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My battery strategy for Mandy was one 1100 amp battery for
the car and another (Elecsol 1100 deep cycle battery) for the gadgets,
charged via a blocking diode fitted by Brownchurch. This was great as I
could happily drain the auxiliary battery and not worry about starting the
car - and most times by connecting the two together in parallel I could
start the car with a flat main battery.
The Camel has two parallel 800 amp batteries so I had to revise a few well
learned practices - basically this meant no drain on the battery from any of
the auxiliary systems when the ignition is turned off.
We started with:
Waeceo Coolmatic CCF 35 litre fridge - connected to the auxiliary in
Mandy, and directly into the cigar lighter in the Camel. Struggled in the
high 40s, but below 30° worked beautifully, even after the catch broke. You
simply cannot put a price on an ice cold beer after a hard day on the piste
to Timbuktu.
Xantrex 300W inverter - great on both cars until it died in Mali - an
unbranded replacement cost £50 and lasted all of 10 minutes. The original
inverter was invaluable in Scandinavia where accommodation was expensive,
but I was able to do most of my charging by booking in to a cheap hotel once
a week. The inverter was teamed with:
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6 socket individually switched
power strip with neon indicator from B&Q - brilliant - used everywhere.
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10 meter extension reel - from
Burkina, came with 2x 2-pin sockets plus a UK 3 pin one! A must.
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Various international/2-pin
adapters.
Into these were plugged the
following 240v appliances:
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Energizer NiMH battery
charger (3-pin UK) used for charging 24x 1600ma AA batteries (GPS,
camera, metal detector).
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Braun Ultra electric
toothbrush charger - never leave home without it.
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Philips Philishave 384 -
I look too much like Bin Laden if I don't shave.
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Charger for O2 XDA Phone/PDA
- see electronics section below.
-
Toshiba Laptop charger -
see electronics section below.
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Drill and angle grinder - see
tools section above.
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Big torch charger - I used my
UK400R (rechargeable) dive torch for illuminating above and beyond
the call of normal torches - great for lost things at night, and for
signalling in an emergency.
I picked up a 15W solar
panel with charge controller along the way, which may have it's uses
but so far hasn't seen much sunlight. |
