Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hey gang, just moved the batteries into the tray of the lux (82 model petrol), and working on wiring in the smart start, now the voltage need sto get up to 13.6V to open the solenoid, yet at the terminal I can only get 13.4V (about .4V drop from output in front), now I really don't wanna re-wire the batts with bigger wire (I did use the correct gauge to start with), so are there any other tricks I could do to boost the voltage at the batts????

will a bigger altenator work?? or should I get redarc to change the on voltage (apparently itr can be done)?? or whats the easiest way?

A possible easy option depening on how you've set it up would be to have the "smart start" unit located up at the front of the car, but this depends on how you're running the cable to the tray of course; it's only an option if you have a separate cable running to each battery.

Failing that you need the relay to be tripping at a different voltage.

Jason

at the moment have run one power wire off starter to the rear batt's then was going to have a short link from batt 1 via the smart start to batt 2.

Only way to fix it is run large cable over the longest run.

Also your starter is going to suffer because as soon as the current load goes up your voltage goes down. ie starter is probably 200amp odd during starting (at a guess).

You will probably lose something like 1.5v while trying to start the car depending on what size cable is being used. I'm guessing if you are already losing that much voltage just charging then your cable is not big enough.

if you used the correct cable size and youve still got voltage drop problems then youve probably got a crappy joint. clean all your terminals and make sure any crimp joints are done properly. you can also get a "cream" for joints, but bugger me if i can think of what it is called.......

Actually, when you say you "used the correct gauge", what gauge did you use and how long is the cable?

Jason

well, used awg 2 wire over 3 metres, really strange thing though kicked her over last night and checked it again and was hitting 13.5 at the batts just idling, give it 2000 rpm and was 13.7V so all seems good?!?!?!

thanx for the advice gang