Power upgrades for heavy winching?

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Wouldn't it be easier to use ice in a cooler than all this mess with electric ??
Or is this one of those things that once you have an electric fridg you can't go back ??

Is there a prize for 888 ??
 
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I installed a small electric refrigerator in a firetruck about ten years ago . That was one of the best upgrades ever done to a firetruck , no more filling coolers with ice every morning . I would just check the inventory each shift , we always had plenty of cold water and Gatorade :) .

Same goes for the Jeep . We used those plastic ice packs for years while trail riding . Now with the little refrigerator we don't have to worry about refreezing them or using ice . The only reason for upgrading the battery is for overnight camping . We'll be driving most of the day and the battery will recharge . I will probably put it on a charger at home from time to time to top it off to the higher voltage .
 
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Battery at rest is 12.58.

Resistor is 14.14 k at 77 degrees.

Voltage running is 14.03v.

My original white 97 tub...I didn't move over the sensor...is 12.5 k. (No battery sitting on top of it )

View attachment 546624

-Mac

63 degrees this morning.

Battery at rest 12.55.

Temperature sensor at 13.64 k.

Old 97 tub at 15.7 k.

Charging at 13.99, .98 within the margin of error of 14v.

This is at idle.

At 2k rpm 14.03. Do love this new alternator. Pretty sure it's warmed up.

So it would appear my 97 PCM is not adjusting voltage based on resistance charges from the temperature sensor...or the resistance values from my temperature sensor are out of range of the values the PCM is programmed to interpret.

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-Mac
 
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Care to share what brand you went with?

I'm strongly considering dumping my Odyssey.

You do a group 34 or stuff a 65 in there?

-Mac

Just considering dumping it.

Pretty convinced the TJ PCM voltage regulator isn't set up to charge a modern deep cycle AGM battery.

After a day of driving the battery voltage was 12.3 - 12.4 volts according to our cheap Amazon F40C4TMP fridge. As soon as the compressor would cycle up the battery voltage (according to the fridge) would drop to 11.7 v and the battery protection mode would kick in and shut off the fridge.

Fridge allegedly draws 4 amps in full tilt bingo mode and 1 kilowatt per day.

So ...I either have a battery problem, a charging problem or a fridge problem or all of the above.

I could get a dual battery tray and double down on Odyssey...maybe a red top for the primary battery with a DC to DC converter/charger to the existing Yellow. Move my USB and power ports to the Yellow. Also considering a small lead acid race battery for the primary.

Thinking the PCM voltage regulator might be programmable... but really lothe to mess with the PCM.

I could ditch the Amazon fridge but spending a grand on an ARB would really hurt the wallet. That and the Amazon fridge size is pretty perfect and even the small ARB is bigger.

Also thinking of something like a Jackery battery box to run the fridge. Would be nice because we could augment power with solar for non driving days.

-Mac


Having had the Gladiator I've found Full River batteries. Chatted with their electrical engineer a few times and their build quality seems to be pretty darn good. Hoping to pick up 2 Full Throttle series for the TJ and LJ here before winter. But as a few others touched on it is important to keep in mind different battery manufacturers do have different charge voltage's. It probably doesn't matter a lot for the most part, but it could... For example the FT series for the main battery of the Gladiator had a bulk charge voltage preference of 14.3 with a range up to 14.7. But the DC series (which I had 2 in the bed) really want to have 14.7. So I adjusted the Victron components to account for that for optimum life. The other cool thing I like about FR is they designed their batteries to be ok with a 70% DOD. It still reduces your lifecycle but it's not as significant as I think other standard batteries would be. Most of the standard over the counter AGM's are really only ok to 50% DOD/SOC from my understanding. I cant' speak to what others may be but it's worth looking into those details. Granted these TJ's dont' have 'smart' systems like the modern vehicles. But I'm really curious to see how your temp sensor test works out and it makes me want to see if either the TJ or LJ has one.... I seem to recall the TJ might.

As for the other stuff. Have you considered a secondary aux battery? It can serve as either just a self jump-start backup, powering things like a fridge as well... Depending on how you wire it you could use a switched battery combiner (can handle more amps than a standard solenoid usually) for those long hard pulls if needed - of course running 2 ga to wherever that aux would be warranted. That's my plan anyway.... To somewhat mimic a smaller version of what I had in the Gladiator in both the TJ and LJ since I have the parts in the basement anyway. But this would allow you to not worry about running the main battery down. I know everyone wants to push the lithium train, and it's cool for some situations, but with a secondary AGM you can directly connect it to the rest of your system without causing a nice campfire. Or you could even just have a couple 150ah DC series batteries in the back that power the winch and hook up up to 4 DC/DC chargers, that way you never compromise your main vehicle battery and can still get home.

Another consideration for testing your system is why not hook up a shunt. Victron makes a 500, 1000 and even 2000 amp shunt! Not too expensive considering what you get out of it and it will really show you some details that might help find a problem or just optimize your battery usage. It's a thought anyway.

Here's what I had in the Gladiator. A similar version would be pretty slick for anyone running a bunch of camping accessories. I had a lot going on with the JT and could self sustain indefinitely without the 'need' of a shore charger/maintainer. I think something similar could work for your application.

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