Does anyone know about ARK Portable battery boxes and where to buy them

[Brett From Ark]

Brett... Figured as much. Ended up going with a battery suited for deep cycle solar applications. It's a group 31 agm 110Ah
. It's charging up as we speak, hope to get it out in the next few weeks

Question. Is it supposed to jump from boost to testing a lot while plugged in?. Figure it does but just want to make sure.

And where can we find Anderson plugs in North America? Anyone know. I'd like to run as much 12v load though that so I can keep the plastic doors closed

Hi Shibubba

sorry for the delay in reply to your question i have been out in the bush field testing, to answer your questing yes in will go into a testing cycle every 10 mins or so for approx 30 to 40 sec this is to check how the battery is going while under the charge process.

i think you can purchase Anderson plugs off amazon.

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

Brett, I've been searching high & low to find a 140AH battery (or as close to it) that will fit in my new ArkPak. Interstate battery thinks they found one that may physically fit, but it's rated at 150AH @ 20hr's (12VGCUTL). I've found aTrojan T-1275 Deep-Cycle Flooded battery which is also 150AH @ 20hrs. Setting aside the physical dimensions for a moment, what would happen if you connected a 150AH battery or greater to the ArkPak? Is it as simple as the remaining AH display will be off or are there more significant issues? For example the multistage charger wouldn't be able to fully charge the battery or the battery could be damaged?

Hi Coastie LFS

sorry for the late reply i have only just returned from and extended stint in the bush doing product testing. the battery you have listed is too high the physical space you have in the Ark Pak is 330mm long x 181mm wide and 238mm high.

The trojan battery T-1275 is too high it requires 272mm of height to fit and as mentioned the Ark Pak on has 238mm of height available for the battery to fit.

this is great investgating on your behalf to find the largest battery possible.

if you have any more questions please ask.

Regards

Brett from Ark.

 

[CoastieLFS]

Hi Coastie LFS

sorry for the late reply i have only just returned from and extended stint in the bush doing product testing. the battery you have listed is too high the physical space you have in the Ark Pak is 330mm long x 181mm wide and 238mm high.

The trojan battery T-1275 is too high it requires 272mm of height to fit and as mentioned the Ark Pak on has 238mm of height available for the battery to fit.

this is great investgating on your behalf to find the largest battery possible.

if you have any more questions please ask.

Regards

Brett from Ark.

Bett you must be tired from all your adventures in the bush!! If you look at my post you will see that I wrote "Setting aside the physical dimensions for a moment, what would happen if you connected a 150AH battery or greater to the ArkPak?"

I realize the batteries are too big, but I'm still wondering what would happen if I found a battery that would physically fit, but was in execess of 140AH's @20hrs?

 

[jtpaintball70]

I was thinking of wiring up and hiding something in the bed of my truck when I build my deck and storage options... But this looks like it might be a winner. I wonder if you can put a solar panel into it using a car charger port instead of charging it from the vehicle...

EDIT: Yep just got to that part of the site. You can...

 

[Azbackcountry]

Just bought one yesterday , excited to test it out.
Great info in this thread.

Arizona will be a great environment to put this to use!

Az

 

[Ed B]

Congrats on the new purchase. I have used mine on a couple of trips now and it does everything it is supposed to. Very happy with mine. I will be testing some solar panels next weekend to see how they work on it.

Later

 

[Brett From Ark]

Bett you must be tired from all your adventures in the bush!! If you look at my post you will see that I wrote "Setting aside the physical dimensions for a moment, what would happen if you connected a 150AH battery or greater to the ArkPak?"

I realize the batteries are too big, but I'm still wondering what would happen if I found a battery that would physically fit, but was in execess of 140AH's @20hrs?

Hi CoastieLFS

Thanks for coming back to me about your question, the max setting on the Ark Pak is 140 A/h, if you do find a battery that is rated at 150 A/h that can fit into the Ark Pak you would have to choose the max setting of 140A/h, the Ark Pak would charge the battery but what would be out is the time to charge and also the percentage charge of the battery as you would have an extra 10A/h of power remaining.

so in short yes the charging and discharging will work, you just need to factor in the extra 10A/h you would have.

if you feel i have not explained the above answer please let me know

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[CoastieLFS]

Hi CoastieLFS

Thanks for coming back to me about your question, the max setting on the Ark Pak is 140 A/h, if you do find a battery that is rated at 150 A/h that can fit into the Ark Pak you would have to choose the max setting of 140A/h, the Ark Pak would charge the battery but what would be out is the time to charge and also the percentage charge of the battery as you would have an extra 10A/h of power remaining.

so in short yes the charging and discharging will work, you just need to factor in the extra 10A/h you would have.

if you feel i have not explained the above answer please let me know

Regards

Brett from Ark

Brett, thanks for taking the time to answer that question!

For what it's worth, I ended up ordering a battery that Interstate Batteries found for me. It's a 31TMXU, I believe made by Johnson Control.

Power
Reserve Capacity @ 25 Amps 210.00
Volts 12.00
Amp hours 130.00 AH
Physical
Width (US) 6.75 in
Length (US) 13.00 in
Height (US) 9.38 in
Weight (US) 67.00 lb
Industry Size GROUP 31
Plates Per Battery 90.00
Hazard Class Non Lithium
Width (Metric) 171.45 mm
Length (Metric) 330.20 mm
Height (Metric) 238.25 mm
Weight (Metric) 30.39 kg
Termination Common Code M

 

[Brett From Ark]

Hi to All

just wanted to advise That Ark Will be will be closed during the Easter weekend and also the ANZAC weekend, the dates of closure are listed below

Easter Friday 18/04/2014 and Easter Monday 21/04/2014 and re open Tuesday 22/04/2014

closed Friday 25/04/2014 ANZAC day re open Monday 28/04/2014

i will be taking some holiday leave from today and i will be back on Monday 28/04/2014.

so if you do post a question i will attempt to check the questions while i am away it just depends if i get signal.

from all the staff at Ark have a safe Happy Easter and enjoy the time with friends and family.

Best Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[austintaco]

First field report: Worked like a charm!

I hooked it up to my Edgestar fridge for a weekend wheeling/camping trip with my brother and friends. I left at 10 AM on Friday with the ARK pak at full charge, running the fridge, but connected to the car via the 12 volt charger. When I arrived at camp, I DQ'd the charger and the fridge ran off the ARK pak from Friday at 4 PM until we drove back around 11 AM sunday.
On Saturday, the ARK was still at 93% charge
On Sunday Morning the ARk was around 77% charge.
I had the fridge at 38 degrees.
I hooked up the 12 volt charger for the ride home and it was 100% charged 5 hours later.

Success!

 

[Brett From Ark]

First field report: Worked like a charm!

I hooked it up to my Edgestar fridge for a weekend wheeling/camping trip with my brother and friends. I left at 10 AM on Friday with the ARK pak at full charge, running the fridge, but connected to the car via the 12 volt charger. When I arrived at camp, I DQ'd the charger and the fridge ran off the ARK pak from Friday at 4 PM until we drove back around 11 AM sunday.
On Saturday, the ARK was still at 93% charge
On Sunday Morning the ARk was around 77% charge.
I had the fridge at 38 degrees.
I hooked up the 12 volt charger for the ride home and it was 100% charged 5 hours later.

Success!

Hi Austintaco

that is great first hand feed back, thanks for putting up so others can see how great the unit and battery have performed.

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

Brett, thanks for taking the time to answer that question!

For what it's worth, I ended up ordering a battery that Interstate Batteries found for me. It's a 31TMXU, I believe made by Johnson Control.

Power
Reserve Capacity @ 25 Amps 210.00
Volts 12.00
Amp hours 130.00 AH
Physical
Width (US) 6.75 in
Length (US) 13.00 in
Height (US) 9.38 in
Weight (US) 67.00 lb
Industry Size GROUP 31
Plates Per Battery 90.00
Hazard Class Non Lithium
Width (Metric) 171.45 mm
Length (Metric) 330.20 mm
Height (Metric) 238.25 mm
Weight (Metric) 30.39 kg
Termination Common Code M

Hi CoastieLFS

thanks for the update on battery selection please give an update on how it goes once installed in the Ark Pak

if you have any questions about it please ask.

regards

Brett from Ark

 

[CoastieLFS]

Hi CoastieLFS

thanks for the update on battery selection please give an update on how it goes once installed in the Ark Pak

if you have any questions about it please ask.

regards

Brett from Ark

Picked up the new battery on Fri & installed it in the ArkPak on the spot so the vendor could see the ArkPak for themselves. No problems dropping it in or closing the top. The voltage showed 12.5 with a 100% charge in a discharge state, but I figured that once I topped it off, the voltage would rise. When connected to the charger back at the house, it still showed 12.5v with a 100% charge in a discharge state. I checked it the next morning & it was the same. Even after completely shutting the ArkPak down & bringing it back up, and re-entering the info as if I had a new battery, it still showed the same.

I started wondering if maybe I had a bad battery. I happen to have a tester that put's a 130amp load on the battery. After connecting & applying a 10 sec load two times, with a minute rest in the middle, the display showed 12.4, 57% charged. Within min's I could see the voltage rising and after a short period it was displaying well above 13v in a charging state. This morning it shows 13.1, 100% charged - and I believe in a maintenance state.

I realize that I may not have needed to do anything but just be more patient, but I'm sharing this in case anyone else has this happen to them.

At the end of the month I'm joining a bunch of other Van campers in Silver Falls State Park, Or where I'll have an opportunity to really run this thing (and demo it to anyone that's interested).

 

[Brett From Ark]

Picked up the new battery on Fri & installed it in the ArkPak on the spot so the vendor could see the ArkPak for themselves. No problems dropping it in or closing the top. The voltage showed 12.5 with a 100% charge in a discharge state, but I figured that once I topped it off, the voltage would rise. When connected to the charger back at the house, it still showed 12.5v with a 100% charge in a discharge state. I checked it the next morning & it was the same. Even after completely shutting the ArkPak down & bringing it back up, and re-entering the info as if I had a new battery, it still showed the same.

I started wondering if maybe I had a bad battery. I happen to have a tester that put's a 130amp load on the battery. After connecting & applying a 10 sec load two times, with a minute rest in the middle, the display showed 12.4, 57% charged. Within min's I could see the voltage rising and after a short period it was displaying well above 13v in a charging state. This morning it shows 13.1, 100% charged - and I believe in a maintenance state.

I realize that I may not have needed to do anything but just be more patient, but I'm sharing this in case anyone else has this happen to them.

At the end of the month I'm joining a bunch of other Van campers in Silver Falls State Park, Or where I'll have an opportunity to really run this thing (and demo it to anyone that's interested).

Hi CostieLFS

thanks for the update, please let us know how things go when you come back from Silver falls state Park

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

UPDATE

Just wanted to advise that the Ark Pak will be at the Overland Expo in Flagstaff Arizona, the link ins listed below

http://www.overlandexpo.com/details/

it starts on the 16/05/2014, this is a good chance to get down and have a look at the Ark Pak and see just how good it is in the flesh.

it will be located at stand 54A part of the Kakadu Camping stand, the person you need to ask for is Matt, he will be more then happy to show you the Ark Pak in action.

i am still trying to twist the bosses arm to let me come over there, hopefully soon.

Regards

Brett from Ark