The NorthStar AGM Battery + Voltage Booster Upgrade

Cool, I will have take some more readings, but I hadn't seen those comments specifically. Thanks!

 

See this post here, the voltage fluctuates depending on need. Right after cold start is when you'll have the highest.

 

Thanks all & thanks for being the authority @crashnburn80 All my testing was a hot engine, so definitely it.

 

i have been running my northstar group 31m for more than a year now. i havent charged it in awhile and never got a booster. Will this cause my truck to have voltage drops stereo cutting off and lights dimming? i just changed my alternator fyi

 

No. Not maintaining the battery just reduces performance and shortens the life span. It will not cause anything drastically noticeable like that.

 

Finally did the volt booster upgrade from
Toyo22r on Ebay. Damn my truck feels faster lol and my volts went from 13.3‐13.5 to 13.6‐8 when warm.

 

I emailed the company from down under. They said back in stock in December.

 

December! Yikes!

 

Today I needed a better battery charger ASAP. The decade plus old Harbor Freight unit wasn’t going to cut it on the timeline I needed to charge both batteries. I picked up this smart DeWalt unit available locally at Home Depot. 80A engine start (vs 55A), 30A charge (vs 10A) that scales to trickle as the battery is topped off, plus it does battery reconditioning.



Only used it twice (once for each battery) but charged the batteries more thoroughly and also far more quickly than the old HF unit. After the HF unit said charge complete, the DeWalt unit still showed the one the HF unit charged was not at full charge and voltage was slightly low. Harbor Freight is certainly not a bar to compare to, but wish I would have picked one of these up sooner.

DEWALT DXAEC801B 30 Amp Bench Battery Charger: 80 Amp Engine Start, 2 Amp Maintainer

DEWALT DXAEC801B 30 Amp Bench Battery Charger: 80 Amp Engine Start, 2 Amp Maintainer, 120V AC Outlet, 3.1A USB Port, Battery Clamps

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DQLR3J6

 

@crashnburn80 can we expect an excellent detailed report soon? I've been on the market for a charger.

 

Ideas on what you are looking for? I can run a reconditioning cycle on my 1st Gens older battery and compare voltage charge before and after. This unit put out an initial solid 30A charging the Jeep batteries, well above most other units on the market. As the batteries charged the amperage slowly rolled back to lower levels. The unit is fan cooled (allowing higher power charging) and the digital display fluctuates a lot with charging amperage constantly bouncing up/down by about 0.2A-0.4A. It was interesting to compare to the HF unit, where the HF charged slower and had falsely determined the battery to be fully charged when the DeWalt showed the battery voltage as not fully charged and topped it off. There are no settings for charging other than clicking the charge button and letting the smart unit figure out what is best. There is a separate button for the 80A engine start power mode, so that is a manual setting separate from charging. The AC plug and USB on the face I find unnecessary, I'm not going to plug something into this unit while it is charging a vehicle battery. The power cord wraps up nicely underneath while the charge cables wrap up nicely on the back of the unit. The charge cables and alligator clips are far more substantial than my HF unit. Handles on the side of the Dewalt vs vertical carry handle on the top of the HF unit. The voltage monitor check on the DeWalt unit is nice, for a quick inspection on the battery charge level. The DeWalt has an alternator test mode, haven't looked into that yet. When picking up a charger I wanted something name brand and higher powered for faster charging, preferably with a battery reconditioning cycle and engine start mode. This fit the bill for what was available locally.

 

Thank you, that's all I need. I was looking at the Viking charger from HF but couldn't find a lot of input on it from members here. With how thorough all of your threads are, if you say it's good then I trust it.

 

I should add that HF was definitely ruled out. Granted my HF unit is older, but I used it on engine start mode a while back to try and jump my 2nd Gen after a stuck relay had killed the battery. It sat on the high speed jump charge for a while trying to bring the battery back, but the truck wasn't ready to start even on engine start mode. The HF unit started to pop and sparked and smoke poured out of the charger. I now only use it in non-engine start mode. In my impatience before picking up the DeWalt unit, I did switch the HF unit to engine start mode again. Again, significant electrical sparks and popping and more smoke. Not something I would feel comfortable leaving unattended even on the lower power charge modes. I had the truck charging outside by extension cord in this case. After that experience I would not buy another HF charger. Hence the need to pickup a better charger.

As for being good, I don't have much data. But initial usage has shown significant performance advantages over the outgoing HF charger. With the DeWalt name I hope quality is higher than the HF unit as well.

 

I think Dewalt will probably be better in the long run. Only time I go HF is if I'm already there for something else and start window shopping- I keep losing 10mm wrenches and sockets lol.
Not in immediate need of a charger, but It's always good to have one. Had one of those HF jump start/Air compressor things a while back and it crapped out right after warranty, never looked into a replacement, although it's application was a little different.

 

Think its time to put my CTEK MUS 4.3

 

I just picked up the X2 27F battery and 2nd gen tray based on the info here. Any suggestions for a wall charger? There's a 7 amp X2 charger I was looking at, but I don't know enough about electrical to pick the best value one.

Adding a couple options for wall chargers to the 1st post might be helpful for noobs like me.

Thanks OP for all of the great info from your various super threads!


EDIT: After seeing some of the damage done to the sheet metal under the battery on 2nd/3rd gens, I've decided to downsize to the 24F X2.

 

Installed using the factory tie town for now.



OEM battery


24F X2


27F X2 (returned for the 24F)

 

Hey @crashnburn80 Any thoughts on something like the AntiGravity batteries? I saw you mention another Lithium brand, but that doesn't appear to be a working link any more. I know they're super pricey. But the reserve jumpstart is a pretty cool function to have. And the weight savings is, too. Something like this?.... https://antigravitybatteries.com/products/starter-batteries/automotive/ag-27-rs/

 

Nice call on saving weight with the 24F. It will have more power than stock anyway, the 27F is really only needed if you want deep power reserves for things like camping and running accessories off the battery. I'm about to put an X2 24F in my 1st Gen.

No knowledge of that specific brand, but the Lithium batteries are becoming more common in automotive. This brand is retrofitting aircraft grade lithium 12v batteries into Teslas for weight savings, however the modern Teslas already now come with Lithium 12v batteries from the factory (separate from the main battery pack). So Lithium 12v are already starting to go main stream as an OEM supplied part. In an EV or performance car where weight really matters the premium may arguably be justified. In my opinion, I don't see it as worthwhile for the cost in a pickup truck. The high end battery linked for $950 is 60Ah, the X2 Power is 92Ah for less than half the price. Weight reduction is always beneficial, but paying 2x the price for less than 2/3rd the power in a vehicle that is inefficient to begin with and not performance oriented doesn't make much sense to me. For a pickup, I'd stick with AGM. If going into a high performance oriented car, I'd certainly evaluate the ROI on going lithium.

 

Yea the conversation frequently comes up on the Porsche forum I'm on. AG is a vendor there. And nothing against vendors, but I know their job is to sell products. I'd be curious about your opinion on the Ah value statement they make, considering what you mentioned above then I'll leave the lithium stuff out of this AGM thread. Based on your experience, do you find this to be true ?... (quoting their post from the other forum)