Dual battery setup without winch ? Advice please . (1 Viewer)

[T Y L E R]

I'm reading up on the dual battery setup . Both Slee's writeup as well as Georges thorough overview . I'm a little confused about a few items ...

Everyone keeps mentioning a wich . I will probably never have a winch , so can I just run that intended cable into the cab to an aux. fuse panel , and also a rear power outlet ? My primary goal here is to gain aux. power , and to also have a self-boost handy if need be . I have a very , very short commute each day (1.5 miles one way) and in this cold (-28°C) weather , my lead battery is slowly dying . Yes , I attend to a severe maintenance schedule (ie:20 mile drive once a week , fluids changed more frequently) , but I still end up with a nearly dead battery when I go to leave work , after the 80 has sat for 12-13 hrs in a very cold parking lot . Our company is too cheap to spring for plugins , so I am looking at other measures to ensure I am never stranded there , or anywhere else . This will also include switching to a synthetic oil as well , which will probably help in the cold climes here .

Another question is this ... what is the function of the interior switch ? I see the marine switch has a bunch of settings ... so if my goal for now is simply to have a self-boost if necessary , then what setting will I set the marine switch , and what would I flip the interior switch to ??

I'm thinking also of going with dual Optimas , or another drycell alternative (I've seen another brand listed on here , i'll look shortly) . I would like to run a redtop , and a deep cycle ... is there a consensus on whether that type of setup is cool ? I ask because writeups indicate a homogenous battery setup might be a safer bet

TIA ,

TY

PS : I feel I need to bite the bullet on this as my 80 barely started the other nite after an especially long , cold day shift ... and my alarm antenna was fried again because the battery went low . So now I am without remote starting , and my alarm is non-functioning

 

[Rich]

I'm thinking if you are not driving enough to recharge one battery then you are not driving enough to charge two batteries. Maybe you should plug into a recharger at home overnight. Optimas have less capacity then same physical size wet cell lead acid batteries, so that may not be the best choice for your problem either.

 

[T Y L E R]

My understanding when I spoke to a rep about them was that they take a shorter duration to recharge . And if I am only needing that deep cycle for a few seconds to 'boost' my 80 , I should be good .

No ?

TY

PS : I ran a redtop Optima in my 4Runner for many , many years and I only had to boost once . Thats being parked on the street in the open , in -30°C and below , 1 miles commutes , and the truck sitting there for up to 4 days at a time ... I think drycells have proven themselves to me .

 

[Waggoner5]

I am thinking that a marine dual battery switch with an isoloator to keep both batteries charged should do the trick. While you are wiring drop yourself a pair of wires with a plug on them for a home trickle charger. That way they are fresh when you start out for work every morning. If the truck is slow to start after work, just rotate the marine switch to both and away you go. I run this setup in my 62. Works well.

 

[Rich]

Again, what I see happening here is that your drive is not long enough to recharge the battery after a cold weather start. It doesn't sound like a battery capacity issue to me, unless you are currently running a really crummy battery, in which case, replacing it with a single good battery should solve the problem.

AGM batteries, due to the consistency of the plates, do have a greater acceptance rate than lead acid batteries, but that is not necessarily a guarantee that your alternator is going to be able to replace the power consumed to start your engine during your short commute.

For a lot less trouble then installing duel batteries you could wire up a quick connect for overnight battery charging. I really think that is the solution to the problem you are describing. Dual batteries are not going to increase the amount of recharging that your alternator does during your short commute to work compared to a single battery.

Another possible approach to investigate would be installing a smaller pulley on your alternator. This would then result in the alternator spinning faster and putting out more current at the slow speeds you are probably driving to work. You would need to investigate what the max safe rpm is for your alternator, and ensure that rpm does not get exceeded. The feasibility of this approach would depend on whether or not the altenator is currently operating near it's max rpm when the engine is at redline.

 

[Junk]

T - don't run an Optima marine for your 2nd batt. It will not last long.

interior switch is sometimes referred to by guys with Hellroaring setups or remote switch for winch. Stick with the isolator and marine batt determining which batt sends juice to the starter.

Get a flexible solar panel and leave it on your dash. I use one on long stays sometimes - works great. Mine is usually on the hood though, but dash should work.

 

[97 FZJ80]

A Optima marine battery (Blue Top) comes in two flavors, regular SLA and deep cycle. For the 80's application, a regular Optima yellow top should suffice.

Before you start on the dual battery setup, you might want to replace your original battery with a Optima battery and see if that fixes your problem. One main advantage of the AGM battery is the slow discharge rate compare with a regular wetcell. This might help if your 80 is seldom driven.

 

[sea2skydad]

Tyler,

You gotta hire a kid to drive your ride around for a couple a hours each day just to keep it tight. C'mon, it's Christmas!

 

[FirstToy]

Tyler, first- why are your posts blue and so tiny? Can't read 'em!

I'm starting to research for a dual batt with requirements like yours (except the cold start stuff-not an issue for me)

I have found Roger Brown's site helpful.
Have you looked at painlesswiring.com? They have some wiring "turnkey" packages that look good.

 

[RavenTai]

T, at the temprature's and problems you are seeing I am not sure a deep cycle or even dual pourpose would be your best bet, as a battery gets colder it abiliy to deliver amps decreases and as your engine gets colder it take more power to start it, that is a bad combo you need CCA's and lots of them, I would look for a (or pair of ) good group 27 battery('s) with a the highest CCA available, the trade of is these will have a short life if they are deeply discharged more than a few times

Rich may be right that you are not getting enough charging time to put back what you used, especially with the heater rinning full blast, defost, lights ect, but at least with a second battery you get a second chance, and know to take the long way home.

an onboard charger for when you can plug in is a nice idea also, needs to be a smart charger that will deliver bulk absorbtion and float charges automatically. temprature compensation would be good also.

there are a bunch of ways to wire and control two batteries, I have my idea's but there is no consensus on witch is best if there is even a one best way. rich has posrted soem dual battery goals in past threads, lookign at those and adding your own will get you started

have you confirmed that you do not have any major paracitic loads and that your alt is putting out good voltage? all connections tight?

is it only when you use your remote start that there is the problem? with the starter problems in the 80 series I would be very weary of un-attended starts. might want to wait for those conditions again and set off the remote start wile wile you are present and see what is going on.

 

[T Y L E R]

Lots of insightful responses so far . I intended to test the alternator this PM , but opted for a nap before nite shift instead , and then ran short on time . I will get on that first , so that I can trouble shoot a poor alternator if need be .

One wierd behaviour I have noted in regards to the Viper alarm/remote start is that in the last 3 weeks it began failing in terms of its ability to remote start . I remember it also started showing the 'started' icon on my pager fob , when the 80 was NOT even started ... nore do I rememebr hitting the button . I rememebr coming out of tanning last week , after the remote start was unsuccessful , I could hear the starter clicking away uselessly .

I sat in the 80 , but again hit the remote start button to observe the results . Again .. clicking only , as if the starter were fried . So next I put in the key , and tried the old fashioned way .. started INSTANTLY with lots of juice ! No clicking .. no low battery indication ...???

So why the ealier clicking . And now the alarm/remote start is friend again , apparently due to a low battery says customer service . They say too much current was put thru the antenna , and it has fried . So my remote signal is sent to the brain , but no signal gets back to the pager , or something along those lines . I'm not convinced this is an accurate appraisal , and I intend to follow up on this Viper problem when the head install guy has a slower period after the holidays .

So check the alternator / battery .... then check to see if my Viper setup is screwed up , and perhaps robbing juice from the battery . Incidentally , one day I noticed my truck was running in the underground parking !! Started up on it's own somehow .. yikes ! Hasn'r done it since , so perhaps it was me playing with the buttons that week that inadvertantly programmed it

Once I problem trouble solve these items , I will look more closely at a dual setup , and the correct battery choice(s) , since that seems to be the only outstanding issue in the dual setup I see . If I am going to go with one .. and I may regardless so I can run a laptop etc , then I owe it to myself to research batteries , and what choices have worked best for the 80's community .

TY

 

[RavenTai]

.............. apparently due to a low battery says customer service . They say too much current was put thru the antenna , and it has fried . So my remote signal is sent to the brain , but no signal gets back to the pager , or something along those lines . I'm not convinced this is an accurate appraisal ,

I think your BS meter is on target here, how would pressing the button on a tiny low power fob put too much current through an RF antenna? if it is being fried by current from the truck's electricla system then whoever installed it needs to look into why and fix it.

the fact that it woudl not start with the remote but would with the key is revealing, somthing aint right with the remote starter, I have no clue how it works so I cant help past that.

otherwise sounds like you are on the right path to figuring this out.

 

[lovetoski]

Hey Tyler,

Your original post asked about dual batteries w/out winches...well my wife's 80 is set up that way. The goal was to add power outlets that could run off of the second battery, without any effect on the starting battery. I used an isolator, and slee's dual battery relocation kit. I'd never done anything like this before, and it took a long weekend to track down all the parts and install them. But it works great. Best of all, it's totally invisable to my wife (as she stipulated). Function is enhanced, no added hassle. Kinda cool actually.

By the way, I tend to agree with some of the other posts here that a trickle charger is just the ticket for your situation. Cheaper also.

 

[97 FZJ80]

Ty, it sounds like a defective alarm/remote start system. When I was installing alarms for a living (many years ago), we would sometimes get an alarm that has a sticky relay and it would drain down the battery or fry the door lock solenoid. Another related thing about the auto-start/remote start system is that if they are wired incorrectly, they could fail or ruin other electrical systems due to the high current draw of the starter.

Another thing you might consider is getting is a prioritystart!. It's a device that automatically disconnects your battery when the charge drops below 40%.


John

 

[dawgdaze]

Go to www.hellroaring.com Ask those guys there. I just got this set-up for my 62 that will not have a winch.