Anyone out there know how to set up a trickle charger setup on board an fj60 that could re-energize a deep cycle battery (used for boat accessories and maybe an ARB freezer someday). What special switches, etc. would be needed?

why trickle charge it. It will take a normal charge off of your regular alternator. But if you want you could just install another alternator with really low amperage to "trickle charge" it.

deep cycle batteries are just made to take heavy loads infrequently, unlike a regular battery which takes minimal loads frequently

but if you want to trickle charge it with the sun it is possible...

Originally posted by creaky
Anyone out there know how to set up a trickle charger setup on board an fj60 that could re-energize a deep cycle battery (used for boat accessories and maybe an ARB freezer someday). What special switches, etc. would be needed?

So TRD - how would you set it up; 1) to charge a battery that runs a baitwell, depthfinder etc. and 2) run an arb fridge? Any advice appreciated.

actually you want to find a three stage charger that can be run between your alternator and the battery.

Youll have to search around the solar websites and check in the RV sections. But most importantly is figuring out what your needs per 24hr cycle will be and estimate amp hours that the battery will be drained. you should shoot for around 50% drain be4 recharging. If you were to connect it to the alternator directly- and you drove the rig alot - the battery would rarely drain below 10% depending on size. The bigger the deep cycle you got....the smaller the drain. Which is not good because you can drastically shorten a deep cycles life. The same is true for overdraining to 80% each cycle. Ideally measure what the ARB plus other things will draw if you leave em on all the time in a 24 hr cycle and buy the battery size accordingly so that it gets something like 50-60% drained be4 you start it next.

The ARB fridge pulls down like .9-3 ah which mulitiplied by 24hours isnt too much. If thats all youre going to run- i would suggest doing a dual setup whereby the deep cycle is only for trips to moab and what not and on a daily basis you run an old fashioned battery which is great for stop-start fast recharging.

The other problem is that if your deep cycle is for daily driving- then its probably going to need to be small- whcih isnt good on trips where you might be running lots of other stuff like lights-pc-heaters-fridges-etc. Those kinds of trips would require a biggie Deep cycle-probably 75+lbs. Running that size on an alternator that is daily driven will just reduce the life of the deep cycle. Youd have to have a way to detach the alternator- or bypass it until the deep cycle is down to 50% be4 flipping it back on for a charge. Dual setup is the best because a deep cycle loses very little charge if it sits idle unlike other batteries and you could size it for your needs under serious travelling, camping, wheeling in moab for a week type load. Plus its a great backup if your regular battery fizzles.