Secondary Battery Alternatives

I quite like the idea of a secondary battery for a few reasons:

• Jumpstart your own car
• Future proofing for more camping trips if we ever get out of this lockdown
• To power my 2ch dash cam for much longer whilst parked up

In the Gen 4 I think room could be made by relocating the washer bottle over to the bulkhead and putting the 2nd battery in its place.

What got me on to thinking about this mostly is the Parking Mode on my 2ch dash cam, BlackVue does a power pack but it quite expensive at £330 and for a little more outlay a secondary battery makes more sense.

There is quite a cost to this with the Gen4 having a smart alternator, so I have been thinking of alternatives.
1. Jump starter packs NOCO GB50
2. Battery boxes BisonBattery boxes Bison
3. And the Li-Po power packs And the Li-Po power packs - Not sure if all of these type are suitable for jump starting?

The pros and cons I can see are:

1. Are small and light weight
2. Probably have the same power as a secondary battery, but only need to take it when out on an adventure, not all the time
3. Light weight and can be expensive and loads to choose from

Any thoughts on these options or any I have missed? I would welcome comments from seasoned campers.

My current thoughts are the Bison Battery Box may be best for the occasional camper?

I installed an 45Ah LiFePo4 battery as primary battery and moved the original battery into a second tray.

After I have been making very good experiences with a LiFePo4 for my motorbike I wanted to test this as a car battery.

So far it works very good but we did not yet have very cold winters.

Don't know much about smart alternators but plenty of caravan owners must already be charging the "second battery", if you camp this would make sense.
So I googled and found this

www.12voltplanet.co.uk/auxiliary-battery...art-alternators.html

May help to understand the options if you want to go this route.

Thought about something along the lines of a portable battery box, but you have to remember to charge it, and pack it (I always forget something!). Never seen the NOCO things before, not a bad idea. Don't think they are up to camping though? Website states "- up to 6 smartphone recharges". I went the route of fitting a second battery, so always there if you need to jump start, always charged, but quite a small battery (have tested on an overnight camp though)

With the Noco, I was just thinking to power some USB LED strings lights and to use as a power bank type thing and hopefully have enough left for a jump-start.

Where you have relocated the washer bottle is like what I was thinking for the Gen4 although it looks bigger 4 liters I think it is?

Like you say a battery box would require some memory to remember to charge it or keep it connected to a battery conditioner. But you are only carrying when needed.

A secondary battery i think is the best option so far. My dash cam would recored for days on end in parking mode. No need for a Noco or similar so that would offset the 2nd battery cost.

Not heard of many fitting one in Gen4 up to now.

Think I spent about £100 in bits, inc new battery for my set up. Not seen the engine bay on a Gen4, but should be able to squeeze one in somewhere!

There are plans afoot by TLR in Australia to make a battery tray and a new water bottle, to replace the current gen4 water bottle.
That could be a good solution for you.

crash486 JB74W

Just spending the evening on Google because I have nothing better to do

Spot the difference:
Object 1

Object 2

Mine is a gen3 but still same same
I just enlarged the original battery stand and squeezed a 70 Ah AGM battery in there. No more problems in cold weather, never worry when the lights are left on. and just a large USB battery bank for stuff that needs charging on travels.
some of those can do jump starts as well, but i do not need that anymore i think. Still bring starter cables just in case.
I thougth it would be best to improve the exsisting battery rather than put work into one more problem to maintain. at least when there is no winch yet.

So yes, why not a lifepo, lipo or similar flat easy to place in the car charged by a DC charger. If your main battery is better you very rarely need a jump start.

Soeley wrote: Just spending the evening on Google because I have nothing better to do

Spot the difference:
Object 1

Object 2

I got a shock from both of them and the second one left me with eye damage.

Yes, think the systems for smart alternators are much more expensive than the old voltage sensitive relay type.