I have a 2007 LR3. 4.4 V8 with a second battery and aTraxside SC-80R second battery kit installed and working fine. Solved a lot of dash light and electrical problems for over a year now.Job change has me driving less than 20 minutes each way and I am not sure the batteries are getting a full charge during the weekly commute. I have been putting a charger on the aux battery on weekend nights, but now want to place a small charger in the aux battery box and an exrenal plug to make connections easier.

What size/brand of charger would you recommend. i know enough to select one that is smart enough to not overcharge it, but would a small trickle charger work, or a 2-4 amp marine type charger work better?

Should I just charge the aux battery or get a 2 bank charger and charge both batteries?

Jeff

 

I believe batteries are tied together w/the Traxide system until the primary falls below a certain voltage, so both batteries should charge with one charger hooked up to one battery. I have a CTEK charger and love it. They have all different sizes depending on what you want.

 

Oh, and BTW, you do not need to place the charger in the aux battery box. What I did on my other car is to use one of their ring terminal adapter cables (eyelet cable) which comes with some of the chargers. I hooked it up permanently to the battery and then purchased one of their extension cables, which I ran to the grille. Then, I could just plug the charger into the pigtail sticking out of the grille every time I parked. No need to pop the hood or anything.

 

As always, I am deep into the problem and forget that you guys have not been involved in the whole planning process with me before I ask specific questions.

Yes, the batteries are tied together. As i understand it, when the ignition is on power flows from the alternator to the main battery and the aux battery. When the ignition is off power flows from the aux battery to the main battery to keep it at a higher stae of charge (simple description with some exception in the opertion).

I plan to attach the battery charger directly to the aux battery and keep it under the hood. If it was small enough, I would put it in the box with the aux battery, if not, there is plentAsof room right behind the coolant resevior.

I do not want to raise the hood to plug it in and I do not want the cord and plug hanging out, so I was tinking of using one of those rv/marine 115 volt connectors with a weather proof cover so all I would need to do is plug the cord into the outlet.

My real question is shouldnI just charge the aux battery or buy a 2 port battery charger and charge them both?

 

I think you're right on the Traxide isolation.

However, I just don't think it's a particularly good idea to put the actual charger under the hood. That charger can get pretty hot outside in ambient air temperatures. If you tried to use it when temperatures under the hood were like @180 degrees, it might spell disaster pretty quickly. And the LR3 engine takes a looooooong time to cool down.

To each his own, but I think it makes a lot more sense to just hook the wire up to a port that faces the outside and then mount the charger somewhere in the garage and hook it up to that port every time you stop. You could use any port you want... for example, a 4 wire trailer harness or something. Or a winch hookup... or whatever floats your boat that has 3 or more pins if you want it permanently mounted. I don't know if trying to charge two different batteries with a common ground would have any negative effects. I'm not enough of an electronics whiz to give an intelligent answer there, but I've always done one battery at a time.

 

The link below is to my Traxide dual battery install plus also details the permanent hookup of wiring to charge each battery separately using a single CTEK US3300 battery retainer.

I regard the 3300 as the correct size "charger" as its maximum charge rate is 3.3 amps @ 14.4 volts which regardless of what go wrong, will never boil a battery. By going wrong, I mean the battery internally shorting sometime during the night and that can be not good with a larger charger connected.

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - Traxide Dual Battery install in LHDrive

When I do decide to power the CTEK, (maybe once every three months), it will take a minimum of a week of evenings to bring say the starting battery back up to near a 100% state of charge and another week for the second battery. This I regard as normal and proper - slow is good for this kind of thing - bringing a battery back to a near 100% state of charge.

I recently replaced my previous Interstate starting battery with a new Interstate - I got seven and a half years out of the previous one so I think the system works.

The CTEK files are at the bottom of the above link - it contains lots of good stuff - at least I think so.

 

Or.... buy a 100 month warranty battery from Costco and swap out as needed for free...

 

You are saying that you can get an eight year warranty Euro sized H7 or H8 from Costco and that on month 99 they will install a brand new one at a not prorated cost - in other words, for free?

I must say, that would be a good deal. Free is definitely good.

The battery is I presume the CaCa type construction similar to Interstate and what the 3's electrical system likes to see?

 

Never took one back that old but the last two I did were 3-4 years old and I just walked up to the return counter (may have been tire center) and gave them the old one and swapped it for a new one. Unless the staff at my local store aren't on the ball, I assume it's the same everywhere.