Digging the extra pics and your 4r looks nice! I would be interested to see how you did your sleeping platform. I'm pretty sure we camp up the way from where you picked it up. That farm looks very familiar.Forgot to post this. Picked up the 4runner from Proffitt's last weekend. Roof Rack and Sliders are on. About all i'll be able to get done in time for CM.
Some more photos of the trip.
What have you done to your rig today?
- Thread starter HoneyBadger
- Start date
Thanks! Was a fun quick outing. It's a pretty simple platform. I made a thread for when I built the drawers. Basically we made an x with two boars for the base. Jeremiahs place is just outside the little town of Sapinaro. On Blue Mesa Res.
White Stripe
Hard Core 4+
Finished wiring my trailer brakes. I wanted a redarc brake controller but this was a similar setup for half the price of redarc stuff.
My odyssey came with a 15 yr warranty. Have you checked with them for a replacement?Well, one of my Odysseys seems to have given up.
So went the polar opposite, the cheapest group 35 I could find. The EverStart, Made In Spain, Walmart "value line" with a whopping 12 month warranty.
Even if it only lasts the one year I'll get 2 more years for the same $300 as I spent on the supposed best-of-the-best. And I won't have an reservations about not treating it right. I took good care of my Odysseys, routine topping charges and everything.
My observation has been I have an inverse relationship with life-to-cost on batteries. Those factory second Optimas gave me 7 years, the Toyota factory battery was 8 years old.
Not exactly sure but appears one cell is dead but running Odyssey's reconditioning procedure to see if I can get it to come back to life. As it is only appears to hold a surface charge, once I put a load on it things go south, drops to 9V. We'll see.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
Odyssey offers a 4 years warranty on BCI size batteries in the Extreme series (which is what mine are, PC1400 Extreme, one each of group 25 and 35) and 3 years on the Performance series.
I'm right on the cusp, they are I think 4 years old and I've had them installed in my truck a bit more than 3.
https://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/US-ODY-WS-AA.pdf
I need to track down my paperwork on my battery and double check what it think I know
Stuckinthe80s
Rising Sun Member
That sucks this has happened to you @DaveInDenver but I'm glad you're posting it up. Not that there aren't outliers with any product line, it's easier to swallow though when it happens to a $150 versus a $300 battery.
rover67
Rising Sun Member
You know it's funny the route you took. I myself am going to stick in a wet cell cheaper battery in the 80 as a second battery when i get to it. I haven't found that the nice ones are lasting me any longer or doing anything really that much better other than maybe not out gassing like wet cells do. My only real positive experience was a optima from 2007 or so that lasted my 11 years.. other than that all the other AGM's including newer optimas and the fancy dekas, and sears platinum gold whatever AGM variation batteries have lasted the same if not had shorter lives than wet cells. The friggin wet cell batteries in the willys I pulled from a field were date stamped from the 60's and were pretty dry. I threw in well water and charged them and they started the truck.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
I may have been talking to you Marco when I said it, but the only negative not using AGM for me is the off gassing and chance of crud building up around them. Otherwise I think going forward the only reason I'll consider sealed batteries is for an unusual mounting location where a flooded won't work. Just don't see the cost/benefit.
mcgaskins
Rising Sun Member
Cut a speed hole in my truck with a hole saw
gungriffin
Rising Sun Member
Whew... That would be a tough cut. Ha ha measure about 3 times, and stop to measure again and then cut once!Cut a speed hole in my truck with a hole saw
mcgaskins
Rising Sun Member
Pretty much! Thankfully the fender template was spot on, and the cutting went quick!
gungriffin
Rising Sun Member
Would there be any issue with charging a lead acid and AGM at the same time off of the alternator? I honestly don't know and I am wondering if you might be able to offer any thoughts. I am in the same situation that you are and I am really wondering why the AGM answer is worth 2.25x the price. Batteries Plus offers a group 34 sealed lead acid battery for $135 with 10% off and it comes with a 36 month warranty. The best price that I can find for the 34-pc1500 that I would be replacing is $295 from 4 Wheel Parts. It isn't that I am not willing to spend the money, but I don't want to waste money.Well, one of my Odysseys seems to have given up.
So went the polar opposite, the cheapest group 35 I could find. The EverStart, Made In Spain, Walmart "value line" with a whopping 12 month warranty.
Even if it only lasts the one year I'll get 2 more years for the same $300 as I spent on the supposed best-of-the-best. And I won't have an reservations about not treating it right. I took good care of my Odysseys, routine topping charges and everything.
My observation has been I have an inverse relationship with life-to-cost on batteries. Those factory second Optimas gave me 7 years, the Toyota factory battery was 8 years old.
Not exactly sure but appears one cell is dead but running Odyssey's reconditioning procedure to see if I can get it to come back to life. As it is right now it only appears to hold a surface charge.
Comes off the charger at >13.0V and seems to hold there for a while but once I put even a small load on it things go south, drops to 9V after only about a minute with just a 13 W bulb. I noticed last weekend that the fridge was running rough and driving back from the Maze my ham radio would intermittently shut off.
I saw the battery at around 10.5V once when I think the fridge happened to kick on but it was hard to catch the voltage drop until I drove around today with a meter hanging off it to watch it constantly. When I would force the batteries to separate I could use some aux lights to force it to dive but it would recover pretty quick once I'd turn them off.
We'll see what happens, maybe a recovery will work.
Either way I'm pretty dissatisfied with Odysseys, too much work to keep them healthy.
Link to the Batteries Plus battery:
https://www.batteriesplus.com/battery/sli/bci-group-34/sli34m
Last edited:
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
First thing I need to say Enersys customer service is top notch, so my rant was premature to some extent. I still don't know that AGM and in particular high end AGM really bring along value, but as a company I have no qualms or complaints.
So then the answer to mixing AGM and flooded is yes and no. The question boils down to charging voltage and ideally AGM needs a higher (from 0.2 to 0.5) charging voltage than flooded. This depending on several things like brand, state of charge and a few other variables.
In any case it's hard on a battery long term to either over or under charge, so when you mix types you potentially shorten the life of one or the other.
My choice when mixing would be to slightly under charge the AGM and keep the voltage slightly lower for the flooded. It's easier to compensate for this later.
If you select a higher voltage for the AGM you routinely over charge the flooded. This leads to potentially boiling the electrolyte or in the extreme case actually getting it hot enough to off gas significant hydrogen, e.g. explosion or catching fire.
Then just remember when you select a slightly lower voltage that is safe for flooded and under charging AGM you then periodically top off the AGM with a charger at home.
Realize that this is actually usually the case anyway. From the factory few manufacturers set their charging systems up for AGM anyway so unless you've adjusted you're already probably under charging an AGM. Toyota especially selects a low charging voltage that is barely adequate for flooded, much less AGM.
There are reasons for this, mainly that it's safer to assume the lowest common denominator. Also realize that newer Toyotas have smart alternators and as techno-junk gets loaded into them cars are becoming very hard on batteries, so the manufacturers have to do more to keep them charged and lengthen their lives.
Not to mention with more intelligent charging you can reduce alternator load on the engine when the battery is topped and they have to find every available efficiency to meet MPG requirements. So 3rd gen Tacos, 5th gen 4Runner, 200 series are different than older junk, like even my 2nd gen Taco.
So the yes and no means that you can mix AGM and flooded, really mix any batteries basically safely while charging. As long as they get separated when you stop the engine and have them under load and you periodically do maintenance charging as necessary.
If batteries are connected together while both charging and discharging then you've built a battery bank and then you need to match battery type at minimum and really you should only connect the same type, brand, age (condition) and size. In a bank both/all batteries need to be closely matched to prevent one from doing more work than the other. What ends up happening is the stronger battery gets pulled down to be similar to the weaker one, so you waste any advantage you might have with a newer or better battery in that case.
There is another solution to all of this and it's to run a DC-DC charger on the aux or perhaps even the main battery. These are intelligent and do basically the same as what a decent home charger would do, so the need to do as much monkeying around maintaining batteries is reduced.
So then the answer to mixing AGM and flooded is yes and no. The question boils down to charging voltage and ideally AGM needs a higher (from 0.2 to 0.5) charging voltage than flooded. This depending on several things like brand, state of charge and a few other variables.
In any case it's hard on a battery long term to either over or under charge, so when you mix types you potentially shorten the life of one or the other.
My choice when mixing would be to slightly under charge the AGM and keep the voltage slightly lower for the flooded. It's easier to compensate for this later.
If you select a higher voltage for the AGM you routinely over charge the flooded. This leads to potentially boiling the electrolyte or in the extreme case actually getting it hot enough to off gas significant hydrogen, e.g. explosion or catching fire.
Then just remember when you select a slightly lower voltage that is safe for flooded and under charging AGM you then periodically top off the AGM with a charger at home.
Realize that this is actually usually the case anyway. From the factory few manufacturers set their charging systems up for AGM anyway so unless you've adjusted you're already probably under charging an AGM. Toyota especially selects a low charging voltage that is barely adequate for flooded, much less AGM.
There are reasons for this, mainly that it's safer to assume the lowest common denominator. Also realize that newer Toyotas have smart alternators and as techno-junk gets loaded into them cars are becoming very hard on batteries, so the manufacturers have to do more to keep them charged and lengthen their lives.
Not to mention with more intelligent charging you can reduce alternator load on the engine when the battery is topped and they have to find every available efficiency to meet MPG requirements. So 3rd gen Tacos, 5th gen 4Runner, 200 series are different than older junk, like even my 2nd gen Taco.
So the yes and no means that you can mix AGM and flooded, really mix any batteries basically safely while charging. As long as they get separated when you stop the engine and have them under load and you periodically do maintenance charging as necessary.
If batteries are connected together while both charging and discharging then you've built a battery bank and then you need to match battery type at minimum and really you should only connect the same type, brand, age (condition) and size. In a bank both/all batteries need to be closely matched to prevent one from doing more work than the other. What ends up happening is the stronger battery gets pulled down to be similar to the weaker one, so you waste any advantage you might have with a newer or better battery in that case.
There is another solution to all of this and it's to run a DC-DC charger on the aux or perhaps even the main battery. These are intelligent and do basically the same as what a decent home charger would do, so the need to do as much monkeying around maintaining batteries is reduced.
gungriffin
Rising Sun Member
Thank you for taking the time to respond so thoroughly. I just replaced the starter battery with a 34-pc1500 Odyssey battery so it sounds like I would be best served by matching the house battery. I want to be able to link them in the event that I need to run the Warn 10k lb winch that I have on the truck. As much as it makes me cringe to drop another $300 on a battery, at least it will be done for the next 4 years (at least) because it will be covered by a warranty.
I have a Batteryminder charger that I used to keep everything topped up right now. It has a special setting specifically for Odyssey batteries that does the charging at the slightly higher voltage for Odyssey batteries. Unfortunately it only provides the amperage required to be able to charge the batteries individually based on what I understand that Odyssey batteries require. The truck had Odyssey batteries in when I bought it that were good batteries. My understanding is that they are at least 3 or 4 years old because they were bought by the previous previous owner of the vehicle. The main reason why they finally died (I think) is because I allowed them to drop too far in charge a few times when I let my Cruiser sit for a while. Oh well, I will chalk this up to a learning experience.
Is there a way on a 1999 Land Cruiser to vary the charging voltage coming from the alternator? If that is possible, I did not realize that it was. If I'm going to spend the money to change out the batteries it would probably make the most sense to change that voltage if it is possible.
Installed my first RTT (Smittybilt Overlander) on Sunday. The stock roof rack made the installation a bit difficult (virtually no clearance between the bottom of the tent and the top of the truck roof), but thanks to my neighbor's help and a few beers, we got it tackled in a few hours. Once installed, my neighbor and I spent some time comparing the build quality and materials to his Tepui RTT, and we couldn't find much of a difference at all.
Taking it out for the first camping expedition of the year this weekend. And no, I don't care if I freeze my ass off.
Taking it out for the first camping expedition of the year this weekend. And no, I don't care if I freeze my ass off.
After nearly five years of SLOWLY working on my 40 it is ready to go to the painter tomorrow. Can't believe it has taken this long but life sometimes gets in the way of all the things you want and need to do. Really excited to get this next phase completed! Sorry no pics, but it did happen.
mcgaskins
Rising Sun Member
Finished up the snorkel, bumper and winch install. Lots of work but turned out nice.
mosdefjeff
Trail Ready
Installed my Speski cargo barrier and a cutting board tailgate cover today.
I've been eyeballing that cargo barrier for a few months. I know it's a recent install, but how do you feel about it? $375 a good price?
New shoes today. Knuckle rebuild and install my RCV’s tomorrow.
