My Optima Red Top and Yellow Top Batteries are up for renewal.

I currently run a 40W Solar panel, a National Luna battery management system and a Red & Yellow top Optima setup.

The red top apparently needs replacing, and I'd like a lot more capacity deep cycle wise for computer usage (and I'm likely to add a fridge as well).

Two batteries under the passenger seat is normal, but the National Luna system will allow a third battery which could be fitted behind the internal bulkhead.

Any suggestions for a good setup, or better batteries than Optima yellow tops?

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Kiwi, 7 years around Africa. Overlanding channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/roamingyak

You could replace them all with one of these
Odyssey battery PC2250
but breath deeply before you look at the price
It's the civilian version of this I've had one for a few years now that I bought surplus on German ebay. It has just started to fade on one cell and I'm going to have to buy another

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Chris
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"Never have a stupid argument with an idiot - he gets a lot more practice than you"
there I go again
not too hard really

I had a couple of ten plus year old wet cells (leisure batteries) that finally went to heaven and have replaced the pair with a single AGM (absorbed glass mat if I remember correctly). I had 100Ah with the two and now have 120Ah with one battery. The wet cells could only cope with about a 25% (so really only 25Ah) discharge and the makers claim the AGMs can cope with upto 80% (84Ah available) and still recover.

The AGMs are great as you can mount them anyway you like.

Downside is that I needed to fiddle with a charge sensor to make sure that the AGM does not overcharge, but no great difficulty as there was already a 75Amp solenoid from the vehicle starter battery.

Time will tell.

Make is Ritar.

I changed from AGM's to AC Delco.
Voyager® Battery | Batteries | Parts Information | ACDelco
My setup is 2x120 watt Kyocera panels and a PL-20 regulator , in Aust. with plenty of sun.
Check the charging voltage required for both types.

rolls series 5 batteries are pretty much the best batteries for deep cycling that money can buy. My experience of them is that even if you discharge them to near 100% they will still outlast most other batteries.

The payoff is that they achieve this through extremely thick plates and so as well as being massively heavy for their rated capacities, they are also extremely expensive.

If you look after them and do not discharge them below 50% my guess is that they will outlast the vehicle. Having said this, if you understand how to look after any battery it can be made to last a lot longer than one would expect.

A cheaper solution to using expensive batteries would be to use cheaper batteries but add equipment that will assist in ensuring that your batteries are able to be fully charged, not over discharged and not over charged.

A decent battery monitor that monitors amps in and amps out with a big shunt will be able to tell you accurately what level of charge your battery is at and will enable you to cut off energy users when you reach 50% discharge. This will be enough to massively increase the lifespan of your batteries.

Getting intelligent charging devices that enable you to charge you batteries beyon dthe 70% limit that is practically reachable with a standard alternator or solar regulator, will increase the usable battery capacity and make deep discharges less common. Sterling make some cheapish battery to battery chargers that use a standard 4 stage charging cycle to get your batteries to 100% charge in less time. Using an MPPT regulator on your solar cells will optimise their power output and so you will get mroe out of them

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http://jimthetruck.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for the feedback:

I should perhaps have pointed out that I don't understand the maths of how all of this works - so any comments pointing how much extra grunt I would get compared to a single Yellow Top would be useful. I could always just put two Yellow Tops in parallel if my (older model) National Luna system allows that??

silver G,
They look good, but I'd prefer not to place 100% of my trust in one battery - having two that can be started off if the one goes belly up seems to make sense.
Would two of these fit under a 110 passenger seat?

RogerM
Slightly confused on this whole subject, so apologies for the dumb question - but AGM is a type of battery rather than a brand/model? If so, are there any particular brands models that are highly rated and what advanatges would a AGM have over the optima's?

ivanll
Why? Cost? better performance etc?

nickdisjunkt
"Getting intelligent charging devices that enable you to charge you batteries beyon dthe 70% limit that is practically reachable with a standard alternator or solar regulator, will increase the usable battery capacity and make deep discharges less common."

I think the National Luna system I have is quite good - though I struggle to use my 17" laptop for more than 3 hours (heavy processing, large screen etc doesn't help).

Any more thoughts on this...?

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Kiwi, 7 years around Africa. Overlanding channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/roamingyak

Hi Darrin,

We bought an intimidator battery, which is AGM (absorbed glass mat) and it has given us nothing but trouble.


I know very little about battteries and wasn't really given any additional imformation on this battery, so I could have ruined it myself. One thing that was the death nell of the battery was we put it on trickle charge, which apparently is a big no no for AGM. You have to buy a seperate charger.

Good luck

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Ollie

www.jollyfollies.com

Land's End to Sydney 2009

Hi guys

I'm no expert on batteries, but I remember a long conversation (over a pint or two) with the South African fella that owns eazi awn.

He tried to explain to me why the use of deep cycle batteries in an overlanding application does not work (in his opinion).

The basis of his argument was that the normal stop start of daily travel does not provide the time necessary for an alternator to recharge a deep cycle battery.

Deep cycle batteries will of course tolerate being run flat and then recharged, however the time to recharge a deep cycle is much longer than the 8 or so hours of driving the next day.

My own experience with:

- a deep cycle battery/national lunar split charger/minus forty fridge -

did seem to confirm this.

It was ok for the first discharge, but thereafter it never seemed to recharge.

Other travelers with a similar system but with a 'normal' battery always seemed to have their fridges still running when my 110 amphour battery had packed up. - perhaps because their 'normal' battery recharged quicker??

It could well be that the addition of solar panels will provide the necessary extra support to prevent the deep cycle from discharging too much in the first place; and supply the extra recharging oomph (technical term) to bring the charge back up.

However, could it be argued that if you have sufficent solar panel wattage to run the toys, then a deep cycle is not necessary - you might just as well have an ordinary battery with the low voltage protection system that the national lunar split charger provides.

If the eazy awn guy is right - deep cycle is not the solution; better to find a balance between toys and solar panels.

As I said at the beginning I'm no expert - I might be talking crap

John