Dual battery kit!! Thoughts????

[D22Nav_Man]

Looking at getting a second battery in my 3.0ltr 05 d22 nav. found this kit on ebay and just woundering what your thoughts were on this kit...........
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MATSON-1...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item415725da7b

Bit of advive would be helpful

cheers Matt

 

[Old.Tony]

I don't know how reliable the unit is but it looks like it will do the job.

The only thing I'd NOT do is try to jump-start the car through it. The Navara diesel engine hauls between 500 and 550A to crank the engine over. That's probably a little too much for the 140A unit.

I'd also be wary of trying to haul cranking current from a deep cycle or gel battery. Some AGMs can do it - in particular the Optima spiral wounds (which are incredible). Usually, a cranking battery - like an ordinary starter-type battery you could buy from anywhere - doesn't like to be deep cycled. You usually can't have both a cranker & a deep cycle unless you spend the (considerable) $ on a spiral-wound AGM.

 

[D22Nav_Man]

would it be ok to use a marine battery.....I was looking a one, i think its century that makes it. Deep cycle with 100amp and 650cca, $220 from bcf........ would that do the job to power a fridge and some lights for a couple of days???

 

[Old.Tony]

Depends on the fridge and how hungry it is. 650CCA is enough to start the car so that's a winner, the price is a winner too. If charged from your battery you'll have about 50Ah capacity assuming that you can drag that thing down to 20% of full charge because the alternator only charges a battery to about 75% of full (75-20=55% available).

If it's an Engel drawing about 1.5A for 12hrs a day that's 18A per day, 36A over 2 days and if the lights are LED drawing about half an amp hour in total then you're on a winner because you won't use the remaining 14Ah for the short time the lights are on.

 

[neb]

You can buy wet cell deep cycles that have cranking ability's too like the Supercharge MRV70, 760CCA and 105AH and can be put in the engine bay. OR the Excide N70EXL 620CCA 80AH.

Most AGM's don't like heat and some don't have any CCA ability, I've found the thumper to have good CCA and AH and doesn't mind the heat, same for the Optima but they are more expensive and have less AH compared to the big amount of CCA they give, but "they" say you can use more of the AH IE: drain them lower more often with less issues.

If you want to crank off it you can just use jumper leads either way...

 

[D22Nav_Man]

cool thanks for the advice.

 

[neb]

oh yeah you might want to check the batt size I quoted, they are a bit long from what I can tell in my car without some mods, battery world seem to think the NS70C (CCA only) Century will fit in but I've not actually checked yet, and they quoted me on a NS70T Acdelco deep cycle for the LH side.