[orange4boy]

Reply to extragoode"

The big thing I want to know is how all you alternatorless guys keep the car from constantly complaining about the battery being low, since any thing under 13.5 sets off the dumby light? I see how oranges idea would work, but I didn't want have to carry around 3 6v bats and I question whether 2 8v bats would even maintain enough juice to keep the voltage above 13.5 for long.

Remove the bulb. 2 8V batteries in series start at 18+ volts when charged and only hit 16 when fully discharged so maintaining 13.5 isn't a problem.

Two 8 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries have about a 150 amp hour capacity each at the 20 hour rate ( most commonly quoted ) For a total of 300 AH. A consumer grade D34 yellow top has a capacity of about 55 AH.

I regularly drive about 55 miles (city) with two 12V 115 AH batteries (230 AH) and rarely drop below 12.2 resting voltage by the time I get home. (Average running amps ~ 20-30)

Common Terms

Ampere-hour or AH
The unit of electrical capacity - this tells you how much power the battery will store. Current multiplied by time in hours equals ampere-hours. A current of one amp for one hour would be one amp-hour; a current of 3 amps for 5 hours would be 15 AH. Similar to the "gallons per day" measure of water. Amp-hour ratings will vary with temperature, and with the rate of discharge. For example, a battery rated at 100 AH at the 6-hour rate would be rated at about 135 AH at the 48-hour rate. Ampere-hours (AH) designates the storage capacity of the battery. SLI batteries are not rated in AH, but in "CCA", or cold-cranking amps (marine batteries are often rated in "marine cranking amps").. Terms such as "6 hour rate" or "20 hour rate" indicate that the battery is discharged steadily over 6 or 20 hours, and the Amp-hour capacity is measured by how much it puts out before reaching 80% DOD.