jayco too :-))))
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Dave(NSW) - Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 11:17
Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 11:17
For a bloke who sits on his backside all day and calls it work you seem to get a lot of holidays :-)))
Tell jon to bring a lead to and we"ll run the two of them LOL.
FollowupID:
713365
Reply By: Ruffy-Dan - Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:06
Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:06
To answer your questions Gossy,
Yes, we come across this issue regularly with customers vehicles.
The smaller battery will not be suitable to use as a start battery.
I would suggest you look at fitting a larger battery in the rear of the vehicle if it is appropriate.
You can shuffle things around under the bonnet and fit a larger battery but it's not easy to do and you still suffer the same issue of under bonnet heat which is a potential cause for killing your batteries.
If you do fit a battery in the rear it must be an AGM or gel battery.
Dan
AnswerID:
441332
Reply By: Gossy - Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:32
Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:32
yep, getting solme drawers done fairly soon I think and I have thought about this option. It does mean rewiring all the 12v plugs I have in the rear of the vehicle so will take a bit of planning. Alot of weight (30kg's give or take) so will need to take that into consideration for strength if it sits on top of the drawers.
I'll have a chat to Techtrek in
Adelaide here who does custom made drawers and see what he suggests. I think I'll need to do the rewiring before the drawers go in to have access to the side panels.
It was the heat that killed the battery. We drove up to
Renmark last Friday and was easily high 40's outside. The heat under the bonnet was very high. Battery was charged and checked before leaving with all the cells showing "average" but none were in the red. One dose of heat just killed it :(
Cheers,
AnswerID:
441338