Batteries Plus X2Power 27F Battery Install and Review

The NOCO Genius charger will work fine if you are only wanting to top off the charge. Amps determine the charging rate. The Northstar/X2 is 90 AH. it will take a 10 amp charger approximately 9 hours to fully charge a dead battery. A 5 amp charger will take 18 hours. If I'm simply topping off the charge from the Tacoma 80% to 100% the Genius 5 works fine.

 

Thats what I was wondering. Even if the alt can put out 14.8 volts, I would think the ECU would still regulate it down. Unless those guys at DC Power Engineering figured a way around it..? If they did I would have expected it to be all over these forums by now

 

This is what I'm going to use when I replace my current standard battery. The relay tricks the ecu into providing something like 14.6 volts to the batt. Just an added note, I don't remember for sure but I don't think this solution works for a 3rd gen.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-northstar-agm-battery-voltage-booster-upgrade.604478/

 

Welp... I just spent $650 on an alternator for nothing

 

Yikes.. Might be worth trying to contact them and digging into this some more. Maybe they did find a way around the ECU voltage regulator..? I couldnt say for sure

 

My truck puts out about 14V.

 

There’s always a wee bit of sway. But rare to go above 14v hot. (cold they will put more colts out)

 

That looks about right, immediately after a cold start. Depends on ambient temp, engine temp, etc. but the voltage will drop as the truck warms up and the battery recharges whatever small amount of capacity was used to turn the engine over.

Pulled directly from the Northstar site: "we have set charging the charging parameters of between 14.1 volts and 14.8 volts as an acceptable charging range"

 

I might be interested in a group buy or purchasing one of these at a discounted rate. Anybody know if these ever go on sale? Seems like it would be a good option where you would never have to worry about charging your battery.

 

If the ECU voltage regulation can be fixed, then yes, it would make sense for me to purchase

 

I’d imagine that the alternator manufactory could do some regulator trickery to make it work.. maybe.

 

I'd hate to be the guinea pig on this one with either 1. badass alternator that STILL cant top off my batteries or 2. dead truck

 

Understandable

 

Pretty sure the voltage booster that I have for sale, will work with 3rd gens too. Gotta check the alternator

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-mike-singer-voltage-booster-stage-1.659319/

 

Interesting, hadn't heard of that

 

Does the 2nd gen's with the towing package run into the same fate? I was thinking about upgrading to this battery.

 

I reached out to Mike Singer. The voltage booster will not work on a 3rd gen.

I'm really not a fan of spending $400 on a redarc DC to DC charger just to charge the aux battery either. You would still have to hook up a charger manually to your starter battery once a month or more.

My solution was to install solar and so far this seems like the way to go. Using a victron solar controller with a Blue Sea ML ACR, I can charge both batteries at 14.4 volts without having to open the hood and connect anything or plug anything in. All I have to do is back my truck out of the garage into the driveway and it'll top off the batteries. You can configure the Victron to charge at 14.8 volts too if that suits your fancy. Yes, solar isn't cheap either, but at least I can charge both batteries at the same time unlike the redarc.

 

Yup as far as I know the charging voltage will be the same regardless.

 

Awesome idea! Definitely gonna look into this

 

Let me know if you have any questions man. FYI, you don't necessarily need the ML ACR. I just got that so I could connect and disconnect my batteries via a switch mounted in the cab. This probably could have been done a bit cheaper with a simpler relay and a remote switch, but the ACR is a proven nice piece of kit.