THE REAL DEAL WITH SMART ALTERNATORS
PLUS AN EASY, CHEAP SOLUTION ANYONE CAN INSTALL!

Reading online forums, you may have heard the term ‘smart’ alternator to describe the charging style of many modern 4WD’s. To put it simply a ‘smart’ alternator doesn’t provide a full level of charging output and tends to vary the level of output depending on battery voltage level and the total load requirements. The basic principal is that if the alternator doesn’t have to work hard all the time, it can save you (very small) amounts of fuel by reducing the total load and drag on the engine. The problem for many 4WDers is that this means the alternator won’t always produce enough juice to properly charge your auxiliary battery.

GET DOWN TO EARTH

Out of any issue you may encounter within your 12v setup, this is one of the most overlooked issues. Any circuit is precisely that, a circuit and has to have an unbroken path for the electricity to travel through. Without having your circuit earthed back to the source any 12v system is going to fail.

Earthing completes the 12v circuit back through the body and the chassis and finally back to the vehicle’s battery and One of the biggest mistakes 4WDers make is not ensuring adequate earth connections are built into the system.

The good news is the number one cause of 12v problems can be fixed for about $10 by adding an extra earth strap to your vehicle. It’s as simple as running cabling from your battery’s negative post through to a good clean, unpainted earth point on the body. At the same time, remove the big earth lead that runs from the negative battery post to the side of the engine block, and use a terminal cleaning tool or some sand-paper to thoroughly clean the lugs and the earthing points.

If you’re running batteries in the rear of the vehicle, don’t rely on running earth cables all the way to the engine bay – add an extra earth to the chassis somewhere in the rear. You can never have too many earths!

WHERE TO MOUNT YOUR DC-DC CHARGER

Heat and dirt are relentless and will degrade the performance of just about every electrical component found on a typical 4WD. Unfortunately, both of these factors are unavoidable when looking at your engine bay. If you install your DC-DC charging system under the bonnet of your vehicle it will be located near hot and vibrating engine components, and over time this could reduce the performance of your charger.

This poses us with a small issue as the longer the cable running from our DC-DC voltage regulator, to our battery the more voltage drop you will encounter, so choosing a location closer to your battery setup or using a thicker cable to do the job whilst keeping the charger up and away from heat sources like your exhaust manifold and engine block is the absolute ideal setup.

This also means that if you have your second battery in the rear of your 4WD you should consider mounting your DC-DC charger, in a similar location to your Auxillary battery to maintain maximum charging potential.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT CHARGER

Dual battery systems aren’t all made equal, when looking at DC/DC chargers like the D250SA from CTEK, you will find operate as a ‘smart’ charger which means the device takes all available electrical current from the input and intelligently charges your auxiliary battery the way it needs to maintain and maximise your battery life.

A DC-DC charger can also protect your battery by monitoring the temperature and adjusting its charging levels to prevent over-charging or boiling a battery. The D250SA also includes a built in solar voltage regulator to let you charge batteries either via the alternator or an unregulated solar panel like the Adventure Kings 110W Fixed solar panel.

Most alternators will put out somewhere between 60 and 100amps. That doesn’t mean they’re putting that many amps into the battery, though. When the vehicle’s running a large portion of the alternator’s output is taken up by the vehicle’s electrical systems, like the the ignition system, the headlights, the stereo, the heater/air conditioning system and so forth, so alternative charging solutions are a great option to maintain your batteries health and charging ability.

LOWER QUALITY GEAR

There aren’t many things that are more frustrating than completing a 12v accessory installation and having it not work as you expected. The problem comes down to using lower-grade components to save on cost.

The biggest mistake that many 4WDers make when they install a 12v system is using cheaper lower quality plugs, terminals and connectors, and under-sized wiring particularly from a DC-DC Charger to the battery. Absolute reliability in off-road environments is crucial, but this can be sacrificed by choosing to use cheap parts that won’t stand up to vibrations, dust, heat and water.

The simple message here is don’t cut corners. There’s no point trying to save a few bucks on your wiring if it compromises the rest of your $500 system, or could cause a fire, ruining the rest of your vehicle.

So don’t be afraid to ask the chap in the Auto store or electrical supplier what cabling best suits your application, cheaping out here could cost you a battery, or even worse, your 4WD!
GET THE MOST FROM YOUR SOLAR SETUP

Solar power has gained stacks of popularity for campers all over Australia in a big way over the last couple of years, the increased affordability allows many 4WDers to be able to camp for much longer without having to waste any fuel running their motor in the morning to recharge their batteries.

To get the most from your solar setup, first you need to make sure your voltage regulator can cope with the supply from your solar panels.  There are two main types of regulators used – Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). A PWM type drops down the input voltage (near 20v) to the required output charge voltage and turns excess voltage into the charging amperage using pulses and during the spaces in between checking the voltage.

Where an MPPT type regulators like the Adventure Kings MPPT Regulator monitors the amount of voltage being accepted by the vehicles battery and adjusts the output to suit It does this by monitoring the power and voltage being output by your solar panel/s and adjusts the charging voltage for maximum usable power. In general, an MPPT type regulator will improve the amount of power able to be extracted from your panels by up to 30% in varying light conditions and offers more efficiency overall.