[Brunnie]

This thread is full of great information, thanks to those who took the time to show and explain their projects. I am wanting to put a battery system in the rear storage area like many of you have, the purpose would be to run a fridge, maybe some camp lights and run a charging station for camera/drone/dewalt batteries. The main use for the vehicle is trips to take train pictures in hard to get to spots, but I will be moving alot, so there will be plenty of oportunity to charge the system via the alternator, mostly I just need it for overnight stays. Does anybody have a recommendation on amp hours? I was thinking about two 23 amp hour batteries from Dakota, that seems like it would be enough juice for overnight. Thanks

I bought a BattleBorn 50Ah battery and a Redarc BCDC1225D charge controller. you will also need some sort of cutoff device between the Lithium battery so you do not drain your main battery when the e4ngine is not running, and some 40 amp fuses. Redarc has everything on their site that you will need, not sure about wire. Installation was fairly easy, all the main instructions are in the Redarc brochure. Call or email them and get their advice.

One tip... don't skimp on batteries. They are not all alike. Talk to the guys at BattleBorn.

 

[Tonkatoy]

I have ordered 100ah 12v battery set up with bms from Lynx, I believe this is the same set up at Chaz used. For charger I was going to go with the Victron charger that Chaz used as well. The description of the charger says that it has a setting to only charge when the engine is running, is that compatible with Xterras? Would this negate a need for an isolation switch at front battery? Thanks

 

[Kilo Sierra]

I have ordered 100ah 12v battery set up with bms from Lynx, I believe this is the same set up at Chaz used. For charger I was going to go with the Victron charger that Chaz used as well. The description of the charger says that it has a setting to only charge when the engine is running, is that compatible with Xterras? Would this negate a need for an isolation switch at front battery? Thanks

Not sure if you got a response but if that dc-dc charger is anything like mine it requires a separate wire (usually through the ignition) to power it on to get it to start charging. So it should isolate the starter battery unless it receives the signal. I put mine on a separate switch so after starting I could manually turn it on, but mainly because I wanted to make sure the battery temp was within its charging range before it started. It is redundant because my bms has a temp sensor, but at the time I didn't want to risk it.