Hilux 4x4 Forum

A while ago I bought 2 x high cycle batteries from Ters. They were in good condition when I got them and I built a box containing both batteries connected together. I was warned by Eric not to do this, but thought I would give it a try as the system was already assembled.
Initially it worked fine. I connected by Benton 2 whenever I got home and regularly in between to keep them conditioned.
When sorting everything for our Baviaans trip, I decided to use one battery only, as we were going to drive regularly and I thought I would have no problems. [2 batteries are heavy and take a lot of space]
I built a new box behind a wheel arch and installed a battery and 800 W inverter. After everything was done, I connected the lot and made ready to leave. I saw on the NL battery monitor the voltage was right down even though I had the Benton charging the batt until full.
It seems one of the cells died or the batt was sulphated. Luckily the other one was ok and I swapped them.
I then took Eric`s advise and read up about the issue while on leave.
The issue seems to be that the charger sees slightly less than the highest voltage of the 2 batteries and charges accordingly. The flat battery never gets charged properly and in my case died. In a perfect world, if they were both exactly the same [which I tried to achieve by using thick cables] they would operate as one, but this rarely seems to be the case.
I ended up with a damaged battery.
My apologies Eric, I should have listened.

To conclude, If you have more than one aux batt, you have to install a dc to dc charger on each one, or use them independently, maybe with a marine switch. They have to be managed properly to achieve good results.
With the standard, and even with a more powerful alternator, I am not convinced you will get a proper charge without a dc to dc charger. Solar seems to be the only option, in conjunction with the alternator, if you are not driving 12 hours or more per day.

Regards
Andre

Daai Oom.........hy ken sy goed goed!!!!!!!

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Tonto wrote:A while ago I bought 2 x high cycle batteries from Ters. They were in good condition when I got them and I built a box containing both batteries connected together. I was warned by Eric not to do this, but thought I would give it a try as the system was already assembled.
Initially it worked fine. I connected by Benton 2 whenever I got home and regularly in between to keep them conditioned.
When sorting everything for our Baviaans trip, I decided to use one battery only, as we were going to drive regularly and I thought I would have no problems. [2 batteries are heavy and take a lot of space]
I built a new box behind a wheel arch and installed a battery and 800 W inverter. After everything was done, I connected the lot and made ready to leave. I saw on the NL battery monitor the voltage was right down even though I had the Benton charging the batt until full.
It seems one of the cells died or the batt was sulphated. Luckily the other one was ok and I swapped them.
I then took Eric`s advise and read up about the issue while on leave.
The issue seems to be that the charger sees slightly less than the highest voltage of the 2 batteries and charges accordingly. The flat battery never gets charged properly and in my case died. In a perfect world, if they were both exactly the same [which I tried to achieve by using thick cables] they would operate as one, but this rarely seems to be the case.
I ended up with a damaged battery.
My apologies Eric, I should have listened.

To conclude, If you have more than one aux batt, you have to install a dc to dc charger on each one, or use them independently, maybe with a marine switch. They have to be managed properly to achieve good results.
With the standard, and even with a more powerful alternator, I am not convinced you will get a proper charge without a dc to dc charger. Solar seems to be the only option, in conjunction with the alternator, if you are not driving 12 hours or more per day.

Regards
Andre

Nou is ek bekommerd. Ek het dieselfde probleem met my NL. My Conquerer het uitgekom met 2 batterye en dit lyk asof hulle gekoppel is soos op die foto. :roll:

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Andre, have you tried recovering the damaged battery with the BX-2? It does sometime help. In this case, leave the charger connected for an extended period (the longer the better) and hopefully the charger will recover the damaged cell. It does this be sending a series of pulses to the battery which does tend to desulphate plates.

What one can do is to also connect the batteries in series - 24v - as then the same amount of current does go through each cell but this is also a fiddly affair.


-F_D

Eric, I am currently trying to recover the batt with the BX 2, I will report later.
If you connect them in series, I suppose you then need a 24 to 12 volt controller?
This might be a better option, as to properly maintain them in parralel, you would need a dc to dc charger for each battery in anyway.
The method I am using with the BX 2 is to charge until full and then use the 16 v boost to get rid of the large chrystals. I will do this a few times and see what happens.

Andre, I agree - get the battery back to spec if it is at all possible. Thereafter, you can charge them in series with the BX-2, but remember to put back in parallel if you go on a trip. If you decide to use a Solar Panel you would need a Solar Panel, a Regulator (very important! Many people think not - but it is) and, of course, the batteries at 12v. Best would probably be to get a dual 12v controller from the SP so that each battery can charge individually.

Although Solar Panels will charge a battery, it will do nothing to break down sulphation, as it provides a "smooth DC" whereas the BX-2 delivers "pulsed" DC. These pulses aid in repairing a heavily-sulphated battery.


-F_D

Family_Dog wrote:Andre, I agree - get the battery back to spec if it is at all possible. Thereafter, you can charge them in series with the BX-2, but remember to put back in parallel if you go on a trip. If you decide to use a Solar Panel you would need a Solar Panel, a Regulator (very important! Many people think not - but it is) and, of course, the batteries at 12v. Best would probably be to get a dual 12v controller from the SP so that each battery can charge individually.

Although Solar Panels will charge a battery, it will do nothing to break down sulphation, as it provides a "smooth DC" whereas the BX-2 delivers "pulsed" DC. These pulses aid in repairing a heavily-sulphated battery.


-F_D

Oom Eric, wat beteken dit?

Louis,

Dit is 'n Solar Panel Regulator wat die SP een kant vat, en ander kant het hy twee 'outputs', vir twee batterye. DWS, die batterye is nog steeds apart en nie 'n parallel nie.


-F_D

Another point to ponder.When I get to a campsite with 220volts.i use to just plug in the BX-2 and continue using 12volts. What I pickup up is that if I draw more than 5 amps (I think). The charger goes in a funny mode and basically switches off and you drain your batteries. You have to switch the charger off and switch it on again and then it will begin charging again. Subsequently I know put my fridge on 220volts when reaching a campsite so that the charger can only "focus" on the battery.The nice thing about the Engel is that you can at the same time have 220 and 12 volt plugged in.So maybe once a day.I will switch off the 220volt supply to the fridge and it runs automatically from the 12 volt.If there is a power failure than the fridge runs from 12 volt.
When I still tried to freeze everything I use to put the charger on that 13.8 volt power supply.That seems to help,but I dont know if that's a good idea.

George, the Snomaster and the Campmasters you can keep plugged into 12V and 220V as well.


Andre, big ups to you for sharing your lesson.

Leer ek dam nou self vir jou n ding hoor! Sal daai selfde fout maklik maak.

Lees ek ou reg hier. Ek het ook 2 batterye in my trailer. Ek kan hul saam gebruik as een, maar ek moet hulle afsonderlik charge. Dit is redelik maklik wanneer dit deur 220v geskiet, maar hoegemaak as ek ry en die dc2dc moet die charge werk doen?

Stephan,
As ek weer 2 batterye saam koppel sal ek n skakelaar insit en die een net as spaar gebruik.
As altwee presies dieselfde is kan dit dalk werk om hulle saam te koppel, maar dis selde die geval.
Dit is ook die rede dat groter ups stelsels se batterye gereeld vervang word.
As jy die 2 batterye apart hanteer weet jy ten minste watter een vol is en watter een nie. Sodoende kan jy dit beheer en nie een van hulle verloor, of sonder krag raak terwyl jy dink jy het nog baie nie.

Dit lyk my ek was gelukkig. het op my Hilux vir 8 jaar met dieselfde twee batterye so gery en nooit probleme gehad nie.
Miskien was dit the luck of the draw!!