charging deep cycle battery

captwoody

Adventurer
I have an Indel B fridge and I am going to buy a deep cycle battery to power it and eventually a solar panel. But can I recharge battery with jumper cables and my car running to extend run time. I was thinking idling 10 minutes in morning before day trips trying to get 3 days out of battery. would this help or harm?
 

jeep-N-montero

Expedition Leader
It would do more harm than good, deep cycle batteries require more than just a quickie in the morning to keep going. Why not simply save up and buy everything to do it right? And I would run it off the alternator as well as a solar panel through a controller/solenoid, all of the details can be found in this section via a search.
 

4x4junkie

Explorer
I don't see hooking up a set of jumper cables in & of itself actually causing harm, however no doubt it certainly would do virtually no good either. Jumper cables are much too small wire gauge (you often need like 1/0 to effectively charge a remote-mounted battery), and their temporary connections introduce way too much resistance into the circuit. You will also need to run the engine for much more than 10 minutes too (more like a half-hour to restore a battery from 50%-charged to maybe 70%). What's more likely to happen is the battery can become sulfated and lose it's capacity if it's not fully brought up to a 100% charge with some regularity.

If you're planning to have the deep cycle battery as a separate unit, this thread shows a good inexpensive setup to charge it via your alternator:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...ke-a-cheap-isolated-dual-battery-setup-for-50
 

captwoody

Adventurer
Thanks for all the replies, so guess I will go solar panel battery route because my ARB air compressor is taking up the only spot under hood where a battery would fit on my 2000 tracker . May look later to put an AGM in rear cargo area and use 4x4 junkies diagram and parts list to keep it charged. question is
10 ft to long of a run for this to work
 

Ducky's Dad

Explorer
Thanks, does that mean use jumper cables for the run from the solenoid to the rear cargo area?
Are you still thinking about using jumper cables with spring clamps to charge the house battery? Not advisable, wastes a lot of time and you can only charge at idle which is not very efficient. If you are talking about hard wiring the charge cables, then you might just cut the clamps off a set of GOOD jumper cables and fit terminals to it. Size/type of battery and size of the cable are important factors, but I'm guessing a 2000 Tracker doesn't put out much amperage even at max output. Check your your alternator max output, figure your actual cable length, look at an amperage table to determine cable requirements, and then make your cable one size bigger than the table shows. Or, just get a set of tow truck jumpers from WalMart or Amazon and use those, cut to length. You can also buy a length of welding cable off CraigsList. Make sure whatever you buy is pure copper rather than an aluminum core.
 

captwoody

Adventurer
I was doing to use terminal connectors crimped onto jumper cables,or cut clamps off with a stub I could pound flat and drill hole to make connector
 

Ducky's Dad

Explorer
or cut clamps off with a stub I could pound flat and drill hole to make connector
That might work but you are limited to whatever length the cables are. Your ground cable can be really short, just long enough to reach from the battery neg terminal to a clean bolt on the frame. Smarter to just buy some big copper ring terminals at the electronics store. You can buy a terminal crimper or solder them or just a pay a mechanic or auto electric shop to terminate the cables to whatever length you need.
 

Joe917

Explorer
NEVER SOLDER cable terminals. They should be crimped only. solder hardens the wire. Solder alone can fail under heavy electrical load. Solder should be used on small wires (18 and smaller) only.
 

Ducky's Dad

Explorer
NEVER SOLDER cable terminals. They should be crimped only. solder hardens the wire. Solder alone can fail under heavy electrical load. Solder should be used on small wires (18 and smaller) only.
There are lots of opinions on that issue, including the one that says you should never solder small ga wire. Success depends on how and where you do it. I prefer solder with a secure mounting scheme and strain relief at the terminal to minimize flex.
 

verdesardog

Explorer
NEVER SOLDER cable terminals. They should be crimped only. solder hardens the wire. Solder alone can fail under heavy electrical load. Solder should be used on small wires (18 and smaller) only.

You don't know what you're talking about, solder has it's uses and is perfectly fine for many uses including large heavy current connectors. Solder does not harden the wire, it's the solder that wicks down the conductors due to sloppy, wrong technique that makes that part of the wire stiff and prone to stress fractures. All connections should be properly secured so as to not flex anyway...

I have soldered 2-0 aircraft wiring connectors according to engineering specs. Soldered joints can have a much lower resistance than crimped ones..we're talking milli/micro ohms here. Which is important in low voltage-high current applications.
 

IdaSHO

IDACAMPER
All connections should be properly secured so as to not flex anyway...

Thats the most important part, especially with large cable like battery cables.

No matter how you make the connection there will be stress points, so minimizing any movement at those locations is important.


As for battery cables, I always use welding cable and large copper lugs.

Lugs are filled 50% with molten solder, then wire is inserted.
Once cooled, the connection is then crimped.
Then adhesive heat shrink is used to seal the joint from moisture intrusion.
 

4x4junkie

Explorer
NEVER SOLDER cable terminals. They should be crimped only. solder hardens the wire. Solder alone can fail under heavy electrical load. Solder should be used on small wires (18 and smaller) only.

You should tell that to the lugs I've had soldered onto my 2/0 battery cable for the last 9 years (on a rig that gets driven over 1000 of miles of washboard roads every year too).

As been said, it's about proper soldering technique. I've had numerous crimped connections in a whole range of sizes fail in more ways than one (both factory-crimped ones as well as ones I've crimped myself) where I've never had a soldered connection (or a crimped connection that I subsequently soldered) fail that I can recall. Reason you see mostly crimped connectors in manufactured goods is because they are so much quicker to assemble than soldered connections are.


As for battery cables, I always use welding cable and large copper lugs.

Lugs are filled 50% with molten solder, then wire is inserted.
Once cooled, the connection is then crimped.
Then adhesive heat shrink is used to seal the joint from moisture intrusion.

If you're going to crimp AND solder, you really should do the crimp first, then solder it. ;)
 

LeishaShannon

Adventurer
I'm confused, why would you crimp then solder or solder then crimp ?
Solder then crimp you couldn't you physically move/break apart the solder when you crimp?
Crimp then solder the thermal shock and different rates of expansion could weaken the crimp?

Seems like you're getting the worst of both options ?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,544
Messages
2,875,703
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top