.......looks like my second battery has taken a dump, it powers my fridge, some external lighting and supplies a number of outlets for different applications. The truck currently has a ctek DC-DC charger (which can be configured to manage AGM batteries). So my question is, are AGM that much better than LA Batteries ? It has a 130ah LAB at present as the second and I am leaning toward AGM (about twice the price). When this come around again I intend on going Lithium but that requires relocating the batter from the engine bay and replacing the DC/DC charger to one that can cater for Li-Ion (all told that is a $1500+/- proposition). But for now it is LA or AGM.... thoughts ??
AGM is still lead acid, I don't think for your application it will offer much improvement. I think you would be better off with a battery that you can service, as hot as it gets down there. I know it's not the same but we are finding that gel batteries are not holding up in electric forklifts. I don't think AGM batteries are even offered for that application.
We use AGM batteries from Full Throttle (Full River for our trailers) with great success. I will say, though, regardless of what kind of battery I have in a car, if it’s sitting for more than a week or two, I put it on a tender… necessary? Maybe not, but my cars and bikes always start!
Why not go with modern Lithium deep cycle batteries? way lighter, more power/amperage, faster charging. Mount some raisable solar panels on your rack and your golden
Yep Lithium are great. No question. They are however, for a quality version, about $1200 plus I would also need to change out my DC/DC charger ($600+). Lithium also hate the heat. The higher cost to get into a Lithium battery is generally offset by the longer life (10yrs vs 5ish) UNLESS you mount them in the engine bay where they cook and the lifespan drops to about 5. If I was wanting to run a more complex 12v system to accomodate more power needs I would like so many here go with lithium but my needs are much simpler and can happily be accommodated with the AGM input in back there in 21 (when this thread started) . When this issue comes around again I will look at one of the Baintech thin/flat lithium 150ah batteries mounted under the front passenger seat.
Which battery would you rather try to put out if you had a vehicle fire? Lithium? AGM? or LAB? I've been using AGM on my solar and my motorcycle for years. I'm fine with lithium in small devices. But when you move to bigger lithium batteries for cars and bikes the risk of overheating from fast chargers is too great for my tastes.
……yep that is why it is imperative to utilise a quality DC/DC charge management system that is rated for lithium. The us is slowly catching up in this space. There are many epic 12v systems out here and they have been for a decade. It’s now starting to be a thing in the US. Here it is driven by true remote travel (or the fantasy of such).
I currently run an X2 power AGM deep cycle for my start battery and a Lion Energy 56ah lithium battery as my secondary battery. It’s hooked up to a RedArc BCDC 1225D charger. Off the secondary battery I mainly run my fridge, power socket, usb chargers and a few lights. Very happy with this setup for now, but will most likely upgrade to a bigger battery to run a 1000wt inverter.
