National Luna Dual Battery Install

[pman]

Overland Journal did a write up this past year on batteries with their own independent test....rated the Sears Platinum as both Editors Choice and also Value Pick.

I am thinking the 800+/- CCA is right...and he was measuring just cranking amps when it was installed and warm...of 1300+. As they do the CCA test at 32*F for consistent readings...which makes sense.

The Overland Journal is Fall 2010 I believe...where Lois Pryce rides a Ural across United States with her husband in the side car.

Yeah, the cranking amp output of a battery goes up quite a bit at more moderate temperatures

I too am going with the National Luna set up.
Picked up a couple of reverse post 31M batts in the Reno Sears last week.
I need to lengthen the positive post for it to fit in the stock location- drops right in. The Hundy will have 31Ms for both batts. The Piggy has a yellow top for primary and will use another 31M for the secondary.

Thats the same thing i want to do with my 100, except AHC is going to make it more difficult

They did test some $100+ batteries in the Group 65 and Group 34/78 sizes.

Can someone explain this "lengthening" of the positive posts on 31Ms?! Is it easy to do?

/n00b question

$200 just seems crazy to me.

Anyone know how much an OEM battery runs?

I have heard as high as $600 US, but im not sure how accurate that is. Those factory Panasonic batteries sure are nice though.

 

[FATrabbit]

I had been suspecting that my original Panasonic battery was dying. After installing the National Luna system, the voltage display confirmed my suspicions: the battery was barely putting out 12 V right after the car was turned off.

Well, the weather has been cold in South Texas (multiple nights of only 20 degrees F and a few days never leaving the 30s) and this has taken its toll on the battery. Went to start it this morning and got nothing (the alarm was on the National Luna controller was going off). I took this opportunity to jump the car with the second battery.

As soon as I engaged the solenoid, the secondary battery voltage indicator bottomed out, but the interior lights came on and the car started. Unfortunately, this must have blown one of the in-line fuses of the National Luna system. The instruction manual warned of this and suggested that larger fuses can be installed.

Looks like I'll be buying some replacement and spare fuses! May even look into replacing the fuses with circuit breakers (Zane has one)...

UPDATE (021411) - The 50 amp fuse between the solenoid and secondary was blown (the 100 amp between the primary battery and solenoid was still good). After speaking with Paul at Equipt, I decided to just take the fuse between the solenoid and secondary battery out of the equation; this portion of the circuit is now hard-wired. System is working normally now. Glad to know the jump function works!

 

[Rwhat]

Zane how did the 40 AMP breaker work for you? What size loads is hooked up to your fuse blocks?

 

[Zane]

Zane how did the 40 AMP breaker work for you? What size loads is hooked up to your fuse blocks?

The 40 Amp breaker has worked out excellent for my needs. What i like about these breakers is that when working on any of the electrical components that are hooked up to the fuse blocks, I just switch the breakers off and I can work on it with no concerns of shorting anything out.

As for the load, I clearly am drawing less than 40 amps right now, as I have not added anything new to the blocks from my original install. I hope to add a converter sometime soon and will then have to consider upgrading breakers at that time, if needed.

 

[Bighead]

Did you use the cables that came with the kit or did you go bigger?

 

[Zane]

Did you use the cables that came with the kit or did you go bigger?

I used the cables that came with the kit, but used different lugs and military grade battery terminal clamps.

 

[Romer]

Zan,
Do you have any pictures of what you did inside the cab to control the dual setup?

 

[Zane]

Zan,
Do you have any pictures of what you did inside the cab to control the dual setup?

Attached are some pictures of where I placed the National Luna controller. I made a little bracket cut out of a hard piece plastic for the controller to sit on. The bracket goes under the center console section and is attached via screws into the transmission hump under the "Power / 2nd" buttons. I then used Velcro to attach the mounting plate to the plastic.

See Pics of bracket placement and National Luna mounting plate:

 

[Zane]

See Pics of the controller cliped into the mounting plate.

 

[2fpower]

Awesome work Zane.

I need to work on my lx450, where the po installed this system, and it needs cleaned up.

Thanks for the motivation.

k

 

[OregonLC]

Zane how'd you mount that MV50 in front of the airbox? I was looking at that location, but couldn't figure out a clean way to get it down there.

Commentary: for those not familiar, the MV50 is a cheap, but quick little compressor. The ARB is on my list but further down. Until then, the little MV50 does a good job of taking the 35's from 25 up to 40 psi. For roughly $50 it's a bargain even if it's disposable.

 

[Mxndrnks]

Commentary: for those not familiar, the MV50 is a cheap, but quick little compressor. The ARB is on my list but further down. Until then, the little MV50 does a good job of taking the 35's from 25 up to 40 psi. For roughly $50 it's a bargain even if it's disposable.

To add to this, I have the Vlair 400P. I have watched these little MV50's fill up faster than my much more expensive unit. If I had to do it again.... I would just save my cash and get the MV50.

 

[Anthony.L]

Commentary: for those not familiar, the MV50 is a cheap, but quick little compressor. The ARB is on my list but further down. Until then, the little MV50 does a good job of taking the 35's from 25 up to 40 psi. For roughly $50 it's a bargain even if it's disposable.

Ditto. I bought one from the local 4WheelParts as a stop gap until I do an OBA setup with a higher end compressor. Turned out this thing is a little workhorse for the money spent, no complaints. It gets hot, but has yet to let me down in 2 years.

 

[Zane]

Zane how'd you mount that MV50 in front of the airbox? I was looking at that location, but couldn't figure out a clean way to get it down there.

I did a quick little write up on it when I had pulled it together. Click HERE to go directly to the write up.

Zane