23 replies to this topic

[JHanson]

Each of our vehicles carries a Microstart; they are brilliant. However, I still prefer to have a redundant main battery system, which as has been mentioned does need an isolator. (And remember those lithium power packs need recharging too!)

[ntsqd]

I'm not sure that those lithium jump-start packs want to be constantly charging. My XP-10's appear to hold a charge for a very long time. This is something that I've tested. Yeah that's what it is, I'm not that forgetful. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.

 

Maybe their charge controller is fine with having always power applied or always having power applied while driving, but I'd rather not take that chance. Besides, this opens up an opportunity for a Project! I've toyed with various schemes to intermittently charge them while leaving them plugged in. At first I was thinking of a timer that would only close the circuit to the power port for some set time period. Finding the parts to do that simply without resorting to using an Arduino or similar wasn't going well.

 

Then I realized that a delay-on relay could work. If I wanted to limit each charge time I could use a delay-off relay in series with the delay-on relay. Set the delay-on relay to delay turning on for ~20 minutes after each engine start, which is longer than most of my drives and would only turn on during a trip of some sort. That would effectively space out the charging intervals. Found those, they're only $63 each. and $63 again for the delay-off relay. Argh. Too much cost for the application. Back to thinking on this......

[JHanson]

I don't keep our Microstarts on constant charge. Recharge once every few months is sufficient.

[ntsqd]

Yeah, if I could only remember to actually do that.....

[craig333]

Do you have or are you likely to add a winch at some point? That might be your motivation to add a second battery. 

[Kolockum]

Do you have or are you likely to add a winch at some point? That might be your motivation to add a second battery. 

 

Oh man. Very good point. You have just convinced me.

[fuzzymarindave]

I woke up one morning in the snow country and my truck would not start.  I had to jump start it with the camper house battery which i had to remove because I don't have 2-way wiring to the truck.  I worked fine until I was able to buy a replacement battery.  It was a bit of hassle but not enough to make me want to have two batteries in the truck plus a third battery in the camper.   If your camper is on full time you will always have that reserve house battery.

[craig333]

I've jumped mine before with the camper batteries. Kind of slow with 10ga wire. I've since upgraded to 6ga but I also put new batts in the truck. Haven't needed to use the new wiring since (either direction). 

[LuckyDan]

For those who remember when manual transmissions were the norm and fuel pumps were mechanical, I’ve been reminded the easy/hard way that the days of get rolling down hill and pop or bump starting a dead rig are largely a thing of the past. I just aborted a mission to recover my brother who’s Ranger battery died while camped out. He tried the roll and start repeatedly to no avail. I got lucky, I was only about an hour or so out of town when he called that a couple Chucker hunters gave him a jump. He was on day two of no battery.

Point is; if you get truly remote, in places where largely you’re left to your own devices for recovery/repair, for awhile at least and do so fairly frequently, either some sort of redundant or auxiliary system is probably not a bad idea. The work arounds are fewer than they used to be.

[Wandering Sagebrush]

For those who remember when manual transmissions were the norm and fuel pumps were mechanical, I’ve been reminded the easy/hard way that the days of get rolling down hill and pop or bump starting a dead rig are largely a thing of the past. I just aborted a mission to recover my brother who’s Ranger battery died while camped out. He tried the roll and start repeatedly to no avail. I got lucky, I was only about an hour or so out of town when he called that a couple Chucker hunters gave him a jump. He was on day two of no battery.

Point is; if you get truly remote, in places where largely you’re left to your own devices for recovery/repair, for awhile at least and do so fairly frequently, either some sort of redundant or auxiliary system is probably not a bad idea. The work arounds are fewer than they used to be.

That’s why I keep a jump start pack with me.