Engel Battery Box

[rafa]

Has any one bought the new Engel Battery box/Charger? If you have what's it like?

I'm tossing up fitting a third a battery in back gas box on ex Telstra pod. Or buying one of these.

http://www.engelaustralia.com.au/products_details.asp?productid=21563


Cheers

Marty

[BigRAWesty]

Looks like a Engel rip off of the ARC box..
Great concept if you will to be removing the battery all the time for external power, a bit overkill if your mounting it permanently..

Kallen Westbrook
Owner of
Westy's Accessories (http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/showthread.php?15134-Westy-s-Accessories.-A-small-back-yard-builder.)

[threedogs]

Way too much money you could make your own battery box much cheaper.

[Cuppa]

If by the 'gas box' you mean the one under the tray just behind the passenger door, I would be cautious. The weight of a battery in there without some reinforcement to the mounting of the box is likely to cause problems on rough/corrugated roads.
Problem is that the box is only held by four bolts which screw into threads tapped into the aluminium beam under the 'tray' (& one into the steel mudguard), & it doesn't take a heck of a lot for those threads to strip out. Telstra only carried a small gas bottle in there. I carry a larger 3kg one in there & found that even this caused threads to strip. I have since added a fair bit of reinforcement to hold the box securely, by adding bolts & a plate at the top front, additional bolts through the steel mudguard, & several bolts & plates which go right up through the floor of the pod. Even so I wouldn't want to carry the weight of an auxillary battery in there. I have 3 aux batteries, carried centrally right at the front of the pod. Would have been nice to get that weight lower down, but not at the risk of seeing them bounce along a track somewhere.

Cuppa

[threedogs]

@ Cuppa I think he wants to run a third battery where the original Gas box was.

Surely you could fit a 3rd battery under the tray somewhere,
You'll need minimum 100amp Alternator to run a triple battery set up.
The worlds your oyster with these utes acres of space everywhere

@ RAFA tell us your exact needs and between everyone there should be a solution to suit you

[GU CAMPER]

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/images/imported/2013/07/106.jpg

This is where I have my third battery. Has held in there well for the last few years


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cuppa]

@ Cuppa I think he wants to run a third battery where the original Gas box was.

Surely you could fit a 3rd battery under the tray somewhere,


If doing as GU Camper has done it does make life easier. If wanting the battery where the gas box is, but mounted like GU's with the gas box removed - no problemo. But if the gas box is retained, then extra mounting for the box (which isn't a lightweight itself) is needed & the difficulty becomes access with the box in position so, hence my need to bolt through the floor of the pod. I used the space where GU has his battery to carry a spare gas bottle.

I can't recall what output my alternator has, possibly it is a 100amp one, if different to standard it's whatever Telstra specified. Whatever it is it charges my 4 battery set up (crank + 3 x 120ah) using a dc to dc 40amp smart charger just fine. I think that a higher amperage into the batteries would be useful if they had been heavily discharged (over discharged) & needed to get a bulk charge back into them as quickly as possible to bring them back up to the 70% or 80% . Routinely doing this would probably not be good for the batteries or the alternator. In my set up, I do however have the option of switching to direct alternator charging if circumstances warrant it, but would try to restrict such use to 20 or 30 minutes at a time to prevent the alternator from overheating. This is one of the problems experienced by some people with the new LiFePo4 batteries which will accept as much as the alternator can provide, right up until they are full. Some folks found that their alternators were karking it prematurely. A 100amp alternator may be capable of generating 100amps, but it won't like doing so for long periods. However how long it runs at full capacity depends upon the overall size of the battery bank it is charging & how depleted they are. Something to be mindful of.

Cuppa

[threedogs]

If you just want a battery box that you can move around camp and
charge via a 50 amp Anderson when on the move, check the battery
box from BCF on the thread I started. It's all I use, well similar works great too

[rafa]

@cuppa. Good advice. Re the weight. Taken note for sure.

Ill also check the bcf link.

I'm paying cash as I go so whilst a tax deduction for me I still have to watch cash flow.

I called into TJM today and think I found my new church! OMG I could go broke in there in 2 hours.

Cheers All.

Marty.