Broken ARB Air Locker

Last trip to Sundown I noticed some unusual noises on the way into the park, but couldn’t track is amongst all the other rattles from the crap in the back.

I had the lockers installed 6 months ago when the front diff was broken as it seemed an opportune time. This was my first chance to really test them out in anger, and I planned to have some fun getting into places that were normally too rough or steep to attempt.

Next day I merrily headed down a track I wanted to explore and knew needed lockers and luck to get back up. Imagine my suprise when half an hour down the track I hear the compressor kick in and not stop – oh oh – air leak.

Investigation showed the rear diff breather venting air madly, making me happy that at least it worked as opposed to blowing out diff seals and oil. Under the bonnet had oil spraying out the solenoid, meaning oil and air were definately in close contact – something not in the ARB design.

A quick re-wire to engage the front locker first, and a bit of luck that meant the rear locker was actually still engaging despite the leak meant I could get home, cursing the complexity of the system all the way. A mechanical locker would never have these types of problems.

Mr ARB came to the party and fixed it under warranty, blaming the ARB dealer / installer who had since sold his business. When pressed for details they muttered about a broken copper line, however the oil flowing back up the line pointed instead to a failed seal. They wouldn’t discuss it any further except to cover their ass.

Who was at fault? I’ll never know. It does go to show however that the Legendary Air Locker is not without it’s bad points, in my case the significant risk of a 10km walk back to help.

My vote is with the Lock-Rite or Lokka for simplicity and therefore reliability.

Flexing the rear of a 100 Series Landcruiser

Hard numbers on rear suspension travel for my HZJ105.

When reading articles in magazines, I see this statement all the time: “We broke a shock absorber” and then remarkable stories of welding it up with batteries or bubblegum.

Myself on the other hand have never broken a shock absorber. Not in the rally car, not on Cape York corrugations, not playing silly buggers at Ormeo, not whilst breaking diff’s, not whilst launching 4wd’s or race cars airborne, not whilst towing heavy loads, not whilst hot, cold etc etc. I have tried good factory shocks, worn out crap factory shocks, Monroe’s, Koni’s, Bilsteins, Old Man Emu, yet none of them have broken. Get the drift.

Let me introduce you to the poor underappreciated Bump Stop. You see, when a suspension system reaches the limits of it’s travel, up or down, it has to stop. If it stops gently, all are happy, if it slams hard, steel on steel, something may give. If it slams hard time and again, fatigue will make sure something will give. Most importantly, in MOST cases, shock absorbers are NOT bump stops. Even if they are uprated “I have a bigger piston than you” shocks, the mounts still aren’t built like bump stops. Something will break.

Here are the general scenarios:

  • The very common – shock is too long when compressed – it will become the bump stop over large bumps – Very Bad (Broken Jeep again Adam?)
  • If the shock is too long when fully open, the spring will become free and will rattle / may fall out – Kinda Bad (and really irritating isn’t it Mr AdNic)
  • The other not so common scenario is a really long stiff spring and a short shock. In this case the spring keeps trying to extend, but the shock stops it early. It is common for the shock to limit the downward travel and act as a bottom bump stop in Live Axle vehicles, but a really long spring or heavy spring will overload the normal behavior – presto – broken shock. The spring free length should only be 10 – 20mm longer than the shock, just enough to keep it captive.

Aftermarket suspension suppliers are generally very quiet on this particular topic. Trying to get numbers is next to impossible. Even the Internet discussion groups are generally ignorant or won’t discuss the travel numbers for their vehicles.

Well here are the numbers for the rear of a 100 Series Landcruiser. The rear suspension design is apparently not the same for the IFS and Live Axle vehicles. Mine happens to be a HZJ105 (live Axle) fitted with Old Man Emu aftermarket suspension. In these pic’s I am in the process of swapping the Old Man Emu OME863 rear springs which were too high / stiff for my use, with a set of King Springs KTRS-70.

All measurements are shock measurements from centre of pin to base of top mounting plate.

  • Full Droop, no springs, no shocks, sway bar  – 640mm
  • Full Droop, no springs, no shocks, no sway bar  – 640mm
  • Fully Compressed, no springs, no shocks, no sway bar  – 400mm
  • Full Droop, King Springs, no shocks, no sway bar  – 655mm
  • Full Droop, King Springs, OME Shocks, no sway bar  – 640mm
  • One side Fully Compressed, King Springs, No Shocks, no sway bar – 505mm

The following pic’s document and explain the above some more

  
 
Fully Compressed on bump stops. The cruiser is a great candidate for polyairs looking at this pic. I normally don’t like them as cars with the bumpstop inside the spring will have heavily limited up travel trying to compress the bag to zero size. In this case the bag would only be compressed approx 50%, making it highly effective at carrying additional load whilst not stopping travel (other than the increased spring rate).


Exhaust touches when on bump stops. Toyota got things very tucked away up there. The panhard rod is just above the horizontal. Lowering the mount would significantly equalize the Left – Right travel of the diff. The panhard rod ideally should be at horizontal when the suspension is at rest.


Sway Bar still not horizontal at full compression. There is some discussion that sway bar mount extension will improve wheel travel. Disconnecting it definitely improves side to side flex, but the actual design in itself does NOT limit down travel. The numbers above prove that. Note the upward direction of the bottom control arm, but the downward slope of the sway bar.

 
Full droop is limited by control arm bushes. (shock is disconnected at bottom). Diff is hard to RHS from Panhard Rod. Note the top control arm angled to the right and the large angle on the panhard rod. The compliance of the upper / lower control arm bushes are limiting down travel. A longer panhard rod would reduce this effect. The axle would spring back up to this spot even when pushed down further.


Same pic on the RHS. Not the top control arm angled to the right.


One side (LHS) only carrying full rear weight with King Spring. The RHS is at full droop. The vehicle is empty. When I first did this test with the jack the front LH wheel was on the ground taking some of the weight. To test it properly, you need to have the car on just the opposite wheels. These springs are possibly a little soft, but I plan to install polyairs. I would like to see about 10 – 20mm clearance from the bumpstop here.

So it looks like in a 100 Series, suspension droop is limited by the bush compliance. This is loaded by the panhard rod. The rod works in an arc, and in the case of the Landcruiser, this arc is mostly downward  below the horizontal. This effect is to move the diff significantly to the right as the suspension droops. As the rod is working at an angle most of the time the bushes are pushed to one side only, binding them, and limiting travel.

The next mod for me will be a panhard rod drop bracket. You could extend the rod, but this is simply patching the problem. Lowering the body mount point will still leave it up out of the way, but make the arc work above and below the horizontal. This will reduce the effect of the Left / Right movement and keep the dif closer to the centreline for longer. Presto, less bush stress and more travel. There is some discussion on effects on roll centre’s. When I know more I’ll update.

These results mean the factory sway bar setup does not limit droop. Whilst I would disconnect it off-road to get maximum flex at the rear, it is the panhard rod / control arm bushes that limit droop. No need to make crop brackets yet.

It looks like Mr ARB / OME has his shock lengths pretty well perfect. I was quite surprised. I am not normally an OME fan, but have been quite impressed with them in this vehicle. Acceptable on road, great off road. The maximum free droop is normally 640mm in and that is the length of the shock. This keeps the spring captive, but within 15mm of the end of its travel. A slightly longer shock would give slightly more travel, adding lever effect over the axle, possibly another 20mm at the tyre. The compressed length is less then 400mm, so they aren’t acting as a top bump stop and going to be damaged.

Now all I need is for someone to try the same with the front. Cmon guys, give me some numbers. I don’t have an excuse to do the front yet myself.

If you are looking at aftermarket suspension you can use the above to determine if what you are doing is of benefit. There is no point in going for longer shocks that 640mm unless you drop the panhard rod a bit, or force the bushes with longer springs. If the compressed length exceeds 400mm, you need to extend the bump-stops. Now I just have to figure out how to flex up like the rear of this Rangie. Rover Flex

HIR Bulbs for High Beam

Being a keen experimenter and open to new ideas, I decided to try the cheaper HIR bulb option in my ’98 100 Series Landcruiser High Beam as opposed to the HID kits. The ’98 Cruiser runs a traditional glass multi segment fresnel lens with two parabolic reflectors. The reflectors are separate for High and low beam with separate bulbs. The later year cruisers have changed to a faceted reflector with a clear polycarbonate unbreakable lens.

The High Beam bulb in my cruiser is a 9005 HB3, Low beam 9006 HB4. These can be swapped with a HIR 9011 bulb that is very similar in design. A small plastic tab needs to have about 3mm of plastic trimmed to fit in the socket.

I purchased mine from www.finemotoring.com in the US who has plenty of information on HIR bulbs. The bulbs arrived in about 10 days, and I found the service prompt and friendly.

HIR bulbs are brighter than conventional Halogen bulbs, including the high output types, and cheaper than HID. I went for them as they are on instantly (HID needs to warm up),  cost effective, simple drop in, no ballast to mount, and I wanted to see what they were like. There is also less legal concerns running these bulbs than HID’s, but I’ll skirt that issue as it seems to be somewhat murky. Headlight and vehicle modification legality debates are contentious at best.

The HIR’s  draw 65w, meaning there is no need to re-wire the car to get a reasonable voltage to them. Running 100W or 130W halogen’s requires re-wiring in most cars. Failing to do this gives a significant voltage drop through the loom, and low voltage at the bulb. Halogen’s hate low voltages very quickly falling in brightness. A 130w bulb underdriven will produce less effective light then a well driven 55W. I have rewired the headlights in several previous vehicles, but am getting lazy in my old age. I haven’t measured terminal voltage to check the amount of loss, but with the engine running and 13.8v at the battery, they seemed fine.

The bulbs that I removed where Silvania 55w units of unknown age. There was no visible material deposited on the glass and the filaments were in good condition, so I would estimate their output to be well within 90% of new. Bulb’s tend to lose output as they age. High beam doesn’t get as much use as low beam, likely contributing to their good condition.

ARB and IPF are flogging HIR as the next best thing, with prices to match. I don’t know where they are sourcing theirs from, and some of their information seems contradictory with other sources on the web. Well, that’s this new intertechnoweb thingymajig for ya.

Fitting was moderately easy. The sockets for the bulbs are tight and tend to hold dirt, with difficult to remove plugs. They are also require removal of the battery to access the sockets, and lifting 35kg of AGM battery out of the tray is great fun.

The outcome is “acceptable”. The light is whiter and brighter, but not hugely so. These are not HID output colour’s or levels. The photo’s don’t give a good comparison as the camera light metering affects what you see. I would estimate the increase to be in the realm of 30 – 50%. Due to the lens design it doesn’t throw the light that much further, maybe 10 or 20m, but the fringe regions are more clearly lit, and the colour is less yellow, probably about 300K whiter at a guess. The centre area’s have more white light in them, but were acceptable before. There is some colour difference when projected onto the garage door, or when you look at them, however the camera doesn’t capture it. They are NOT blue or purple to look at.

I would score them about 6/10 – acceptable as a quick, simple cost effective upgrade with more, but with the falling price of HID kits, I think I’ll just go HID in everything.

 

 
Low Beam – Conventional


High Beam – Conventional
(Landcruiser keeps Low Beam lit when High is on)


High Beam – HIR Bulbs

eBay Chinese HID’s and Hella Rallye 4000 Review

I first saw Hella Predator HID’s back in 2000. I *nearly* managed to steal a set from Possum Bourne’s (RIP) support truck in 2001, but the mechanic got suspicious when I borrowed his spanner to work on his truck. It was a good Rally Qld. Unfortunately at $1200+ / piece they were out of my league.

Then along comes 2007, eBay and the advertising below: “UNVEIL THE NOBLE’ SGASEITY, DISPLAY THE KING’ DEMEANOUR” How could I resist? I love dodgy asian translations to advertise stuff. It was the above eye catching statement that made me decide this had to be the best HID offer on eBay. Oh, and it was the cheapest. The guy said he was in Australia, but the excessive postage cost and long delivery time seemed to put some doubt on that fact. The ratings on the account were good, and the product arrived OK, but he did cancel his account 2 weeks later. Dodgy? I’m still not sure. I did order and pay for extra High Tension cables, and had a longer 12v wiring loom supplied instead, but this could be simple mis-communication.  

So I am now the proud owner of some shiny kit to fit the shiny Hella Rallye 4000’s that came with my cruiser. I went with 4300K (the lowest colour temp) bulbs after doing much research across the web. It’s not a pretty purple colour, but far bluer than a normal Halogen. Whilst it might look cool, blue is very hard to actually see anything by, especially in dust or bad weather. That’s why fog lights are yellow, it penetrates more, and reflects less. I know in the rally car, in bad dust, you could see more with the driving lights off. White light reflects badly. Dull yellow headlights work best. 4300K is not yellow at all, but it is very easy to see by in good weather.

These are 35W units, the most common. There are some suppliers out there with 50W units. After testing, I don’t need the 50w units, these are fine. For those that aren’t aware, colour temperature has NOTHING to do with brightness. There is a large range of what people call “white” light. It is measured in degrees Kelvin. It is based on a block of pure carbon being heated in a vacuum. As is gets hotter it starts to glow. The actual temperature of the carbon is used as a reference to the colour it is glowing, from dull red (1500K), to yellow (2000-3000K), white (4300 – 5000K) , blue (6000K) and purple (7000K) as it gets hotter.  I decided to put them into the driving lights for a number of reasons

  1. If they play up it’s no big deal
  2. They take 30secs to warm up – not ideal in normal headlights
  3. I want these for LONG range, and the driving lights are for that purpose
  4. I did always want those Hella Predators

  

All required equipment and safety gear 🙂

I was not impressed when I pulled the Rallye 4000’s open and found that they were NOT watertight. They are designed to shed water, but there is no ring seal, and no seal near the bulb. The sealed electrical connection at the rear becomes a bit of a waste. So much for the overpriced driving lights. The Lightforce 170’s I put into my brother’s Jeep were far more waterproof than this.  I have had some comments from a friend with one that the reflectors don’t corrode like many lights, even with cracked glass, but I still prefer mine sealed. I was further unimpressed with Hella pricing a replacement lens within $20 of the cost of a whole new light. At $220ea for a light, no clear lens protectors and no reasonable replacement cost, that’s just rude.  I put $40 Lightskinz on mine, having been happy with them before. They don’t collect dirt like normal clear plastic protectors.

 

 
 I was rather impressed with the top quality silicon High Tension leads, and the silicon rubber seals on all the electrical connections. Cheap chinese perhaps, but very well presented with a high quality feel.  You can see the standard halogen vs the HID bulb. It looks like they simply change the plastic base for the bulb, and keep the capsule the same. When you buy them you generally have a choice of colour temp and base style to suit you vehicle and preference. The short High Tension leads are a problem. You need to put the igniters/ballast unit close to light, possibly where it will get wet. I would prefer well back in the engine bay. Oh well, have to see how waterproof it really is. Mine is mounted inside the bullbar. You can’t extend these leads easily, as they may carry 6000V+ to fire the bulbs. That needs special connectors and insulation, like your spark plugs.

 
The HID Bulb is slightly wider than the standard glass envelope. This makes it a touch fit in the Rallye 4000’s. I am still concerned about the touch fit becoming a break fit when things get hot, but seems OK so far. Ideally I should file the glass reflector a little with a dremel or something, but can’t be bothered. You can see the silicon sealant Hella uses doesn’t go 360 deg around the socket. The reflector is upside down in this pic. It’s only designed to deflect the water, not handle submersion.

 
Round plug (seal) – Square Hole. Bugger. Oh well, silicon fixes all ills, and it’s out of sight when on the car.

 
There are lots of comments on the web debating how HID’s may not work with normal reflectors due to the light coming from a ball as opposed to a filament, or not being at the focal point. They may be correct, but seems to work OK with these lights, and I suspect with most others. You can see the actual glass ball within the main capsule.

 
HID on the right, standard on the left. You can see the colour comparison. Real colours are hard to capture with a camera as the brightness throws it’s metering out badly. Regard it as comparative as opposed to qualitative.

 
HID on the left. I would estimate at least double the standard brightness, and close to triple. The standard High Beam on the outside looks very poor in comparison.

 
Slightly longer shot. The beam is fuller over a larger area, and far more intense.

 
Now for the acid test. This is standard Landcruiser High Beam. That is a 55w low beam and 60w high beam both operating together.

 
Add HID – presto – we have daylight. Again the camera changes it somewhat, but to get the best idea look at 3 things.

  1. Colour – far whiter light
  2. Distance – You can see the end of the street
  3. Spread – that 1/2 circle is very bright in real life.

I don’t particularly love the spread of the Rallye 4000’s – it’s too narrow. They need another pair of spread beams. That said, I had a single Rallye 4000 spread beam with a 100w Halogen in it, and you couldn’t tell the difference with it on / off to the normal headlights. They need a set of spread beams with them. My plan is to HIR the high beams and HID the low beams. That may give me enough spread light to supplement the spotlights. Once warmed up they stay warm for several minutes, so dipping your lights for passing cars doesn’t mean a significant time without bright lights. It takes about 20 seconds from stone cold to get to full brightness. Even when warming up, they produce light, probably as much as a normal headlight, but you notice the difference compared to the photo above.

Conclusion

Rallye 4000 Spots: I don’t particularly love the spread of the Rallye 4000’s, or their waterproofing. I’m tempted to eBay these and buy Lightforce.  – Not recommended 3/5

Chinese HID’s: I do love the 4300K H1 HID’s. I’ll advise how they go in the long term, but for now – highly recommended. 4/5 until I trust them.

Diff’s for Dummies

Because I got sick of explaining why the diff lock button in your Cruiser / Discovery is not the same as the diff lock buttons in mine…..

https://web.archive.org/web/20060816054148/http://www.safari4x4.com.au/80scool/george_couyant/diffs/diffs.html

Summary: If you own an AWD car – AWD should stand for Any Wheel Drive – Any wheel with the least traction will get all the drive. The centre diff button just turns it into a “normal” “traditional” 4wd, that is one front and one rear must lose traction to stop going forward. This happens on many hills and is the reason pressing this button doesn’t do that much more to where you can go.

Sundown Trip Report May ’07

Road worse than normal, soft roaders would get in but need help to get out.

Plenty of water at Burrows Waterhole – this surprised me. The toilets are getting pretty full, the ranger plans to build new ones.

Red Rock Gorge track in good condition, no problem for soft roaders.

Reedy Creek track in poor condition – similar to Rat’s Castle.

Rat’s Castle road in usual condition. Soft Roaders need not apply. Standard Nissan Pathfinder managed the loop, but be prepared to use plenty of right foot.

“The side road” Mr Robert made so famous with his snapped axles, 10 snatch strap, 4 vehicle recovery is in fair but overgrown condition. I got down and back up OK, but had to drop tyre pressure to 24psi and use full lockers. Lots of flower fluff in the radiator. You really should have a winch to do this road just in case. There are no big steps at the moment, but plenty of very very loose shale. I followed it through to a creek and nice waterfall that was dry. 500M further along there is a steep climb that would be rather nasty and is *supposed* to bring you out to an open gate near the track. I know the gate, but didn’t try the hill as my rear locker chose that moment to blow a seal. There are two side tracks I sw off this one, but didn’t have time to investigate. One is *supposed* to lead to the old mine.

Casualties – sliced a sidewall on my Cooper AT’s. Slice 45mm long repaired by sending away to be vulcanized – $30. Doing the side road without a spare was nerve wracking. Slice was from a rock corner cutting along the sidewall bulge. Normally my sidewalls fail from pinching between rock and rim, so this is a new one for me.

Spoke to the ranger and he said the old road from Rats Castle down to the south end of the park was destroyed in the ’76 floods. Someone tried it this Easter and ended up smashing a diff or similar judging by oil stains found by hikers. Apparently there are 30 – 40 river crossings and it is not passable. Maybe with a few extreme cars w/ 35’s, winches, lockers, shovels and chainsaws it could be opened, but this would be rather frowned upon. Chainsaws being banned and it being a National Park.

Plenty of wildlife. Saw the usual Deer, Grey Kangaroos, Pretty Face Wallabies, Goats and heaps of bird life.

Great place, great food, great people. It was a good trip.


Soft roaders can manage it – but need help. They were happy for me to help with towing the trailer, but not so fussed on letting us sleep in it….


Rats Castle circuit is a little rough


OME articulates better than I thought

 
Burrows still has plenty of (cold) water

 
This is a view most won’t see of “the hill”. Bring Lockers, and a winch, and axles for any Discovery’s in your party.

Fullriver 120Ah AGM into 100 Series Cruiser

The batteries in the HZJ105 were cactus. They were the ones it came with and the whole system was dubious and time for an upgrade. When I purchased the car the wiring was a mess, although quite effective. I am still sorting some of it out.

My goals were as follows:

  1. Seperate battery for starting
  2. Maximum capacity for Aux items
  3. 80Ah Useable Capacity
  4. Option to expand to triple battery setup for winching

I’ll go into a debate on battery system choices in a seperate article, but to meet my needs I chose the following:

Odyssey PC925 – Small Start Only battery
These small expensive AGM’s are made to deliver spectacularly high starting currents from a small battery. If you don’t have room for a Dual Battery setup, or want to go to a Triple setup, then one of these should be your start battery. 925A for 5 secs, 620A for 10 secs – it starts my 1HZ with ease. I’ll update after a -5 winter day, but for the moment it works fine. I didn’t want a huge start battery that never used more than 5% of it’s capacity and wanted to be able to go to a triple setup later.

Fullriver HGL-120 – Aux Battery
These chinese AGM’s seem to be getting great reviews. Ultra low internal resistance means fast charging. AGM commentries are all over the web. The main things that are important to me are:

  1. Fast Charge
  2. Good resistance to deeper discharges
  3. Great vibration resistance.
  4. Adequate Capacity – 80Ah is easily acheiveable from a 120 rated batt

You’ll find out why the AGM costs so much and has higher capacity when you try to lift it. 35Kg as opposed to a conventional N70ZZ at 21 – 25Kg.

Piranha 150A Isolator – Conventional Voltage Sensing Isolator
It came with the car and after bodgy repairs to the cracked plastic case and corroded PCB tracks, now works fine.

Fitting the batteries

The Fullriver comes with an unusual terminal – basically a recessed nut and supplied bolt. You can either take off your conventional terminal and use theirs, or do as I did. Cut the lead terminals off your deceased battery, drill them to fit the bolt though – presto – conventional terminals in case you need to swap back for some reason.

To fit in the landcrusier cradle you’ll need to remove the plastic tray underneath. It’s not big enough and makes the battery sit up too high. I can’t see any reason for it’s existance, as the paint underneath is rubbed anyway, and it doesn’t have a drain making acid protection pointless.

You’ll also need to modify the rear “hook” bracket. It is too short and wont go over the slightly taller battery. 2 minutes with an turbo torch had it red hot and rebent. There is enough length in the bent peice hook to straighten and rebend it as a longer straight shaft.

 

 
Odyssey TEMPORARILY mounted in original position. This one battery replaced 2 batteries triple it’s size. Plan is to put it in the rear of the engine bay on a small tray. No need to move fuel filters and less weight.

 


Clearances are tight, but it fits. Modified terminals can be seen.

 


Modified rear hook mount needed for additional height. You can see the tight clearances.

Comments:

Conventional Wet cells don’t have enough useable capacity for my demands. Deep cycled they die.

Conventional Deep Cycle cells are slow charging. I doubt I’ll have the engine running for long enough to charge them fully.

I have concerns about AGM’s and heat. All Lead Acid cells have a positive feedback cycle when charging. ie, the hotter they get, the more current they adsorb, making them hotter, making them adsorb more current……
Normal wet cells will outgas if this gets out of hand, and you get to top them up with water. AGM’s recombine the gases, releasing more heat. This can be bad. 50deg is the theoretical max, but that is also said for conventional cells. Most people get away with it, some don’t .Ideally, mount them inside the vehicle. Personally, I’m going to put an aluminium heat shield in to keep the worst of the radiator heat from blowing on them, and rely on their forward position to feed them cool air. Some people do nothing and have no worries. Others have problems.

The isolator – like 90% on the market simply parallels the cells when the input voltage hits 13.6v. Many claim all sorts of wizardry, most are simply relays in a black box. 

Batteries lead an isolated life

Battery isolators and battery systems are always an area of hot debate. This article is not to get into the differing battery constructions and variants, but rather into the systems to manage them.

In an ideal world every cell would be managed independently, and batteries would cover all our needs. The reality is that we have to make do with  differing solutions and varied information.

Some of the best battery information is here, here and here

This guy also has great information.

The general rule is that deep discharges shorten a Lead Acid batteries life. Cells not built for this are damaged very quickly. My experience has been that an average brand name 12mth old battery flattened by headlights overnight is basically stuffed and won’t carry more than 30% of it’s new capacity. It’ll start the car fine with this shallow charge, but that’s it.

The goal of an isolator system should be to
a) Leave you able to start the car
b) Minimise deep discharges of any battery

Now we come to the point of most arguments discussions. In most cases people opt for separate batteries, one for starting and one for auxiliary use. This means that the requirements the batteries face are not the same, and often differing batteries are chosen for these tasks. Further, as they are subjected to differing conditions they age independently and often will be replaced at different times. Yet the manual that your isolator came with, your mate on the Internet, and quite a few battery manufacturers will be telling you “DO NOT PARALLEL BATTERIES OF DIFFERENT CONSTRUCTION / SIZE / AGES”. That’s it. The discussion never moves beyond that point. There are HUGE debates on forums all over the Internet, yet they can’t get beyond this point. Series string construction and management is discussed ad-nauseam, yet the classic 4wd warning remains. Luckily for us, they are WRONG.

Evidence, More Evidence, even More Evidence

Parallel what the hell you like, it won’t matter. Which is lucky, because MOST expensive battery isolators do just that, and have for years. They all claim to be magic in a box, but most are relays, something known about for a little while now and use in all sorts of places.

Battery Calcs & Types

The calculations below are based on what I phrase “effective capacity”. This varies depending on battery type and it’s use. I’m going to assume you have it in a 4wd and drive a 2 – 4 hours a day when on trips. The numbers below are based on not wanting to flatten the battery more than 80% and it’s likely state of recharge from a normal alternator (your mileage may vary). You can roughly work out your effective capacity as follows.

  1. Starter Battery
    (0.4 * RC) * 0.8
    =approx 48Ah for N70ZZ batt
  2. Deep Cycle
    Ah * 0.5
    =approx 50Ah for 100Ah batt due to common low state of charging.
    This *may* be better if there are very long charge times or high charge voltages.
  3. AGM
    Ah * 0.8
    =approx 80Ah for 100Ah batt due to fast charge capability.

Remember – these are for NEW batteries – it only gets worse as they age. Ageing depends on time, temperature, cycles and depth of discharge.

Isolator System Types

  1. Parallel / Single Battery
    Works well enough, if you don’t discharge it too far. If you do discharge it you’ll be stuck looking for a jump start. Auto cut out devices and voltage monitors are a good solution. It’s also the cheapest up front solution – no parts needed. You’ll not be game to discharge your batt’s below 70% effective capacity if you want to start the car, so your capacity is:
    0.7
    * “effective Ah rating of battery type”
    * 2
    =Useable AH
  2. Diode Isolator
    These are generally regarded as inefficient. Jaycar has one here. They induce a 0.6v drop across them. According to Odyssey this is the difference between fully charged and 50%. What will happen is charge voltages are high enough that losing 0.6v means the battery will charge 30% – 50% more slowly than normal, and possibly not charge fully. Theoretically a solid state MOSFET solution would work well, but I haven’t seen one yet. Relays are cheaper I guess. You only get one battery so the rough calculation is:
    AH = 0.7 * “effective Ah rating of Aux Batt Type Only and a slow charge”
  3. Voltage Regulated Isolator
    This is the most common solution. Redarc is the most obvious (no box), but Piranha’s black box of tricks is the same thing. My black box fell to bits and inside it’s just relays connecting the batteries. They work by isolating the batteries when the voltage drops below a set point – around 13v. When the primary battery is back above 13v due to the engine running, it reconnects them. They generally should build in a bit of hysteresis (damping) to stop is short cycling if the voltage is close to the cutoff. The calculation is:
    AH = “Effective Ah rating of Aux Batt Type”
  4. VR Isolated with Lower Cutout than Cut-in.
    Traxide does this really cool VR Relay isolator. By setting the cutout to the mid 12v, it lets you use 50% of your primary battery. Normally in an isolated system there is this huge heavy main battery there for just starting. I find this a waste. If I can use 50% of it’s capacity safely, then I would prefer to do so. The calculation for this system is:
    AH = (“Effective Ah rating” (Aux)) + (0.5*”Effective Ah rating” (Main))
  5. Independent Management
    Now we get to the tricky (read expensive) stuff. To fully manage all batteries to their maximum potential all batteries (and ideally cells) need independent attention. People that live on solar or independent power often take inordinate care of their batteries, or alternately buy batteries that last 50 years. For 4wd use this means independent charging. There are a number of ways this can be achieved from vendors such as Rotronics, Amplepower and Arrid. Temperature compensation is one of the most important components, but they also regulate charge voltage, pulsation, float test etc etc. Nice stuff, but be prepared to pay for it. It may be cheaper for the casual user just to put new batteries in every 2 – 3 years, but if you live off it, then your use would probably justify the extended service life.

Personally I work out the following.

Battery & Isolator Cost and Capacity Calculator Spreadsheet

My Waeco CF50 uses *about* 3A @ 50% duty cycle * 24Hrs = 36Ah/day.
Add a couple of 8w flouro’s (1.5A * 3Hrs) and maybe the radio = about 45Ah / day.
I often want to stay 2 nights in the one spot, so I want nearly 2 days supply.
80 – 100Ah is enough for what I need.
The cheapest system that can deliver that is a Normal Start Battery + an AGM with a Traxide isolator.

There is a spreadsheet attached here that works out approximate the economics and capacities of each system. If you have unusual requirements or conditions, then the numbers will have to be tweaked a bit.

Interestingly the cheapest setup that also gives the most Ah/$ is simply a pair of normal Start batteries in Parallel. Unfortunately 67Ah useable is not enough capacity for my needs. $4.50/Ah

The most cost effective for my requirements is a normal Start battery + an AGM with a “Tricky Voltage Relay” by Traxide. 104Ah and $5.30/Ah

The very common Isolator + Deep Cycle solution works out to about $11.0/Ah – not very cost effective.

Parallel Charging Different Lead Acid Batteries

As you can read on many websites and discussion lists, it will bring about the end of the world if you put two batteries that are not exactly the same in parallel.

Unfortunately for most 4WD owners, this is exactly what we want to do. Even if they are exactly the same using an isolator makes them do different jobs, so when you go to charge them they are no longer the same.

95% of battery isolator systems charge your dual batteries in parallel. Even the ones that claim to be smart – are just a set of relays (switches) inside to parallel the batteries together. (There are some EXPENSIVE exceptions, you’ll know already if you have one).

Luckily it seems from some expert commentary on the topic it is actually just fine. I figure this guy should know what he is on about, seeing as he is now the current Chairman of the IEC subcommittee on Secondary (rechargeable) Batteries. Primary batteries being the Duracell use once variety.

Acticle 1

Article 2

So isolate or charge in peace, parallel is fine.

A far more interesting discussion is optimising charge management, but that’s another discussion.

Pocket Internet Explorer and Data Refresh

I was somewhat concerned about the refresh behavior if IE on my Jasjam. I threw this as the MS Newsgroups and got some answers. Looks like I have to be careful with IE.

Can anyone confirm 3 questions regarding the refresh behavior of Mobile 
Internet Explorer. The device is an iMate JASJAM. Windows Mobile 5. 

1) Does a page with content (ads or similar) that expire continue to refresh 
and consume downloads when in the foreground? 
2) Does this still occur when IE is in the background? 
3) Does this still occur when the device is in standby? 

I am concerned about both battery life and MB consumption and can't find any 
documentation on refresh behavior. 

Thanx 
Paul
 
 >> 
1) Does a page with content (ads or similar) that expire continue to 
refresh and consume downloads when in the foreground? 
2) Does this still occur when IE is in the background? 
3) Does this still occur when the device is in standby? 
<< 

1 - yes 

2 - yes 

3 - no 

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
 

So the implication is that unless you go into Control Panel – memory – running applications and shut down IE, it will keep chewing download capacity and battery life? Thanx Paul

>> it will keep chewing download capacity and battery life? << More importantly, if you pay for your cellular data by the data amount, things could get very expensive. The cache situation is primarily a user one… it’s good to get into the habit of hitting tools/options/memory and clearing the cache on a regular basis depending on how you use explorer. Since PIE only has a single window, it doesn’t impact any other speed issues and your wireless is not going to be much, if any, different than   with PIE shut down. I have a local html file which I set as my home page when I’m on a cellular $/byte connection which is a single tap away… and, one of the first third party app’s every serious user should install is a task manager to control app’s… I use and recommend vBar. Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Why you should VM your Print Servers

It’s quite common to run the file server and the print server on the same box. They don’t tend to compete for resources and are moderately complimentary. The downside is the instability of the spooler service combined with varied drivers leads to more frequent reboots than is ideal. Everyone loves to reboot a large file server.

The problem is that no one wants to dedicate hardware to just printing. or heaven forbid, coexisting with a domain controller Continue reading Why you should VM your Print Servers

Help the Terrorists

Well despite the well publicised and highly debatable restrictions on liquids on International flights, it appears Qantas and Virgin have decided that company profits are more important the the security theatre shoved in your face everywhere else.

It is now possible for anyone to board a plane in Australia without showing ID. Known terrorists sign up here, if you are finding it difficult to travel elsewhere, we’ll happily let you on board.

You see the new Qantas electronic check in terminals allow you to type in your name and destination, presto, instant boarding pass. No ID at the desk required. No ID at Security required. No ID at the gate required. No ID on the plane required. Now I can book a ticket as anyone over the phone through a travel agency, and pay via direct deposit, so still no proof me is me.

Now I won’t wade into the pro’s / con’s of the ID debate here, Bruce is covering that just fine. What I do want to say is this.

It’s interesting that the airlines have spotted a chance to save money and jumped on it, despite all the other guff going on. I guess the difference is the other security stuff comes out of the customers pocket in airport fees, as opposed to airline profits.

I remember it used to be common to buy airline tickets from others based on gender, as it was a little obvious if Paul traveled on Paulette’s ticket. The airlines tried to stop this for years by saying a ticket was not for a seat, but “a contracted agreement between two parties”. They finally came up with the “for security reasons” excuse and forced everyone to produce ID and shut down this exercise. Now I guess the money saved on check in staff exceeds the money lost on people re-selling tickets.

Money still rules hey boys……. 

IMATE KJAM Bluetooth and IBM T40p Bluetooth w/ Activesync

The problem is that if you use the IBM drivers, the default Microsoft Serial Port Interface is not configured as described.

Instead you do the following:

 

  • Create a Serial port (or edit the default one) in the “Bluetooth Configuration” in Control Panel
  • Set to AUTO START – this is why it doesn’t “just work”
  • Point ActiveSync on the PC to the new COM port
  • Setup your Bluetooth partnership
  • Fire up Activesync on the KJAM and click “Sync with Bluetooth”
  • It may prompt to tick the “Activesync” service of the Bluetooth partnership with the PC

The best Comm’s outage excuse yet – the Volcano did it.

We have been having problems with the satellite link at the moment. Looks like it may be related to the rather large volcano that has just decided to blow it’s top. Mt Tavurvur – Rabaul has been a well know performer, but nothing this big since 1994 whish was huge.

Hey, this is PNG, nothing surprises me anymore.

I challenge you to beat that for an uncontrolled outage.

Olympus u720SW Owners Review

The camera that goes EVERYWHERE

Pro’s

  • It’s Very Small
  • It’s Waterproof to 3M
  • It’s Drop/Shock Proof to 1.5M
  • It looks Normal – not all clunky and rubberised.
  • There is NOTHING else on the market like it.

Con’s

  • Battery Life is “acceptable” – about 100 – 200 shots, many with flash.
  • Video is very average. 15fps max and fills 1GB card in 15mins.
  • Video is Quicktime output format – yech.
  • Shot to Shot is 3 secs – slow.
  • Switching to Video invloves a lot of menu buttons.
  • No image stabilistation except digital, which is just ISO really.
  • I don’t really like Olympus. Fuji, Sony and Canon are “better” brands.

Summary
If you want to do lots of video – move on. If you want a camera to be with you all the time outdoors – this is your camera.

Smashed It – Destroying diff’s in Landcruisers

Now you would think that after doing breaking something once, I would learn. Apparently I am dumber than that. See, I figured the 100 Series Landcruiser that I had owned for a grand total of 6 hours was tougher than the Hilux Surf. Oops, wrong. Call the flatbed towtruck.

OK, here it is simply. If you own a Toyota 4WD, whatever the version, and want the rear LSD to get you out of a really nasty spot offroad, do NOT, EVER use the foot brakes to help. I know it works in Hummers, I know it helps to lock up the rear LSD, – Still DON’T, not even gently. The front diff will tear itself apart. You can use the handbrake all you like (Toyota handbrakes are only for decoration, they don’t actually do anything), but don’t use the foot brakes.

The brakes are biased to the front, and the front brakes are larger the rear. When you are on Low range with an auto, the rear brakes will always slip first, this puts 100% of the torque into the front diff. Guess what, it’s smaller than the rear, and defiantly won’t cope, even with moderate braking. If it’s an IFS Cruiser, it only just copes with normal driving.

Yes the brakes lock up the rear LSD and that helps you out, but you’ll smash so much in the process, you’ll be stuck anyway. Use the handbrake all you like, if that doesn’t work, you are stuck, sorry.

FYI: Mine is a HZJ105 with the “stronger” live axle and larger front diff. Still not tough enough.