Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Question - can our Patrols (altenator) cater for the normal crank battery as well as 2x deep cycle batteries in the vehicle?

If yes, what would the best setup look like?

Tx

Dirk, In my opinion the best bet is a C-Tek DS 250. They are not cheap but that unit does EVERYTHING. Your existing alternator will be just fine. The C-Tek draws power from your main battery, beefs it up somehow and sends it to the 2nd batteries. It will also charge when the engine is off till it sees that the main battery is getting to a certain voltage. It then Isolates itself and you don't have to stress about a flat main battery. If you get a solar panel at a later stage, its just a matter of connecting the wires to the C-Tek and it will charge and regulate itself. So its one box that does everything. Let me know and I'll pass on Johann Carstens ( C-Tek ) contact details and he can answer all your questions no problem. Aftersales service is UNBELIEVABLE from these guys. Was worth every cent I spent on the unit, and would not recommend anything else.

I agree - the C-TEK D250 DC-DC charger is the way to go.
I recommend also a high power CTEK AC-DC charger like the 2500, that can then quickly charge the batteries at 25AMP from mains whenever you get the chance to add some wall socket power (just dont buy it in the USA as it takes 110v, and you then need a 220 to 110 transformer
See my post on my set-up:
http://patrol4x4.co.za/viewtopic.php?f= ... ilit=+ctek

What about Pieter Barnard - I have read and heard good feedback on his business

http://www.pbeproducts.co.za/

Shalom

offroadbiker wrote:Question - can our Patrols (altenator) cater for the normal crank battery as well as 2x deep cycle batteries in the vehicle?

If yes, what would the best setup look like?

Tx

Dirk you must understand the alternator on your car can deliver big amps ....I think you have a 85 A one as standard
When connecting 2 battries at the back in parralel it works like 1 200a battery
I would also go for lead cristal and a ctec system

Wat prys hierdie lood kristal batterye ?

shalom

Jules ek het n rukkie terug n pryslys gepost miskien kan Dirk dit weer plak......Piet het nou die dag n 100a gekoop ek is op my
Foon so het dit nie

I have the Pieter Barnard system (otherwise known as the PBE system), and am very happy. Support is similarly awesome, but I believe that the C-tek is superior if you are using deep-cycle batteries On the other hand, the PBE system is half the cost of the C-tek, and has served me very well.

Deep-cycle batteries need a higher voltage to charge to full capacity than most others, and the C-tek system caters for that by boosting the voltage. Note that it does not boost the power, only the voltage. In other words, it delivers higher voltage than it draws, but it draws more amps than it delivers. And it only delivers a maximum of 20A. For a typical 105A/H battery, it would thus have to charge at maximum rate for 105/20 = 5.25H to fill a fully-depleted battery.

My PBE charges at 25A or more, so could in theory charge faster, except that the voltage is lower and thus the battery doesn't take the amps. But in any event a deep-cycle can't charge that fast.

So, to sum it up, if you want to use deep-cycle batteries, get a C-tek charger. But I believe using other batteries may well give you more power as they charge a lot faster, and if you use other batteries, you don't need the voltage boost of the C-tek (although you can still use it if you want).

The lead crystal batteries mentioned above are considerably more expensive than either deep-cycle or crank batteries, but in many ways they are the best of both worlds and they should last more than twice as long. So far I am very impressed with mine.

The lead crystal prefers to be charged at 14.6- 14.8 v the same as deep cycle. It will not brake when charging at 13.8v just not ideal

I also run the C-TEK DS250 system on a 105A deap cycle battery inside my Trol. Used to run National Luna but it did not do the deepcycle any good. Good system but it does not come close to C-TEK. Plus the simplcity of just plugging in a solar panel makes it that much better. If you take the extra cost involved for a regulator thingy to run a solar pannel and add it to a cheaper charging system the C-TEK comes out less expensive. Installed mine at Voetspore mega world. They did a good job of it.