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Noob Vehicle 12v electrical: best way to run a second battery?

larboc said:
I think you (and possibly lots of audiophiles) are incorrectly associating OD of a stranded conductor with "amount of copper". Gauge=copper amount. Area measured by mm^2 gets you a little more accurate way to compare vs. rounding to the nearest AWG, but AWG is close enough and mm^2 is going to traditionally vary by less than 0.5% for a given standard AWG size anyway.

What you are probably getting confused by is that finer stranding results in a larger OD conductor, but it doesn't get you any more copper, just more air and insulation.
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I can't speak for anyone else but no, I'm not confusing it. Grab some 14 gauge off the shelf at vatozone and then some stinger, Rockford fosgate etc 14 gauge speaker wire and you'll find a drastic difference in the OD of the copper contained within. I don't know or care who's lying to the public about gauges but good quality audio cable is always larger copper than off the shelf automotive shit.
 
DWT said:
I can't speak for anyone else but no, I'm not confusing it. Grab some 14 gauge off the shelf at vatozone and then some stinger, Rockford fosgate etc 14 gauge speaker wire and you'll find a drastic difference in the OD of the copper contained within. I don't know or care who's lying to the public about gauges but good quality audio cable is always larger copper than off the shelf automotive shit.
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And squirting isn't just piss.
 
larboc said:
And squirting isn't just piss.
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that70s-show-oh-is-that-what-were-gonna-do-today.gif
 
Harry Johnson said:
Anyone know if that's still an issue with an isolator in between? I'd prefer to get some sort of regular ol deep cycle marine lead acid battery so I don't feel bad about running it completely dead. What say the peanut gallery?
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I have 2 trucks with 3 batteries , 1 truck with 2 batteries, I don't have matching batteries in any of them, if 1 gets weak I replace it, I have isolators on a couple of the batteries. I get the big 60 and 80 Amp fuses at u pull its dirt cheap and run them instead of fancy circuit breakers. And I still like having a jumpstart pack.
 
Filthy McChevy said:
I have 2 trucks with 3 batteries , 1 truck with 2 batteries, I don't have matching batteries in any of them, if 1 gets weak I replace it, I have isolators on a couple of the batteries. I get the big 60 and 80 Amp fuses at u pull its dirt cheap and run them instead of fancy circuit breakers. And I still like having a jumpstart pack.
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I always pack a jumpstart. My main problem with just running batteries down is I bought an optima, and if you run them too low, they never come back. What I really want is something I can walk away from and not think about for a few hours with the rock lights on and the fridge running without stressing. Gonna go the lead acid deep cycle route and just get whichever one has the longest replacement warranty.
 

all the battery management shit is in the battery. Charging, discharging, temp protection. You'll also get a much larger actual capacity. It won't charge as fast.
easy button for I want to walk away from it. Find the hot chinese brand that the internet says doesn't suck and buy that one. link for illustration purposes only.
 
Harry Johnson said:
I always pack a jumpstart. My main problem with just running batteries down is I bought an optima, and if you run them too low, they never come back. What I really want is something I can walk away from and not think about for a few hours with the rock lights on and the fridge running without stressing. Gonna go the lead acid deep cycle route and just get whichever one has the longest replacement warranty.
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Should be fine. You could always have a quick releases for the + cable to the second battery too to unplug it from the charging/starting circuit(s).
 
87manche said:

all the battery management shit is in the battery. Charging, discharging, temp protection. You'll also get a much larger actual capacity. It won't charge as fast.
easy button for I want to walk away from it. Find the hot chinese brand that the internet says doesn't suck and buy that one. link for illustration purposes only.
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Oh interesting. I always thought for some reason that lithium batteries needed special controllers and stuff to run them. Maybe I'm thinking 6v RV stuff or something?
 
Harry Johnson said:
Oh interesting. I always thought for some reason that lithium batteries needed special controllers and stuff to run them. Maybe I'm thinking 6v RV stuff or something?
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they do.
just now they're packaging that stuff inside battery cases so you can just handle them like a regular battery.

cut it open and there's 4 life cells and a circuit board in there.
this guy is mildly annoying, but has the rig to accurately measure capacity and makes sure that the circuit boards do what they say they do.

edit:
I wouldn't use it for jump starting, but if you carry a jump box you're not going to beat lithium for running your accessories a long ass time for the minimum amount of weight.
 
87manche said:
they do.
just now they're packaging that stuff inside battery cases so you can just handle them like a regular battery.

cut it open and there's 4 life cells and a circuit board in there.
this guy is mildly annoying, but has the rig to accurately measure capacity and makes sure that the circuit boards do what they say they do.
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Shit, I might go lithium on the house batteries in my RV as well then. Pretty cool!
 
Harry Johnson said:
I always pack a jumpstart. My main problem with just running batteries down is I bought an optima, and if you run them too low, they never come back. What I really want is something I can walk away from and not think about for a few hours with the rock lights on and the fridge running without stressing. Gonna go the lead acid deep cycle route and just get whichever one has the longest replacement warranty.
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Good luck. I've had better luck getting the longest warranty regular battery I can find and just using them like a deep cycle. I've never seen a very long warranty period on a deep cycle. Longest I think I've seen is 1 year.
 
Optima yellow top # 27 is/was 2 years.

www.batterypete.com

Optima Batteries Warranty Guide - Battery Pete

Optima Batteries Warranty Guide
www.batterypete.com www.batterypete.com

larboc said:
Good luck. I've had better luck getting the longest warranty regular battery I can find and just using them like a deep cycle. I've never seen a very long warranty period on a deep cycle. Longest I think I've seen is 1 year.
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