National Luna help?

[Conundrum]

Here's the backstory...

My buddy bought a fully awesome LX450 from another expo member here Oct. 2011 so we went to SLC to pick it up. Jan. 1, 2012 he was diagnosed with leukemia and battled that for the last 11 months and passed 11/28. During his trips back and forth to Seattle for a marrow transplant, chemo in Boise, and everything that goes along with that, the LX450 sat. The batteries were never disconnected during this time. His wife (awesome lady) decided to keep it to use. I also have one so she's going to take trips with all of us.

Here's the rub...the batteries have a drain somewhere or mayber another issue. It has a National Luna setup but the batteries won't hold a charge. I've had both batteries (I believe the good platinum units from sears) checked and they are good. The alternator charges them when I drive it. There are PIAAs, a CB, Warn winch, and an after market stereo connected to the drive battery but my understanding is that it was never an issue before it started sitting for a long time. It won't hold a charge more than 24 hours. I disconnected the second battery and setup and the drive battery seems to hold a charge longer. When the house has a charge and the drive doesn't, I hit both buttons on the controllers to jump and it blows the 50A fuse on the passenter fender. I'm not much of an electrical guy and the local 4x4 shop will charge too much for average work.

I went to call National Luna today and realized they are in a different country.

Anything I should try next? I could post pictures of the setup if that helps. His is on the left in this picture which was taken a few weeks before he went into the hospital.

 

[mph]

My guess being a slc truck, that kurt from cruiser outfitters knows the truck...I would give him a shout. Great guy and he sells national Luna stuff too.


Sorry for your loss! Can't imagine....

 

[Conundrum]

Thanks. I think Kurt did most of the work on it. I know that my buddy has a book of receipts passed on from the PO but we haven't started digging through his things yet. I'll check with Kurt today.

 

[Martyn]

Paul May from Equipt1 is the importer of National Luna products into the USA. Visit his website at www.equipt1.com and get his number from the contact page. He will be able to give you advice on the NL system.

 

[Sawyer]

^^ both great recommendations above. If you like to DIY things, I would start by disconnecting all aftermarket items (NL System, PIAAs, a CB, Warn winch, and an after market stereo). Then see how the battery operates. If seems to be back to normal, then slowly add one item at a time until you start having the issue again. Then that item is most likely the cause of the drain. Here is the link to the NL system Manual: LINK There is a wiring diagram in there you can use to verify if things look installed correctly.

Once all these things are figured out, I would recommend replacing the NL fuses with resettable circuit breakers at the same rating. Paul May keeps a good stock of the fuses for us. But, unless you carry spares, you will be SOL in the back country. If something blows with the circuit breaker, it can just be reset. I went with the Cooper Buseman 50 & 100 units.

Good luck!

 

[nuclearlemon]

good luck chasing your issues. i'm in a bit of the same boat. rig was fine before it sat for seven months, now in less than a week both batteries are dead. i had fixed a parasitic draw before hand and the draw was under .50 and testing today confirms it still is.

are the batteries agms? mine are, i'm hoping that conditioning them will eliminate my issues. they are blue tops, main is 4 years old and second is 2 years old. tested them at work and they are both fine. main is down to 550 ccas (from 750), but that's about normal for the age. i've done a little conditioning over the last few weeks, this weekend will be the test of how much they draw down over a two day period.

look into lots of trickle charges on the batteries to build them up (as much as you can), also test for draws. (200m setting on a meter between the negative post and the cable). i did it first with both batteries seperate, then with the second hooked up to ensure the solenoid was still seperating them. also, i've found the little led display to be way off. it will show the batteries at 11.6v when they are actually at 12.34/12.38.

 

[Driver-Navigator]

Oh man, sorry to hear about your buddy, but it's nice that his wife is keeping it... One issue to check with the aftermarket batteries is to make sure the battery cable ends aren't grounding on the steel bars that hold down the batteries. I had that problem with my 80-series and the Sears Platinum battery that was in it when I bought it.

Good luck getting the issue diagnosed & fixed.

 

[Moody]

It was my old cruiser. Sad to hear that. I knew he was really excited about the cruiser and I was super happy to have it go to him. If you do a search for dual battery system in 80 series there are photos of the install. If I can help with anything let me know.

 

[Conundrum]

Thanks guys. I'm going to dig in over the holidays. I've been trickle charging for a couple weeks on and off.

 

[2025 deleted member]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

 

[Conundrum]

I believe my frustration has come to end and a big "F" to Les Schwab. The reason I started this project was that a month ago, I took the LX to the local Les Schwab to make sure the batteries were good. They were about three years old so maybe or maybe not but worth checking. They told me they were good after testing so I posted here. I took a voltmeter to anything that might be a drain. I looked at every fuse. I disconnect and reconnected everything to see where I was loosing juice. I finally punted and call my local Toyota mechanic (LTS in Boise is really good). No appointments so I thought one more try. I took them to Sears because they were still under warranty. Sears checked them and they were both bad. They gave me two new platinum diehards which are holding a charge fine now.

Long story short...I've wasted about 10 hours of driving back and forth to my buddy's house, working on his truck, etc because Les Schwab said the batteries were good and it has to be a short somewhere. Sears took 10 minutes to diagnose and fix for free the problem. They did want $30 to change the batteries out so I did that in the parking lot to save some money.