[Snorky]

My Rubicon came standard with a 500 amp battery. I am wondering if this is sufficient. Opinions seem to vary, but it seems that 500 amp is considered the minimum. Figured I would pose the question on the board. I have been told about dual battery systems and installing a more power battery (800amps). Both seem reasonable but I am wondering if either is worth the investment. Does a day on the trails and several uses of the winch really put that much of a dent in a 500 amp battery. Assuming a slow pace and several uses of the winch would the battery have enough time to recover?

Any comments are appreciated.

Dan

[Rollbar]

I learned alot after going to the Milemarker website & getting my FREE CD on their winches.

They test their winch & others, both electric & hyd.

I highly recomend getting your FREE Cd to educate your self b-4 you buy.

RollBar


P.S. 500amp won't last long.

You may want to up grade your alt also, but that is another story.

[bigugly78CJ5]

humm i dont know much on the winch power draw but i know car audio systems do it constantly and my old wrangler...my jeep had about 1600 true watts of power from my amps and it ate batterys left and right and dimmed the hell outta the jeep lights, what i did...i went to miami auto electric and had them re spool(i think was how he described it) butbasicly rebuild my stock YJ alternator to a 180 amp one...and also went to auto zone and bought there biggest, which was a duralast gold 900cca and 1000 CAs....the rebuild cost me about 170 and the battery was 70 and with a 8 year warrenty....the battery eventually died on my next car which also had a system in it, 2 years and some months later, but autozone gave me a new one cause of the warrenty.....but the alt/batt upgrade to the YJ solved all of my power issues....

anthony

[Jim B]

Snorky,

What I would do (notice I say I), is use my stock battery until I kill it. Why throw that money away.

On my 97 TJ, I think stock alternator is around 117amp, switched out to 120 when I put the welder in only because it was part of the package. The new models of the welder I have now use your stock alternator. I have a QuickAirIII which draws 50amps, Arb Compressor 30amps, and Warn 9500 electric winch. I do not have dual batteries. After I killed my stock battery back in 1997 I purchased an Optima Yellow Top. I placed this battery in service late 1997 and I still have it under the hood.

The trick here is to get a dependable deep cycle, preferably a sealed battery so when you get caught in an off camper, long climb situation, you don't start to run battery acid all over inside the hood. There are other batteries beside the Optima that other Jeepers have been using within similar specs, I've had such good luck with mine that I will not look at anything else when it comes time for replacement.

I've used my winch plenty to pull others and myself, use both of my air compressors all the time and been fortunate enough not to have to use the welder on myself but have welded others plenty. Will I ever install a dual battery setup? Can never say never but as of now my future plans is just to replace the Yellow Top with another when it goes. :strong:

[Stu Olson]

Snorky,

While the below write-up does comment on an Optima battery, I believe there is much in it that is applicable to your question about using a dual battery setup or a BIG single battery.

http://www.stu-offro...isc/battery.htm

[John]

Read Stu's EXCELLENT (as usual) writeup. Only comments I would add are now they have a BLUE TOP battery. Supposedly its for Marine however its a Deep Cycle and I am told same as Yellow Top. Advantage is its got two EXTRA connections ON TOP of the battery where if I had it I would hook my winch to. Also, there are some people who swear by the Odessa battery, I am not personally familiar with it though. Here in Fla. I think only one of those two is the way to go. As to dual batteries, with an isolator they are nice (had them on my boat) but batteries are heavy and take up space under the hood. I wouldnt advise going that route unless you find you need to. john
ps: I have yellow top Optimas on both our jeeps. One is about 4 years old now and going strong, newer one on my TJ is about 2 years old. Never have had a problem with either.

[Superman]

The other thing to really consider is your alternator. Using one nice battery will probably not hurt a stock alternator......unless you just have tremendous loads put on it all the time.
BUT you put in 2 nice (and large) batteries and that same stock alternator will have to charge both of them up........if you drain one under winching loads (or what have you) the alternator can and will charge it back up without too much trouble..BUT if you kill them both...then you might run into trouble.

Here's why...and yes flame me because in highschool I had a 'honda' and I had the 'boom boom' stereo..I did not see the light until I was about 22.
Had the Honda and the stereo system. Was starting to pop inline fuses for my largest amplifier. So being ignorant I kept putting in larger fuses...until finally I smoked the amp's internal power supply.
Had my electrical system checked and sure enough I was not getting enough amperage or voltage to that amp. I had an 1100 CA battery and the amp(s) was discharging it and the stock alternator could not keep up....so to make the point......make sure the rest of your electrical system is up to the task of 2 batteries if you indeed use 2 batteries.
So you could start losing accesroies if your alternator can;t recharge both batteries and keep up with the amperage/voltage demands of your rig.

BUT I am with everyone else thus far and say kill the stock battery and then yellow optima (or equivalent).

[Jim B]

Superman, on Aug 1 2003, 08:51 AM, said:

Here's why...and yes flame me because in highschool I had a 'honda' and I had the 'boom boom' stereo..I did not see the light until I was about 22.
Had the Honda and the stereo system.  Was starting to pop inline fuses for my largest amplifier.  So being ignorant I kept putting in larger fuses...until finally I smoked the amp's internal power supply.

Superman,

No flames here, but thank you for the morning entertainment. :lroll: :lroll:

Don't feel bad, it also took me a few years to realize it myself.

[Hellbender]

There are many situations where 2 batteries, with a manual disconnect between them, are nice also.

I use my Jeep for camping a lot with my 2 boys, many times we will use it for 2-3 days at base camp running stereo, airing up stuff, etc. etc. on the main Battery, when my boys forget and leave something on for a day or 2..................

I just flip the switch and we can still start :jump:

We are usually alone and at least 20 miles form the nearest help.

I have also left my Jeep at the airport and come back to a dead battery....I just flip the switch and away I go.

It also halves the winching load on each battery, or doubles the time, or both, at MY option.

If my Jeep is running? No problem, both batts together, half the load on everything.

Jeep drowned out in the middle of the river? disco one batt, pull it till it's dead, and still have a full battery to restart the rig.

My situation is probably different from yours, as 90% of my wheeling is by myself, and I have to be totally self-sufficient. If I always wheeled with others, I would be completely fine with a good single battery and a good set of jumper cables.

Just some thoughts,
HB

[Superman]

Thanks Jim ......I guess my old honda wasn;r really a ricer as other than the stereo it was stock completely......and the best thing about it was when I sold it I had enough to buy my first jeep:)

sorry for being offtopic