D40 STX 550 dual battery setup

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qecluke

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Hi guys, I'm looking a putting a dual battery set up in my navara 550. Im really not keen on putting the second battery in the tray, everyone I have spoken to said I cannot fit it in the engine bay. So I'm left with this option:

http://www.piranhaoffroad.com.au/news/index/article/21

It mounts under the cab and fits an Optima 75Ah battery. I would love a bigger one but you can't have the best of both worlds.

I basically just want it to run my 80L Waeco fridge for a day or two. I'm not planning on weeks and weeks away in the truck just yet and just a few lights.

Anyone have any thoughts.

Thanks
 
hmm looks good, i am also looking at other options as i don't like the tray idea either :)
 
Yeh I am totally against it mannick! I am keeping my hard top so I'm after all the room I can get. I got these under body kits priced today they are $285.00
 
The 75Ah Optima battery is the D31A spiral-wound AGM which is a bloody AWESOME battery, nearly indestructible and from a full charge will give you about 60Ah of power.

Assume your lights are all LEDs and in total draw 1A which will be used for say 5 hours - for 2 days that's 10Ah leaving you with 50Ah of capacity.

I don't know what the Waeco 80L draws on average. My 60L Engel averages about 1.5A on a 50% cycle, so around 0.75Ah * 48 = 36Ah so my fridge would be fine.

Get your Waeco fridge hooked into an ammeter, load stuff into it and monitor the power consumption. That's the only way you'll get a clear idea of how long your battery will supply it with power.

Make sure the power leads from the battery to the fridge are nice and heavy - my Waeco upright in the caravan (5.5A draw) is very sensitive to low voltage.
 
Hi guys, I'm looking a putting a dual battery set up in my navara 550. Im really not keen on putting the second battery in the tray, everyone I have spoken to said I cannot fit it in the engine bay. So I'm left with this option:

http://www.piranhaoffroad.com.au/news/index/article/21

It mounts under the cab and fits an Optima 75Ah battery. I would love a bigger one but you can't have the best of both worlds.

I basically just want it to run my 80L Waeco fridge for a day or two. I'm not planning on weeks and weeks away in the truck just yet and just a few lights.

Anyone have any thoughts.

Thanks

Hi mate, I run my 80l Waeco of a 75a/h optima. And in the middle of summer with the fridge in the canopy running at -15 it will last for two days and nights before it will cut out on the low voltage auto cutout on the fridge. I think it's the Hi setting you use to get the longest. The good thing is with these batteries is that they charge fast. Hope this helps.
 
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Yeh I am totally against it mannick! I am keeping my hard top so I'm after all the room I can get. I got these under body kits priced today they are $285.00
What is included for that price mate?
 
What about water and water crossings etc with the battery mounted on the chasis rail like that.. Could that be an issue or are they not suceptable ? to problems caused by water etc...
 
I'm definitely going the same dual battery setups gentleman, ordered mine yesterday should be here in a couple of days, direct from pirana apparently they are a pain to fit, but anything to get the battery out of the tray.
 
What about water and water crossings etc with the battery mounted on the chasis rail like that.. Could that be an issue or are they not suceptable ? to problems caused by water etc...


to put the battery under the car like this it will have to be maintenance free.
and you will need to check the terminals often as lots of trap gets stuck in these trays. if your worried about ah get a smart charger that supports solar and buy a panel there roughly 150 on ebay these days and you will be able to support yourself for weeks.
 
What about water and water crossings etc with the battery mounted on the chasis rail like that.. Could that be an issue or are they not suceptable ? to problems caused by water etc...

As Ryan points out you need a maintenance-free battery. AGM is the best.

To ensure trouble-free power, you'd connect it all up, tighten everything, test it, then give it a really good spray of that blue shit auto electricians put on battery terminals. It protects them from the elements.

The batteries themselves have tiny, tiny vents that are only opened if the internal pressure rises too high - very unlikely for a good AGM like the Optima series. Because there's no vacuum inside the battery, being submerged in a river crossing won't cause any water or debris to enter. In fact, you'd have to put the battery several metres underwater to force it in, and if that happened I doubt your first concern would be the battery!
 
Once you are happy with everything, you can paint "liquid electrical tape" - available in a can from Jaycar - over the terminals, any exposed metal. It's a vinyl type product that dries to a hard, semi-flexible unified coating. If you need to take the terminals off in future, you can cut off the coating. Will prevent corrosion, and also reduce the chance of any shorting occurring.
 
I'm in Brisbane I've had a quote from opposite lock to do a full install with the pirahana chasis mount tray battery dc to dc with optima 65ah battery for $1650 fitted.
I then went to On Track at springwood and they said they could build a custom battery tray/box and fix it underneath the centre of the style side tray, supported by tray rails to house a full size battery 100/110ah. They supply the whole lot with a few outlets in the tray and in the cab for $1300.00

Im weighing up my options as to what will be best. The guys at ontrack recommend I install a long range fuel tank before so there is plenty of room to work with.

Are there any 550 owners that have done a dual set up and not installed in the tray???
 

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