Battery or earth may be?

gazza1591 said:

Just looked and it's a varta E12 74Ah battery on there these any good? Just looking what to buy as may be a new battery and then the 2nd battery when I fit the split charge but cant decide lol

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For a battery to be good for starting a diesel Disco it needs to have good CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) not just 75/85/90amp/hr ratings.

The CCA is the crucial specification for a starting battery.

Varta is a good make and is often supplied as original equipment, as on my Jag S-type.

Think this one is 680Cca? Is there a good figure to go for in this cca?

gazza1591 said:

Think this one is 680Cca? Is there a good figure to go for in this cca?

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According to this website it looks to be the correct one
Varta Blue / Varta Car Batteries / Battery

Just be certain its the battery.
Put a jump lead between the Negative and the Exhaust manifold and see if it starts better if it does that points to a bad earth connection, a very common easy to repair fault

How would I sort a bad earth connection If it is that?

gazza1591 said:

Think this one is 680Cca? Is there a good figure to go for in this cca?

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800cca as a minimum will give you reliable starting in all weathers.

And what about for a second battery for winch etc is the AH rating important? And does it need to be a deep cycle one?

gazza1591 said:

And what about for a second battery for winch etc is this rating important? And does it need to be a deep cycle one?

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As said before, Cold Cranking Amps is the ability for the battery to deliver very large amounts of current, even when very cold, for very short periods ie when starting the engine.

Does this sound like a measurement appropriate to operating a winch to you?

Sorry phone changed it, i was meant to say is the AH rating important for the second battery and does it need to be a deep cycle one?

gazza1591 said:

Sorry phone changed it, i was meant to say is the AH rating important for the second battery and does it need to be a deep cycle one?

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Hi Gazza, if the second one is going to do heavy work such as winching, then the storage capacity (amp/hr) will be important. Although there are a number of peeps on here, myself included, that use Optima batteries which are only 50amp/hr but have high cca. Red top for starter functions and yellow top deep cycle) for other work.


Dave

gazza1591 said:

How would I sort a bad earth connection If it is that?

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Remove the earth cable, clean it and all its connections re fit and see if it improves. You can measure the resistance with a Megga tester should you have one and know what you are doing?
I have once seen a braided earth strap that looked perfect but had corroded internally, caused all sorts of issues, poor running ( it was petrol) poor starting and lots of flat batterys even broke two alternators, the bloke scrapped the vehicle in the end, I bought it from the scrap man fitted a second hand earth cable and a new alternator and it never missed a beat

gazza1591 said:

And what about for a second battery for winch etc is the AH rating important? And does it need to be a deep cycle one?

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It all depends on the winching you do.
If its occasional then I feel a standard starter battery of 800CCA or above should be fine.
Remember 90% of winches are only rated for one pull every hour as the motors are not continuously rated.
The vast majority of people I know just run one battery as its occasional winching
If its two batteries then a basic split charge system would be a nice to have.
If its doing loads of winching then it gets complicated and expensive so don't even think about it unless you really need it.

cheers all think im gonna get a yellow top optima and may get a red for starting the truck aswell. not the cheapest of things but hope they do the job and last