2 Batteries and No Alternator
 

I was thinking of adding a 2nd battery to my car, and disconnecting the alternator. I know the batteries will discharge after a while so I was thinking of adding a solar panel to the car that is designed to recharge car batteries (ie will not over charge them):thumbup: I was wondering what you guys think of this?

Like .................... AndrewJ has already done ? :)

http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthrea...312.html?t=312

the idea gets a big :thumbup: from me!

I gained about 20% with it, Darin got 10%
So, as always, YMMV.

P.S. Don't forget the digital voltmeter, don't let those batteries get below 11.7v!

Thanks for the feedback. This site ROCKS:thumbup: I'll see if I can do it this weekend.

Welcome to the site echomodder (like the name too :thumbup:).

A lead acid battery at 11.7 is 80% discharged, getting down below 50% discharged shortens the battery life a great deal.

100% 12.7v
90% 12.6v
80% 12.5v
70% 12.3v
60% 12.2v
50% 12.1v
40% 12.0v
30% 11.8v
20% 11.7v
10% 11.6v
00% less then 11.6 volts, if you let them get this far down more then a few times then it's a good idea to start shopping for a new battery.

A question for AndrewJ, I've been thinking of doing this for the Camry as well because I've noticed that if I EOC for too long at night when I have my headlights on, I sometimes have a very hard time restarting my engine when it's time to start accelerating again. How exactly did you hook up the volt meter to the batteries? I saw your little blog/forum post thing about your solar/battery setup, but you didn't show any pictures of how you hooked up the volt meter. My volt meter only has two little probs to test voltage momentarily, but I don't have ny aligator clips for it. I'm assuming all you did was splice the wires for the batteries in two spots and aligator clip it in to keep a voltage reading?

What about putting two extra batteries in series and the use a voltage regulator/stabilizer instead of the alternator? You would always be charging your main battery from the 24V and supplying a constant 13.2 volts. The ECU would never know the difference.

don't forget the Ign. system likes voltage

Thanks everyone I will be doing this mod. Not shure about this weekend now though (wedding to go to:mad:) but all the same its good to know help and experience is out there.
PS. BTW thanks to Daox for the tip about www.car-part.com :D:D:D SUPER GREAT site!!!:thumbup: Found an eng. for my car (that I can mod/play with) for $350!!!:eek: