Battery suggestions

Hi, we have now bought a VW Golf GTTDI as our daily driver as the daily running costs of the Landy were threatening its sale.

This now means my beloved Landy only gets used maybe a couple of times a week max, and is sometimes left for a couple of weeks standing, and ive had to jump start it twice recently due to the amount of time its been sat.

I was wondering what type of battery would now be best suited for the amount of use my Disco will be getting as it spends some of its time now standing?

I was wondering if I should go for one of those OPTIMA "high performance" batteries or maybe a heavy duty tractor one from the farmers mart or if even installing a second battery aswel would be a viable option?

The thing is I havent got a clue when it comes to batteries/electrics etc and so dont really know where to start. I could obviously Google or ebay "Discovery Battery" but thought I would ask the experts first.

Right my sausage and black pud butty is done, gotta go..............

could try something used by motorcyclists who don`t use their bikes much. i think its called an optimate. its basically a trickle charger that connects via a 2 pin plug to your battery. you will need to be parked near a power point though.

How are you at fabricating stuff ? Somewhere I have the plans for a trickle charger for just this situation.I built one for one of my discos,its hardwired in and lives in a watertight lunchbox fixed in the engine space.You couldnt leave this one all the time though,you would need to switch it on and off periodically,or devise a means of doing so.It would be 1A at the most so a plug in timer would do.You could go the whole hog into voltage sensing relays etc but if you were going that far...............

....... do as xat says....there are a few battery monitor chargers available for just this situation that would mean you wouldnt need a deep-cycle battery.Cost you less than half of a fancy battery.

Otherwise a standard battery and a solar charge panel can be the answer....done right.

thanks, I use my battery charger on an extension lead the night before if I know im going on a long journey the next day or it the batteries already flat but i want a simpler/lazier solution .

A standard battery if it's any good should enable you to start even from four weeks of non use, so it will easy start if it's a weekend disco... just like mine has always been... if it doesn't time for a replacement

just stumbled across these on flebay:

Portable power pack Compressor 12v jump start inverter on eBay (end time 22-Jun-11 11:28:01 BST)

Are they any good or cheap poo? The ideas great as I can charge it in car, then jump it, inflate the tyres or charge a laptop if needs be, seems good for the price?

mrnice said:

just stumbled across these on flebay:

Portable power pack Compressor 12v jump start inverter on eBay (end time 22-Jun-11 11:28:01 BST)

Are they any good or cheap poo? The ideas great as I can charge it in car, then jump it, inflate the tyres or charge a laptop if needs be, seems good for the price?

Click to expand...

you could get a new tractor battery for less than that and a new battery should be fine with no use for a few weeks.

barmatt said:

you could get a new tractor battery for less than that and a new battery should be fine with no use for a few weeks.

Click to expand...

Yeah but this thing does a lot more than a tractor battery, and i had a new battery within the last year so my battery is hopefully still ok, just thought it looked a handy bit of kit as i dont own a power inverter, compressor or jump pack.

mrnice said:

Yeah but this thing does a lot more than a tractor battery, and i had a new battery within the last year so my battery is hopefully still ok, just thought it looked a handy bit of kit as i dont own a power inverter, compressor or jump pack.

Click to expand...

If your battery was ok you wouldn't have this problem, I always have my doubts about those power pack things though. Don't know why I just don't like 'em.

My mate has a little photovoltaic panel connected to his old JCB, I think it came from a catalogue....... works a treat, every 4 or 6 months he disconnects it and gets the digger going for some small job. its basically trickle charge but without the mains lead hassle; maybe try the caravan shops for ideas then scout round for something at a sensible price?

My Disco is used in much the same way. It's no longer the "main" car in the family, and gets used for hobbies (climbing trips, mountain bike carrying, kayak carrying) and trailer-towing.

The battery is the original (9 years old). And I don't have starting issues. Last year it was left in Aviemore for 2 weeks when it was minus 18 degrees c. and it started.

On the plus side tho, when my Disco is being used, it tends to get a long-ish run, not just local, so it then gets a good charge...

Sounds like a dodgy battery or a deeper problem draining the battery.

I would go for the photovoltaic charger as suggested.
I have a car on trickle charge in the garage with a mains charger all the time its not used and it starts every time and has an auto cut out so can`t boil the battery.
Portable power packs can be useful but you have to buy a good one - I bought one which turned out to be absolutely useless from my local hardware shop and it was still £60 !
I bought a SIP starter charger as well, dual voltage 12/24 and its brilliant, so if I bought another power pack I would try SIP.
Had you thought about buying a slave battery and keeping that on trickle charge all the time ?
Finally, have you had your battery tested ? I did on my RR after several issues, when the battery was only three months old - duff battery.

I had the larger Clarke starter/charger for years,it was effing brilliant...then my mate cooked it mixing up the 12 and 24 volts.We have the smaller one on the farm and that is good too.Money well spent,...unless you are in a busy workshop you donr really need the one that has a timer and multi charge.
They are a more useful,better bang for buck than booster packs.I a few booster packs and now only buy the dirt cheap ones for under 30 quid cos if you spend under a few hundred you just get the same battery but a better case.As long as you charge them all the time they are good to get you going in an emergency but wont do it if you are dead flat in the cold or need to pump fuel up or any other big battery loading.

I would give any "does it all" box a miss.They tend to do everthing,just,jack of all trades master of none.I have a cigarrete lighter inverter that will plug into my cheapo booster for the laptop,that does the job and is probably a comparable unit for less money.I have a caravan solar panel from e bay for under 20 quid that keeps the caravan battery happy but even clipped to the discovery battery it didnt help much....wonder why?

Anyway,the best job is a smart charger,6 stage min,8 stage better.Leave it on all the time,it will assess the batteries needs and even desulphate if left on long enough.Expect to pay 60 or more for one that really works....whatever they claim,check how many stages it goes through - from my reading that seems to be the salient point.

The above suggestion about a slave battery chimes with what I keep meaning to do - have a second battery on split charge with an over ride switch to the relay to chain it with the regular battery for tricky starts.Good option.I am chasing up a rare beast just now,a caravan breaker,to see if I can buy some leisure batts out of road smash caravans for secondaries.At one time I had split charge in a peugeot 305 van to a secondary battery,another to a battery box in the back to charge a spare as well as to the caravan...a lot of relays and a big alternator ! But I always had power on site jobs! And could always jump lead start myself.

Hi Shocker
As well as caravan breakers for a leisure battery, try horsebox breakers - many horse lorries with "living" space will have a leisure battery to run the internal lights etc (mine does)- and there are definitely horsebox breakers around , you might be able to source the split charging system from them as well, or if not there are a few places who sell horsebox bits new for self-builders (probably the same for campervan self-builders I would have thought).
Ian