Battery dead, replace and upgrade?

[db484bhpv8]

So whats recommended?

I need good power as i need to run 225 watt nitrous bottle heaters, maybe 2 at a time.
Saving a little weight would be nice also.

Looking at an Odyssey PC950 at £146.99 at the moment...

[QBee]

db484bhpv8 said:

So whats recommended?

I need good power as i need to run 225 watt nitrous bottle heaters, maybe 2 at a time.
Saving a little weight would be nice also.

Looking at an Odyssey PC950 at £146.99 at the moment...

Ok guys, so what's stopping him having a second battery, like trucks, coaches and horse boxes do, both charged off the one alternator, the second one to power his, er......habit? It could sit in the boot.

[Sardonicus]

096 Bosch S5 sits in the stock batt tray and has huge cranking power, what more do you need? check it out Derek. There is a company on EBay selling OE Honda 096 batts for about 55 to the door IIRC.

Edited by Sardonicus on Friday 2nd January 20:50

[Richard 858]

Derek, firstly thanks for returning the cans, received all ok. Secondly I've recently fitted an Odyssey PC950 (bought it from the classic car show) with a Powervamp ally bracket to suit. Obviously no nitrous to run but plenty of cranking power etc. supposed to hold it's charge for 18 months but I keep mine on an accumate charger for peace of mind.

If you're thinking of fitting it in the passenger footwell I'd suggest binning the original fibreglass box, plugging the mounting bolt holes and fixing it upright to the vertical end of the footwell, it gains a good 4" of legroom.

[Alexdaredevils]

Sardonicus said:

096 Bosch S5 sits in the stock batt tray and has huge cranking power, what more do you need? check it out Derek. There is a company on EBay selling OE Honda 096 batts for about 55 to the door IIRC.

1+ for Bosch Silverline, never had one go flat

[QBee]

Alexdaredevils said:

Sardonicus said:

096 Bosch S5 sits in the stock batt tray and has huge cranking power, what more do you need? check it out Derek. There is a company on EBay selling OE Honda 096 batts for about 55 to the door IIRC.

1+ for Bosch Silverline, never had one go flat

Just removed a silver Bosch battery from my Audi.......2.7 volts is all it would hold.

But then every battery has a finite life, and to use a technical term, that one was farqued.

[db484bhpv8]

I have ordered the Odyssey PC950 from Powervamp off fleabay and pick it up from Argos tomorrow.

I already moved the old battery last year to the boot so the wiring is in place and i can modify the mounting and clamp to suit. Just need to change the cable ends or fit posts.

[SportsCarShop]

Powervamp are my battery supplier of choice, very nice people and the finest quality- always like aircraft people that do cars as a sideline! Their square battery, a PRV 35 is the one I use for most things, has truly massive power and so small, fixes the Tuscan's propensity to ignite too. It's worth knowing that they do superb leads to order and Anderson plugs, (nows your chance to put a short Anderson lead in the footwell too) all their stuff is reasonably priced. I wouldn't fit posts, the battery fixings are M6, so you need well fitted eyelets on their nice floppy welder cable!

Just remembered your battery's in the boot now, doh!

Edited by SportsCarShop on Friday 2nd January 22:51

Edited by SportsCarShop on Friday 2nd January 22:58

[SILICONEKID345HP]

This battery has been superb

[phazed]

Don't dismiss a Varley gel.

Edited by phazed on Saturday 3rd January 17:49

[Richard 858]

Where's your fire extinguisher mounted Daz ?

[SILICONEKID345HP]

Richard 858 said:

Where's your fire extinguisher mounted Daz ?

Finished job .Why is it dangerous in the boot ?

[SportsCarShop]

SILICONEKID345HP said:

Richard 858 said:

Where's your fire extinguisher mounted Daz ?

Finished job .Why is it dangerous in the boot ?

Arguably there is no significant structure between the rear bulkhead and the tail lamps, and the fuel tank lives in that space. Adding a battery - even an aircraft quality dry one, is rather completing the components required to build the bomb. Much better to have that aircraft type dry battery - not a gel one or a bucket-of-acid-one - inside the cabin within the perimeter rail.

[db484bhpv8]

SportsCarShop said:

Arguably there is no significant structure between the rear bulkhead and the tail lamps, and the fuel tank lives in that space. Adding a battery - even an aircraft quality dry one, is rather completing the components required to build the bomb. Much better to have that aircraft type dry battery - not a gel one or a bucket-of-acid-one - inside the cabin within the perimeter rail.

I also got an 11lb ally nitrous bottle in mine

[SILICONEKID345HP]

SportsCarShop said:

Arguably there is no significant structure between the rear bulkhead and the tail lamps, and the fuel tank lives in that space. Adding a battery - even an aircraft quality dry one, is rather completing the components required to build the bomb. Much better to have that aircraft type dry battery - not a gel one or a bucket-of-acid-one - inside the cabin within the perimeter rail.

If you wanted a safe car you would not be driving a TVR .. I would sell your car and buy a euro box with all the safety features .

Now stop being pedantic.

[SportsCarShop]

SILICONEKID345HP said:

SportsCarShop said:

Arguably there is no significant structure between the rear bulkhead and the tail lamps, and the fuel tank lives in that space. Adding a battery - even an aircraft quality dry one, is rather completing the components required to build the bomb. Much better to have that aircraft type dry battery - not a gel one or a bucket-of-acid-one - inside the cabin within the perimeter rail.

If you wanted a safe car you would not be driving a TVR .. I would sell your car and buy a euro box with all the safety features .

Now stop being pedantic.

Not being at all pedantic, and I'm speaking from a glass fibre crash repairer's point of view, with a rather lovely other half that was batted some way down the road by a girl changing a cd. She's still a very nervous passenger. But if she'd been in that car, with the tank and battery in the boot in the same accident, whole different story. TVRs have always been built on a budget, hence the sketchiness here and there, but the battery is inboard of the rail.

Edited by SportsCarShop on Sunday 4th January 06:57

[ChimpOnGas]

db484bhpv8 said:

So whats recommended? I need good power as i need to run 225 watt nitrous bottle heaters, maybe 2 at a time. Saving a little weight would be nice also.

Two 225 watt heaters means you're probably drawing 40 amps with both running simultaneously, as a comparison your starter motor could well draw up to 200 amps but only for as long as it's cranking (think seconds).

So what we really need to know how long your bottle heaters are on for, from this information you can calculate what size battery you need.

With a lead acid battery amp hours and the physical size of the battery are unavoidably linked, and sadly as the battery size goes up so does the weight. Any Odyssey battery will be fantastic quality but the little Odyssey PC950 can never give you the grunt of a full sized battery (any full sized battery).

A short burst of high load such as cranking is very different to running an accessory over an extended time, a PC950 will be fine for starter motor duties but you'll need something beefier if you're running those heaters with the engine off for any more than a few minutes.

Have a look at how the amp hour & reserve capacity figures compare between the little PC950 and the proper 072 sized PC1500.

Specifications	PC950		PC1500
Pulse (5 second) Hot Cranking Amps (PHCA)	950		1500
Cold Cranking Amps (CCA)	400		850
20Hr Nominal Capacity (Ah)	34		68
Reserve Capacity Minutes	60		135
Dimensions L x W x H (in)	9.8 x 3.8 x 6.1		10.85x6.99x7.12
Metric Dimensions L x W x H (mm)	250.0 x 97.0 x 156.0		275.6x177.5x180.8
Weight (lbs)	20.0		49.5
Weight (kg)	9.0		22.4

db484bhpv8 said:

Saving a little weight would be nice also.

Unfortunately as you can see from the above table there is also a massive jump in weight, like I say this is unavoidable if you want a properly grunty battery. Just have a look at what the 4x4 winching crowd use, you'll not see them running the puny little PC950 because it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding let alone a 1.5 ton Landie out of a ditch.

They use the full fat PC1500.. and sometimes two of them



I fitted a PC1500 down in the passenger footwell of 'Ol Gasbag', probably massive overkill for my needs but we do use it as a three day Le Mans campsite power station (music, lighting, mobile charging ect) and it never bats an eyelid

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=111...

[QBee]

SportsCarShop said:

SILICONEKID345HP said:

SportsCarShop said:

Arguably there is no significant structure between the rear bulkhead and the tail lamps, and the fuel tank lives in that space. Adding a battery - even an aircraft quality dry one, is rather completing the components required to build the bomb. Much better to have that aircraft type dry battery - not a gel one or a bucket-of-acid-one - inside the cabin within the perimeter rail.

If you wanted a safe car you would not be driving a TVR .. I would sell your car and buy a euro box with all the safety features .

Now stop being pedantic.

Not being at all pedantic, and I'm speaking from a glass fibre crash repairer's point of view, with a rather lovely other half that was batted some way down the road by a girl changing a cd. She's still a very nervous passenger. But if she'd been in that car, with the tank and battery in the boot in the same accident, whole different story. TVRs have always been built on a budget, hence the sketchiness here and there, but the battery is inboard of the rail.

Edited by SportsCarShop on Sunday 4th January 06:57

Does the same apply to a normal steel built car? Fuel tank in my Audi A8 is in the usual place, and the battery is in the driver's side rear corner, just in front of the rear lights

[Pupp]

QBee said:

Does the same apply to a normal steel built car? Fuel tank in my Audi A8 is in the usual place, and the battery is in the driver's side rear corner, just in front of the rear lights

Er, isn't the A8 predominantly a die-cast aluminium monocoque with sodding great impact beams under those bumpers?

[phazed]

Pupp said:

QBee said:

Does the same apply to a normal steel built car? Fuel tank in my Audi A8 is in the usual place, and the battery is in the driver's side rear corner, just in front of the rear lights

Er, isn't the A8 predominantly a die-cast aluminium monocoque with sodding great impact beams under those bumpers?

Ah, similar construction to a chim then .

My theory is that my car uses fuel at such a rate that there is hardly a time when it's a danger!