Single battery setup vs Dual battery setup

[jonyjoe101]

better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.

I have my start battery,
I have my 94 amp hour lithium house battery,
I still have my old house battery kinetik khc2000 agm (102 ah)
I have a fullriver 28ah agm battery (which can replace the start battery in an emergency)
and a small 17 ah agm battery

I keep them all charged up and ready to go in case of an emergency. I never go camping to the middle of nowhere but if I did I would be carrying even more batteries just in case.

I wouldn't rely on the small jump packs, when you need it will probably be dead. Why risk being stranded anywhere with just one battery, nothing is failsafe and batteries do go bad. That's the law of the jungle.

Yes I can save gas by removing some batteries but then I would not have peace of mind.

 

[rruff]

Is there anything wrong in my thinking of this? With a jump pack as a safety net I don't see why this wouldn't be able to be just as good of a setup for lower cost and a more simplified vehicle in general

I'm with you. Go simple. Pay a little attention to your battery and you'll be fine.

Too many people worrying about the .001% chance. This is supposed to be an adventure, dammit! The worst that could happen is that you'll have to hike a ways and flag down some help. The horror.

But odds are good you'll make it through a couple lifetimes without suffering that fate.

 

[BigSwede]

better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.

I have my start battery,
I have my 94 amp hour lithium house battery,
I still have my old house battery kinetik khc2000 agm (102 ah)
I have a fullriver 28ah agm battery (which can replace the start battery in an emergency)
and a small 17 ah agm battery

I keep them all charged up and ready to go in case of an emergency. I never go camping to the middle of nowhere but if I did I would be carrying even more batteries just in case.

I wouldn't rely on the small jump packs, when you need it will probably be dead. Why risk being stranded anywhere with just one battery, nothing is failsafe and batteries do go bad. That's the law of the jungle.

Yes I can save gas by removing some batteries but then I would not have peace of mind.

I'm surprised your rig can get out of the driveway with all the stuff you must be carrying...have you ever weighed it?

 

[LumpyCanuck]

I was battling with this single vs dual dilemma this past week. Right up until this morning, actually. 75% of the time, we pull our travel trailer(house) behind our tacoma, so thats a battery pulling a charge, plus the starting battery is milking the alternator, and to add a house battery on the truck made me a touch skeptical my alternator would hold up. Truck accessories pulling power are minimal right now. Don't plan on a fridge (even tho all the cool kids are doing it), not scared of the dark so no need to be lit like a rock concert, like the quiet so no need to sound like a rock concert. BUT I do plan on running a Synergy MFG shower/pump. So I purchased a Group 27F marine, deep cycle battery. 150 min reserve capacity, 80 AH, and 800CCA, plus fits in the stock tacoma location. I do plan on getting a jump pack, and get in the habit of checking its charge status when we park. Generally in the RTT, we don't stay one place longer than 2-3 days before driving somewhere again, and if the shower pump isn't running constantly, I can't see an issue.

And like it was said a couple posts ago......eliminating risk is smothering adventure.

 

[JCDriller]

I'm going through the same dilemma right now. My electrical needs are pretty simple right now (freezer and some LED lights) but still want to do a dual battery setup for peace of mind. A larger battery will give you more capacity, but doesn't give you redundancy. I have a couple of those lithium jump packs, along with a few standard SLA jump packs, but don't consider them a true backup because while they're able to jump start a depleted battery, in my experience they won't start a car by themselves (fully dead or damaged battery). I'm not sure if a larger capacity battery would help or hurt in those situations where the starting battery is discharged.

What I tried last weekend was a poor mans version of the NL power pack. I charged my SLA jump starter while driving, and while parked, I ran my freezer off it. All I really need is enough power to keep the fridge running overnight without killing my main battery. Didn't work too well, but it could be my jump pack is old too.

Back when I had my JKU I started and drove it in the garage with only a battery tender lithium jump pack. Clipped it right to the battery cables and away I went while the actual battery was sitting on the garage table charging (it was toast).

 

[ducktapeguy]

I've noticed that my newer cars use much less power when starting. I've used the lithium jump packs on my family cars and it has no problem starting them. Multiple times without charging. For that purpose I'm reasonably confident in it working.

But on my older jeeps and land cruiser, even with a partially charged battery that barely cranks on it's own, I may only get one or two tries before the jump pack dies, and this is with similar engine size. The cable wires have gotten really hot and even melted the plastic overload circuit on it. I think the older starters just draw a lot more power during startup, probably 300+ amps, where a newer car may only use half that much. My old SLA jump starters seem to work better in these situations, so my guess is the lithiums don't really put out as much current as they claim. So for that reason I wouldn't fully trust them as a backup, at least not as a 100% replacement for a dual battery setup.

 

[e60ral]

You just have to get a bigger one, the GB150 is designed for 10L+ engines and should start your old land cruiser.

 

[GXWagon]

What about just adding one of these to your setup and have the fridge run off of it while you are parked for the day?

https://www.amazon.ca/RDT-20000mAh-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6TCDT2G6WV9X66TGMANW

 

[e60ral]

What about just adding one of these to your setup and have the fridge run off of it while you are parked for the day?

https://www.amazon.ca/RDT-20000mAh-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6TCDT2G6WV9X66TGMANW

Not enough capacity to be useful

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Scoutn79]

I'm with you. Go simple. Pay a little attention to your battery and you'll be fine.

Too many people worrying about the .001% chance. This is supposed to be an adventure, dammit! The worst that could happen is that you'll have to hike a ways and flag down some help. The horror.

But odds are good you'll make it through a couple lifetimes without suffering that fate.

I've had it happen twice while I was alone. Some places I go the "hike" would be several hours one way just to hope I could flag someone down with a rig that could get to me then a few hours hike back to camp at night if I don't have any luck just to do it again the next day. No thanks. I like adventure just fine, I have gotten stuck, had batteries die and blown engines where I had to hike for hours before I found help. At this point I would just rather be prepared for just about anything.

YMMV

Darrell

 

[rruff]

Some places I go the "hike" would be several hours one way just to hope I could flag someone down with a rig that could get to me then a few hours hike back to camp at night if I don't have any luck just to do it again the next day. No thanks. I like adventure just fine, I have gotten stuck, had batteries die and blown engines where I had to hike for hours before I found help. At this point I would just rather be prepared for just about anything.

Do you carry a complete spare truck with you?

Batteries are easy to monitor and a failure is very unlikely to sneak up on you. Plus an emergency jumper is easy to carry. There are loads of failures that are more likely to leave you stranded.

 

[Scoutn79]

I don't carry a complete truck but since this truck is what I also do a lot of hard trails in it has a lot of spares on it. Like I mentioned before I had a battery separate inside at he end of a rough trail once, I had to hike out and finding someone willing to drive to me to help was an adventure I would rather not do again.

Darrell

 

[Martinjmpr]

What about just adding one of these to your setup and have the fridge run off of it while you are parked for the day?
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https://www.amazon.ca/RDT-20000mAh-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6TCDT2G6WV9X66TGMANW

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Not enough capacity to be useful
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Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

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Yep, this.
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If I'm reading that correctly, 20,000 mAH (why not just say 20 AH? Because 20,000 of anything sounds like a lot? )
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Given that most fridges draw an average of 3 - 5 AH (depending on temperatures and other variables) that pack would be good for, at most, a few hours before it would be dead.
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I know with SLA and AGM batteries the general rule is that you don't want to draw them down below 50% of their capacity or it will dramatically shorten the battery life. Is it like that with Lithium Ion batteries too?
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EDITED TO ADD: I did find this one on the same Amazon Canada page: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01M12A4J6?psc=1
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Specs say 69800 mAH (am I reading that right? 70 AH?) You know, for $80 I might just be willing to take a chance on that just to see if it works. I'm skeptical, but it would be interesting to see. A 70ah battery has more capacity than the starter battery on my Suburban (55AH.) In theory, at least, a 70AH battery should keep a fridge running at ~ 4ah average draw for 8 hours and still only be at 50% capacity. That could be a contender, anyone want to try it?
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Of course, the other question would be how long does it take to recharge to 100% while plugged into a typical 12v outlet.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Here's the US Amazon link. Around $65.00:
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https://www.amazon.com/Starter-Curr...-1-fkmr0&keywords=lithium+jump+pack+69800+mah
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Hmmm...this one's got my brain buzzing. It's almost too good to be true. 70 AH in that small package? How is that possible? And for that price?
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You know, I have probably $500 invested in my dual battery system (though to be fair almost $300 of that is just the battery.) Of course, I wasn't trying to save money, it was more of a hobby thing for me - I wanted to see if I could do it.
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But I have to admit that if I'd known about this at the time I might have gone a different route. For the person on a budget, the person who doesn't have the skills, the work space or - most critically - the TIME necessary to do a dual battery project this could be a viable option.
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And given the trends in the electronics world, I can only imagine that capacities will continue to go up and prices will continue to go down. Just for reference, for the price of my ONE additional battery I could have bought 4 of these Lithium jump packs and still gotten change back!

 

[e60ral]

I don't think I'd trust using a cheap lithium battery in my vehicle, and I would also be skeptical of battery specs for random chinese electronics