An adventure to make even the most travelled person drool? A way to see that world that’s just a bit out of the ordinary you might say? Well yes, it’s possible… Marquestra, an overlanding expedition to the far end of the world!
Batteries Expert, they really took charge of Marquestra!
09.10.2013
*The idea made sense for a mid-forties couple like us, to leave for 9 to 10 months in our Jeep Wrangler, to re-energise, refocus and get to see some cool sights along the way. But easier said than done we soon realized. We had the idea, we had the vehicle, all we needed now was to gear our truck up for the expedition. That’s where “Batteries Expert” came in and gave us the support and know how to electrify us on our journey.
Our first contact with them consisted in providing a rundown of the equipment we needed to power, and for how long we wished to do so. For example we had an ARB refrigerator (12V and/or 110V), GPS electronics, LED lighting and of course we needed to charge our laptops, cameras and other doodads! The techies at Batteries Expert did a thorough analysis based on these requirements and came back to us with a custom solution that suited our specific needs. They then sent us a list of what was going to be integrated to the Jeep, prior to the installation. This enabled us to custom build the interior and map out exactly where the batteries, the power inverter and the wiring paths from the engine to the inside of the vehicle.
After receiving the specs, we custom built the interior to maximize the use of the space as per the size requirements.
It was end of August, the installation was scheduled for a Monday morning in St-Jean sir Richelieu, the Batteries Expert team was ready! Once we got the truck in the shop, we did a first go-around, we made sure everything would fit as we had been given the measurements, but there’s nothing like actually trying the real stuff. Yes! it was tight but it would all fit.
First step, the NOCO insulator
This unit that goes into the engine bay, this first piece of equipment actually takes the load from the alternator and automatically feeds power as needed between the main truck battery and the four auxiliary batteries as it sees fit. This piece of equipment needed to be positioned close to the main battery and be able to reach the existing alternator positive feed. Happy to say that they also took care of the corrosion that had set into the main battery, they took the extra step and applied an anti-corrosive spray. A little added protection goes a long way!
The NOCO insulator unit will be connected directly to the Jeep’s alternator.
The batteries
OK, so it’s end of morning, we’ve got one thing out of the way. Onto the next part, fitting the auxiliary batteries in their designated spot. The wiring was laid out from the NOCO power unit to where the batteries were. It took some know-how as both the positive and ground wires are the size of a Burger King straw! Each individual battery is connected to the next one, red to red, black to black until a loop is completed from the power source to the power inverter which came to rest next to the batteries. Many fuses were installed in the run to ensure maximum protection to the units in place. Furthermore, we integrated a reading meter to know at a glance, just how much power we had on hand.
As you can see, the main Jeep battery needed a bit of TLC.
An easy fix, an anti-corrosive red spray is applied to both battery terminals.
Our four power cells are seated in their planned area.
The power inverter is placed beside the batteries, making it easy to connect to.
The fusing is screwed in close to the wiring harness, the third fuse is in the engine bay, right off the NOCO unit.
This simple meter connected to the batteries let’s us know just how much charge we have.
Installation done, the batteries and inverter are in place.
Notice the 110V power bar, ready for action!
Our ARB refrigerator, powered and ready to cool…
Everything is installed, so how does all this work??? We’re getting there, let me explain!
The setup is quite easy to understand; The Jeep starts up, the main battery gives the engine enough power to crank, (no power is taken from the auxiliary batteries) and there we are, the NOCO insulator module which is directly connected to the alternator takes care of its first order of business. Once on the road, the NOCO insulator unit switches automatically to send power generated by the alternator to the four auxiliary batteries inside the vehicle. It’s as simple as that! Once that’s taken care of, the inverter/charger feeds from the batteries to supply any needed 110V power. The inverter/charger actually has two functions, I’ll explain…
When an alternative power source is available, say a campsite power station, we can supply the inverter/charger with 110V coming from an external source, this means the auxiliary batteries are now being charged by the campsite’s power source, not the alternator in the truck. You also need to grasp that the Jeep’s 3.8L V6 engine is indeed a generator of sorts… All you need to do is start the engine, and voilà… power at will!
So that’s a lot to have on hand you could say, but as of writing this we can be a whole week off the grid before our batteries even start depleting and require charging.
Beach autonomy, and anywhere else for that matter!
Thanks, Batteries Expert!
That’s freedom, all thanks to Batteries Expert! That’s it for now, hope you keep following our adventure which is in part sponsored by Batteries Expert. You can also find us on our Facebook page “marquestra”, on Youtube and of course on the web at www.marquestra.com. We’ll be in South America soon and you’ll be able to read up on how were doing and just how free we are thanks to Batteries Expert.