Severe battery drain!

[dblake79]

the old battery, and yeah its still a mess in the back havent had time to finish but the voltage problem is taken care of

 

[CDW6212R]

I like the initiative on those wiring projects, well done. I added new power and ground wires in my 99 Explorer before connecting any new circuits. The frame to chassis and ground terminal are often neglected. The OEM ground cables and straps are not up to any additional circuits.

 

[Cobraguy]

I would try adding to the + off of alt. to battery do not remove stock wire just add to it

PLEASE don't do that! That is a disaster in the making. If you were to use that procedure in your house wiring, the inspector would nail you in a heartbeat. That works fine as long as both wires have equal resistance at all times. Once one becomes the better conductor, you're in trouble. Before you know it, you are overloading the one wire and you have serious problems. The idea is sound...you need to increase the capacity from the alternator to the battery. Just replace the wire with a much heavier gauge. Don't add to it.

 

[dblake79]

I am sorry if this is bad advise, I do not want to tell people to do something that is going to be harmful to them or there car. The instructions the came with my 240 amp alt. said this is how to install it and the wire used was 0 and 2 gauge with inline fuses to rear battery one under the hood and one at the back battery. I understand the concern, I had them my self and looked up on car audio forums what others were doing in this kind of install, I found on Steve Meade's web site (he is the SPL guru in so-cal?) any way this is a link to one of the forums I went through before my install http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/index.php?showtopic=13280 , Like I said though I do not want to be giving bad advice to other forum members. If any of you have something that you think I should change in my install based on safety I would be glad to learn something new, this was just the advise I was given.

 

[CDW6212R]

PLEASE don't do that! That is a disaster in the making. If you were to use that procedure in your house wiring, the inspector would nail you in a heartbeat. That works fine as long as both wires have equal resistance at all times. Once one becomes the better conductor, you're in trouble. Before you know it, you are overloading the one wire and you have serious problems. The idea is sound...you need to increase the capacity from the alternator to the battery. Just replace the wire with a much heavier gauge. Don't add to it.

This is a delicate subject, the idea is wise, but there must be safeguards. Don't add a wire without circuit protection, it must have a fuse, circuit breaker or fusible link. If a tiny 16 gauge wire was added to a large current circuit without protection, the large load would burn up that wire.

I added an 8 gauge wire to my stock alternator wiring, with circuit protection. The stock wiring is only 6 gauge and my added wire is only because of a few small added loads.

For a large additional load from stereo or lights etc, adding a wire should be with at least as large as the OEM main wiring.

Everyone be careful with new wiring, there are many various ways that the stock circuit protection is installed. You can mix fuses with fusible links or fuse bars, but plan them carefully. The real mistake is to add a wire anywhere without any circuit protection.

 

[WitchCityMounty]

I'm in a very similar situation to you MountainGreen. I'm in college and sometimes its a week or two between running the Mounty. I also am at a Merchant Marine school and go to sea for months on end. The battery is dead in two weeks and hard starts in one week. I am going down a different road to solve the problem. I also grabbed a nice multimeter, (borrowed from school) and found my truck is grabbing steady .22 Amps with the key out of the ignition. I decided to permanently do a solar panel. On Tuesday I ordered one of these:
http://mickiesplace.com/store/product/4543/Brunton--Solar-Flat---1.8-Watt/
I found one on closeout for $20.
I'm hoping that the Solar panel will help to cancel out the drain and trickle charge the battery to keep it healthy. I know that with a current of .22A and call it a 12v battery I have a 2.64 watt draw. I'm going to mount this panel to the roof and see what the amp draw is then. I may be grabbing another one or two of these and wiring in parallel. Any input you guys out there have would be greatly appreciated! Oh BTW if your wondering why I went with this panel its because I like the dimensions, the 5inch wide should fit nicely between the roof rails and of course the price (remember the college thing). The panel will be in on Tuesday so I will start the install then. I'm going to permanently mount it and hard wire it in. I will put a couple diodes in line so no switch will be necessary. I will keep you apprised with pictures!
Cheers
Kyle

 

[CDW6212R]

That's a good thought, I've considered mounting a solar panel on the inside of my sunroof.

 

[WitchCityMounty]

That thought crossed my mind. The two stumbling blocks for me were wiring it so that it the wires never got pinched with the opening and closing sun roof and the cost of those nice thin flexible solar panels. A little more than I can swing right now.

 

[WitchCityMounty]

Solar Panel

I put the panel in last week. I don't want to hijack your thread so here is the link to mine!
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228962

Tough to tell how much good its gonna do until I come back from a couple months at sea and go to crank!