Issues with drained batteries.

MadMike84

Member
Dec 12, 2016
82
Eastern Virginia
So a customer called me and told me they were experiencing battery problems They asked if I could install a second battery to prevent this. I told them it wasn't necessary to have a dual battery setup if the installation is done correctly. These are on some older vehicles that were built before I got here so I'm not exactly sure how they were set up, but I'm going to tell you how I normally install equipment, and some other options I'm thinking about using moving forward to avoid these issues.

After doing some research it seems as if this is not the best way to install even though it was how I was taught from the beginning. Normally I hook most equipment up via a relay on ign signal to power up/ power off. The only thing I hook up to H.A.T is the radio sleds and siren amps. <- because that's the way the instructions tell you to install it. So most of the radio equipment we install is Harris. Which the sleds do not use ign signal. It gets a ground, and hot all the time. The CH-721 remote heads goto H.A.T, ground, and ignition. Should I only be installing equipment with a chargeguard or equal unit and not install with relays on ignition? Or can I Just put the radios, siren amps (Whelen cencom, etc), and other equipment solely on an ignition sense and nothing on H.A.T?

We do use chargeguard from time to time, but I don't think I can put the entire system on it. I guess I could use multiple CG-X's. If I'm looking at it correctly one Harris radio consumes 15amps while transmitting so that's the 1/2 the limit right there correct?

Harris spec.jpg

One vehicle I'm building now has two of these radios and a repeater so putting all this equipment on it isn't possible. unless I have multiple units. Am I looking at this wrong?

I see there are several different LVD and other load management systems. Just trying to figure out the best way so people are not having these issues. I would like to install a device that can handle the entire electrical systems we install.

Lots of info here thanks for any insight.
 

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