The NorthStar AGM Battery + Voltage Booster Upgrade

Ahh...I see. Thanks for the info.

 

Mostly what Matt said. I was going to get the HKB but then I saw the price and wait time and decided to just go with the diode as it was less than $10 and I haven’t seen anyone reporting problems with them. Hopefully in the future a more affordable option in the US will be available.

 

Oh, I also want to tout @Coupe for his battery tie-downs. I ordered the adjustable one and my battery is rock solid.

 

Where did you get your battery tie down from?

On the 27F battery do you need a different battery tray?

 

TRD Battery Hold Downs come from @Coupe.

27F fits in the stock tray, but requires longer/extended threaded rods.

 

Thanks for the info. I will look into that tie down.

 

Note that Norton has a 2nd gen.

A third gen battery tray is smaller, but a 2nd gen will fit fine and is what you need. In other words, get a a 2nd gen tray to put in your 3rd gen with a 27f.

 

To be clear the HKB unit is $70 AUD. $1 AUD = $0.66 USD, or about $46 USD. But yes, some go the Ford diode route for the cheaper price.

 

Yes, I do. Apologies for not noticing 3rd Gen.

 

I'll look into a battery tray upgrade just to be sure.
I'm not quite sure on the size of battery I want to get yet. I'm leaning towards 27F, not too big and not too heavy.

 

It was a rough example, however the hkb was 95 that’s with shipping when I purchased it.

If you go with a group 31 cbi and Rago make battery cages. I went with Rago it’s a solid piece of hardware. I still need to clean up my wiring.

 

If you don’t have any big electrical needs, I’d consider staying with the 24F and get a 24F NorthStar, which will still be a good upgrade over stock. It will be lighter than the 27F which doesn’t do any favors with Taco lean.

 

I bought the HKB,and I'm patiently waiting. I never heard of the Ford diode until a few posts ago. Link to diode?

 

Ford, GM, and others make it. I got the Littelfuse unbranded variant from digikey (I actually got two) for cheaper than buying one on Amazon.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/02400113P/F4748-ND/2519818

 

What are those three little metal squares on the positive terminal, fuses?

 

Circulate breaker for my winch, it came with it.

 

It’s nothing special but they charge like 30-40 bucks at the dealershiP for a piece of plastic. However it fits perfect and doesn’t need any trimming. If you do go to 27f I believe the stock tie downs will not work.

on a side note, I’ve never trickled charged my battery since buying new from the group buy in July or august. Lately The truck has been having trouble turning over when the truck is parked overnight/ or longer. Could the battery have been drained that fast? Only accessories I have are a compressor, light bar(which rarely gets used) and a front camera. I do plan to invest in a stationary trickle charger but this still seems odd as the battery is still considered “new”, no?

 

I’m not an expert, but from everything I read, I think with no way to boost alternator voltage on the 3rd gens it’s going to always be charging an AGM battery too low. Possibly that’s the cause of a potential early failure?

I just bought a CTEK MXS 5.0 charger and it seems like a good piece of equipment for the price. I hooked it up to my 27f AGM when I got it home and it did take quite a while to charge all the way up. I assume it had been sitting a while. It has an AGM mode so it charges at the correct higher voltage ranges.

 

Basically.
@Toki your Northstar should actually have the acceptable charging and float voltages printed right on it. Youll probably want to get a good charger with a dedicated AGM mode to account for the higher voltage

 

Not sure about others, but I upgraded for camping purposes.