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excossack



Member Since: 22 Feb 2012
Location: North West
Posts: 5948

United Kingdom 1999 Defender 110 Td5 SW Caledonian Blue
Additional batteries
I have a split charge setup so I can charge a second battery, off this I have a 50amp anderson plug that I use to power my radios off when doing rallies.
Normally when I go camping the coolbox stays in the car running off the 2nd battery.

I had a thought, could I charge a 3rd battery as I drive along by plugging into the Anderson connector?
....and then a further thought of, would it it work if i was to keep the 3rd battery in the tent and plug into the anderson socket and run the coolbox in the tent so in effect I have 2 batteries acting as one?
Or would I have issues? 1999 Defender TD5 110

Regards
John M0VAZ
Econet Station 48 no clock
Post #138135 9th Apr 2012 6:21pm
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mudrut



Member Since: 01 Mar 2012
Location: Stourport-on-Severn
Posts: 80

United Kingdom 2008 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 USW Stornoway Grey
Plugging a second battery into the Anderson connector for charging purposes is no problem. They will effectively be in parallel and charge will be equalised across the two batteries. If I was doing this, I would use the same model of battery for the two batteries to avoid any potential problems due to differing charging characteristics.

Having 12 volts available for the cooler in the tent is damn handy (not so far to go for the beers Whistle ). If you maintained the parallel connection between the two batteries, you would enjoy the desired increase in runtime for your cooler. You would be advised to keep the cable run as short as possible and use heavy cable to minimise voltage drop.

Do you ever run out of capacity to run your cooler on an event using the existing 2nd battery in the vehicle? If not, would the long cable be enough of a solution without the 3rd battery? Further, I would also consider the cost and weight benefit of fitting one seriously manly battery in place of the 2nd battery. (I am thinking Odyssey here.)

Hope this helps.

regards


Ian
Post #138184 9th Apr 2012 9:19pm
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excossack



Member Since: 22 Feb 2012
Location: North West
Posts: 5948

United Kingdom 1999 Defender 110 Td5 SW Caledonian Blue
At the events I have run out of power but the cool box does pull 45w!
I do on events run two radios, a coolbox and various items on charge.
The other additional idea of the 3rd battery in the tent is, I can put the battery in a box, add some ciggie sockets and a USB port and charge phones, running lights etc.

What sort of cable thickness should I be looking at for say a 12ft run of wire?. I guess 16amp thinwall is out the question Laughing 1999 Defender TD5 110

Regards
John M0VAZ
Econet Station 48 no clock
Post #138333 10th Apr 2012 8:30pm
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SteveS



Member Since: 05 Oct 2010
Location: Devon & Berkshire
Posts: 388

England 2009 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 USW Santorini Black
For tent/camp power I distribute 12V from one of the many truck sockets using a cheap 12V plug to 12V socket 'wander lead' which you can buy for a few quid from caravan stockist. They are 5m in length and 5A rated. For a fridge you would need to consider the voltage drop and whether this would trigger your fridge to turn off on detection of a low voltage

Cool boxes if they don't use a compressor are power hungry

My Waeco runs for at least 48hrs non-stop in 30+C climes cooling to 5C
Post #138793 12th Apr 2012 8:00pm
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excossack



Member Since: 22 Feb 2012
Location: North West
Posts: 5948

United Kingdom 1999 Defender 110 Td5 SW Caledonian Blue
The cool box is power hungry and would like a compressor type cool box but dont have the wonga for one of them Sad 1999 Defender TD5 110

Regards
John M0VAZ
Econet Station 48 no clock
Post #138903 13th Apr 2012 8:05am
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