Dont use this battery, my opinion anyway.

[kitacooch]

Hi there, just wanted to let people know of my experience with this battery. I bought few months ago 2 brand new Super Charge Allrounders and fitted them to my disco, i also fitted a Traxside 80. Now both came highly recomended and both turned out not so good and especially together. The allrounders are i think calsium batteries and once discharged, very difficult to re-charge and your normal charger will not charge them. This coupled with the fact i was was wanting to use a winch off them and the traxide has a low amp circuit breaker in line to protect the unit preventing large amounts of charge going back into the batteries means i now have 2 stuffed batteries. In defence of the Traxiide unit i wanted my winch to run directly off my auxilliary battery as opposed to my cranking battery and this turns out to be a problem for the unit, in any case 20 amp max input i think is not enough consiodering your alternator puts more like 70amp back into a dead or near dead battery. In both cases i was clear on my intensions of use.

[6.5 rangie]

Did you put this up on Aulro? The maker of traxide is a member there and is very knowledgable and could help with your problem.

[lokka]

I have an allrounder and its great havent had a prob with it realy its been discharged a few times and i just charge it back up with the 12amp charger usualy takes 2 full days to charge but its near 2 years old and hasent missed a beat i also run a 85 amp alternator and use the allrounder as my fridge and other power supply and i have a simple 200amp relay to conect it up once the ignition is on my crank battery is a super charge gold series both were brought at the same time and both are great

[ISUZUROVER]

I couldn't disagree more.

I have 2x supercharge golds (N70 size). One I bought in 2002 and it is STILL working fine. Longest lasting battery I have ever owned.

I also have an SC40. Great kit for a bargain price.

[kitacooch]

I couldn't disagree more.

I have 2x supercharge golds (N70 size). One I bought in 2002 and it is STILL working fine. Longest lasting battery I have ever owned.

I also have an SC40. Great kit for a bargain price.

The super charge golds are different to the Allrounders.
I put my Allrounders on charge for 14 hours and made no difference to the battery. My sparky put both on their industrial charger for 8 hours and managed to get them up a little, but was told they were probably stuffed and they wouldnt recomend using them.

As the the SC80, probably a great unit, just no good when large anounts of charge are needed to be put back into a battery ie when you have done some seriouse winching or used power overnight.

As i mentioned, it seems that this combo is the real problem, my batteries would probably be fine if my alternator was able to put the charge straight back in, but i think the SC80 prevented this and only allowed partial charges as the circuit breaker cut in and out after a couple hours of intermittent winching sessions at cruiser mountain. Obviously then the batteries spent somer time discharged and now because they calsium, are resisting re-charge.

[kitacooch]

Oh, and my sparky said that he often gets vehicles in with similar problems relating to the Supercharge Allrounder. Apparently it is common for people to use these in boats with wose results.

The sparky ripped the SC80 out replaced with a solinoid setup so the SC80 is up for sale if anyone interested.

[chimpboy]

Did you put this up on Aulro? The maker of traxide is a member there and is very knowledgable and could help with your problem.

He's a member here also, easiest to reach in the Auto-Elec section.

I cannot understand how your main battery would have died for any of the reasons you've described; normally afaik the main battery still has a direct line to the alternator while the aux battery is the only one that would have any current-limiting in between.

So what exactly happened to your main battery?

Not knowing what your charging system is like, I've read that calcium batteries are better charged at well over 14 volts (14.2, 14.4, etc) rather than at the 13.8 or so volts that older charging systems will provide. Not from direct experience, but I have heard that older vehicles with new maintenance free (calcium) batteries are commonly found on roadsides with a dead battery because of this voltage issue. I do not know how true this is though.

[stuee]

As the the SC80, probably a great unit, just no good when large anounts of charge are needed to be put back into a battery ie when you have done some seriouse winching or used power overnight.

As i mentioned, it seems that this combo is the real problem, my batteries would probably be fine if my alternator was able to put the charge straight back in, but i think the SC80 prevented this and only allowed partial charges as the circuit breaker cut in and out after a couple hours of intermittent winching sessions at cruiser mountain. Obviously then the batteries spent somer time discharged and now because they calsium, are resisting re-charge.

You haven't set it up (SC80) right for winching which is probably one of the reasons you've stuffed your batteries.

The winching circuits described by traxide both involve the use of solenoids or a marine elec switch.





How much you want for the SC80 then?

[drivesafe]

Thanks 6.5 rangie, ISUZUROVER, chimpboy and Stuee.

Hi kitacooch, for a starter, the SC80 is not designed for direct battery to battery winch operations and it is also inappropriate to set up the auxiliary battery as the Primary supply battery in a winch set.

But a single phone call and as Stuee has posted, the addition of a marine battery switch and you problems would have been solved as far as the SC80 goes.

Now to your batteries, why on earth did you by calcium specific batteries. Nearly all batteries have calcium in them but some have more than others and the higher the calcium content the less likely that they are going to be of use in winching operations.

Batteries like the ones you have should never be taken below 50% SoC which rules them out as winching batteries.

As far as the SC80 only allowing 20 amps to charge the auxiliary battery, sorry mate but the SC80 does not control the current that flows through it and the 20 amps is more likely the maximum current your battery could absorbed because your vehicle’s alternator voltage was probably low.

As for the circuit breaker, it’s a 50 amp CB so it can handle up 135% of it’s marked current ( about 65 amps ) for near 30 minutes and 200% of it’s marked current for 1 minute ( 100 amps ) but your winch will easily draw 200 amps so you are way over the operating current of just about every part of your set up.

As posted above, try making a phone call before you make unfounded comments like above and I could have saved you lot of time and money.

[CRUSHU]

I can confirm that Calcium batteries are very difficult to use, in Cars.

In fact, I wonder how they get termed a car battery at all.

When one goes flat, your Alternator cannot recharge it to 100%, and neither can most budget (under $100) battery chargers!

I forget the specifics, but a alternator or charger charges at 14.4v, and a calcium battery needs 14.6v

I have sent many back to battery companies, that have come out of occasional cars (by occasional cars, I mean ones that might be left sitting for anywhere from 3 weeks, to a couple of months). That sort of use is murder to one of these. You must keep it in use, do NOT let it sit (disconnecting isn't a help either...).

I sell these batteries, and they are only a problem in cars that aren't daily drivers. They are awesome in daily drivers.

[kitacooch]

Thanks 6.5 rangie, ISUZUROVER, chimpboy and Stuee.

Hi kitacooch, for a starter, the SC80 is not designed for direct battery to battery winch operations and it is also inappropriate to set up the auxiliary battery as the Primary supply battery in a winch set.

But a single phone call and as Stuee has posted, the addition of a marine battery switch and you problems would have been solved as far as the SC80 goes.

Now to your batteries, why on earth did you by calcium specific batteries. Nearly all batteries have calcium in them but some have more than others and the higher the calcium content the less likely that they are going to be of use in winching operations.

Batteries like the ones you have should never be taken below 50% SoC which rules them out as winching batteries.

As far as the SC80 only allowing 20 amps to charge the auxiliary battery, sorry mate but the SC80 does not control the current that flows through it and the 20 amps is more likely the maximum current your battery could absorbed because your vehicle’s alternator voltage was probably low.

As for the circuit breaker, it’s a 50 amp CB so it can handle up 135% of it’s marked current ( about 65 amps ) for near 30 minutes and 200% of it’s marked current for 1 minute ( 100 amps ) but your winch will easily draw 200 amps so you are way over the operating current of just about every part of your set up.

As posted above, try making a phone call before you make unfounded comments like above and I could have saved you lot of time and money.

Sorry drivesafe but i did call you, i did explain the install requirements/purpose you did recomend the unit and the marine isolator and it was installed as per, i did call you with concers during install where we were advised by your self to change the wiring different from wiring diagram supplied and although i was clear about winching from auxilliary all along it was only then you also then told me not ideal to winch from Auxilliary but was too late then.
Unfortunately you also recommended the Allrounder when i asked your opinion but i certainly didn't know they were calsium nor that calsium was a problem.(am guessing you may not have realised this either)

Having said that, this is not a case of attacking the SC80 the glowing references found in the forums is proof the the unit is popular and so speaks for it self, thats how i came about contacting you in the first case, i thought i was pretty clear in the initial post that i am critical of the unit only in this particular type of install, running the winch directly from the Auxilliry battery, and in particular with these allrounders. I am sorry if i was not clear enough.

I must say also that the Supercharge Allrounders came highly recomended from many people, as i was well aware of the demands commanded by the winch and i wanted to do it right the first time, super charge themselves highly recomended the battery for this type of use. (perfect) i recall being said.

[drivesafe]

While there may have be a misunderstanding about the use of Allrounders verses Gold Allrounders, as far as using the auxiliary battery goes, I ALWAYS recommend to wire the winch to the cranking battery as this is the shortest possible cable run from the alternator to the winch and means higher voltage during winching.

As for the use of the marine battery switch, if you had wired as per the diagram and switched it ON during winching, you would have by passed the circuit breaker and there would have been no problems with the circuit breaker limiting the current handling capacity while winching and from your post this most definitely does not appear to be what was done.

Even if you had switched the marine battery switch off after winching and allowed the SC80 to charge your battery and lets say you had a 200 amp alternator, your batteries will govern the amount of current they absorb and again from what you have posted, even with your 70 amp alternator, all was woking fine when you were trying to recharge the batteries.

As far as using the Auxiliary battery goes, in my opinion, if wired correctly, this is actually a better way to use a winch but it also depends on how you actually operate the winch.

Preferred practice is to power the winch for 60 seconds and then rest for 90 seconds then repeat this as many times as needed.

Using this type of operation with the auxiliary battery to assist while winching in this manor means you have more current available while winching, you will also replace nearly twice as much used capacity while resting than can be done with a single battery set up even with your 70 amp alternator and neither battery will be drained anywhere near as low as a single battery set up would be and even with the Gold batteries, you should not have stuffed them.

There is a lot more to your problem then has been posted.

[kitacooch]

Yeh i pretty much agree, i think that most units would probably face the same issue faced by the SC80, running the winch from the Auxilliary, and being unable to charge directly into the auxilliary as this would create parallel circuit with the cranking battery and so defeating purpose of useing the Unit. So charge would have to go to cranking battery then into auxilliary battery via the cranking and because the batteries used were the calsuim type, they were not getting enough voltage to charge properly. Running the solonoid set up should eliminate my problems but i now no longer have access to the percentage of the cranking battery when using 12v system in caravan etc. I have to rely solely on the Auxilliary.
I hope this is clear now, as my critisism was supposed to be aimed at the battery in particular but also its in-compatability with the SC80 but infact is monitoring units in general, i stand corrected.

[drivesafe]

Hi again kitacooch, sorry mate but you will have no better luck charging your batteries just because you replaced the SC80 with a solenoid because the SC80 uses two relays ( also known as solenoids ) to connect the batteries in parallel.

With the batteries you have and the alternator capacity, you could run three batteries, one cranking and two auxiliary batteries and still charge the batteries in the same manor.

As posted earlier, it’s your batteries that govern how much current they are going to absorb, your problem is still the same because you are using the same batteries and even the batteries are not the total problem, it’s more likely both the way you are using your batteries while winching and that your alternator voltage is probably a bit low.

[drivesafe]

Hi kitacooch, did you manage to get everything sorted yet

[kitacooch]

Hi, yeh cheers, seems to be fine but havn't had a winching session yet to realy check the new system. The auto elec had the batteries on charge for a day and a half but managed to get them back up and are holding but as mantioned i really havn't tested them with the winch yet.
cheers