Camping and charging detector batteries

Thank you very much for your tips, i think its a important theme and you push me to the right direction

@Ded Driver do you think this will be enough for two detectors and headphones?
How do you solve this for your own ?

Haipoi, 2x 100W folding Panels, or at least total 150W should cover most usage. Some solar blankets I think are up around 200W
or like this 250W on eBay for $369 https://www.ebay.com.au/p/MaxRay-12...ar-Mat-Kit-Mono-Camping-Power-USB/15028948804
depends how much gear you have draining it at night
I only have a single 100W roof mounted panel, but I also have it wired into a DC-DC charge controller linked to the alternator.
On a sunny day, even with a bit of occasional cloud, this panel runs my fridge & keeps the battery topped up allowing me to charge my other gear when I want. I have a 100Ahr Aux battery that will run my fridge in mild weather for up to a week with the panel disconnected or in total shade.

Thanks Ded Driver,

i also ask Apollo if they also offer a charging kit for our trip will see whats possible from them. Because to carry all by airplane will be interesting because of luggage restrictions.
Emergency plan to buy something like that at Perth when we arrive there.

Regards Marc

Haipoi, of all the things you have or will get, make sure you have emergency supplies & gear & A SURVIVAL PLAN

Don't forget that a normal AGM deep cycle battery should not be regularly discharged below 50%, whereas a Lithium can be regularly discharged to ~20%
Let's say (just guesses - you should measure them):
Your fridge takes an average of 2.5A.
Your cooler takes 1A (in the conditions that you plan to use them - I reckon a fair bit more for both in WA),
and you have them on all day (min 3.5A). That's a total consumption of 84Ah over 1 day (without detectors).
Now throw in charging say 2 * 10Ah (estimated) detector batteries each day (each say 60% discharged), that's a total of 96Ah each day.
To replenish this (without your detectors), you would need a 200W solar panel (with MPPT charger in the WA goldfields) giving say 10A over 9 hours (useable daylight - and only if moving the panels every few hours) or 90Ah charge during the day. Clearly this is not enough (with detectors thrown in), and you would need to run the car for ~1/2 hour each day (to be safe) or get bigger solar panels or a more efficient fridge/cooler.
Now let's consider the nightly discharge.
Let's say the fridge and cooler take 80% of the average current at night or 0.8*3.3=2.8A and the solar down-time is 24hr-9hr = 15hrs, that's a drain of 2.8*15 = 42Ah.
A 100Ah deep cycle would handle that well on good solar days. But now include the two 10Ah detector batteries (say you ran them 60% each day) and you now have 54Ah nightly drain, requiring a minimum of a 110AH deep-cycle Lead Acid AGM battery. Solution: run the car for the 1/2 hr a few hours after sunset - just to be sure.
The above assumes lots of things, like worst case current draw (on a hot day), worst case charging (cloudy day or significant shading), useable sunlight hours (Winter or Summer). You may need to go without the cooler or run your car for longer each evening or open your fridge less. Only careful measurements or experience in the field will tell. Check battery remaining charge each evening, and run the car's alternator accordingly. This is not being anal - it will save you cash and down-time if done right!
PS: if you have the cash, go for Lithium Batteries (~80% more discharge power and ~50% the weight of AGM Lead Acid batteries of the same size plus a lot more life cycles, but around 4* the cost) and a 250W solar system. Then forget ever having to run the car's alternator except on the hottest & cloudiest day.
No guarantees by me for correctness here.

@Ded Driver thank you very much i keep it in my mind

@BigWave thank you so much for the detailed information, i really appreciate it and if we will see us at the goldfields you and Ded Driver can be sure that there is always a cool beer inside my cooler for you

in fact i think that a 250 foldable monochristaline or thin llayer solar panel will be the right thing. Also the King Battery Box should be a good extension. For Battery i will take a look here it will be >110 A/h.

Im very glad about all your help thank you guys , it always shows this is a plattform where everyone exchange his knowledge and experience with each other and all can learn from it

Big thanks

there is no substitute for capacity when it comes to AGM's

I hope you have a strong back for lugging that AGM around. ower:

Jaros said:

I hope you have a strong back for lugging that AGM around. ower:

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I'm replacing my Exide Deep Cycle 110Ah AGM (33.2kg) with a Lithium 125Ah (15kg) today.
The AGM was just too heavy for my sore back.
Anyone local want the Exide then it's yours free to pick-up. Only used 5 or 6 trips, so relatively new.
Requires a charger capable of running a Calcium cycle though, which requires a voltage during the Absorption stage of around 14.8 to 15.0V for full charge.

I have to relocate my 135ah AGM- which is now in a battery box-to a more central position in the camper trailer-somewhere over the axle will be good. The weight over the hitch was too heavy with the Engel sitting in the box in front of the camper.

Jaros, that's one big battery ower:
Must weigh around 40+kg?

The spec sheet says 30kg's--I thought it was heavier ??

With the battery i will take a look. We decide now to buy the Kings 200W foldable Solar Panel in first. So i can take a look how it works with directly charging 2nd battery of the car. I will make now an earlier first visit of WA Will arrive there in 12 days for a 3 weeks trip with little testing prospecting on daily basis, wife wants to make more sightseeing 8. Finally i`ll be able to test some things for the longer trip next year, which is not bad too

My 115Ah Deep cycle Batteries weigh 23.4 kgs each,

You would be better off running ya fridge etc off of the solar and using a generator to charge the detector batteries Until you get more kit together. Lead Crystal batteries are the better way to go because they charge up fast and you get to use just about every Amp in them, and they are a 3rd of the price of Lithium,

Lithium are a waste of money when it comes to Cost, even more so when Lead Crystal will do the job.

Ridge Runner said:

Lithium are a waste of money when it comes to Cost, even more so when Lead Crystal will do the job.

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by this line i can tell you have never experimented with Lithium

ctxkid said:

Ridge Runner said:

Lithium are a waste of money when it comes to Cost, even more so when Lead Crystal will do the job.

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by this line i can tell you have never experimented with Lithium

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Whether I have or not has nothing to do with my comment, Because I have done enough research in to Lithium and Lead Crystal and AGM batteries, My comment is based on the fact of their cost depending on where you are in the world, The US gets them really cheap even though they are the furthest country from where they are made and Australian's pay a premium for them and here they are a joke,

And I just don't care about them when Lead Crystal perform just as well and the only down side to Lead Crystal is they weigh as much as a FLA Deep cycle battery yet they perform just like a Lithium battery But at a 3rd of the cost,

As for the long life of lithium well that's just numbers, My Last FLA Deep Cycle battery was 9 years and 8 months old when "I" Killed it and it would have reached 11 or 12 years if I had not abused it,

Lead Crystal Just makes more sense and it's Charging profile is very close to that of AGM Batteries so there is no need to buy fancy chargers etc which is another expense that comes with wanting Lithium batteries,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--xiiDKEWw