This doesn't seem to prevent short battery life, some standard lead acid batteries dying after only one year of use.

What do you do to prolong the vehicle's battery life?

Have you ever met anyone who would admit to being less than a better than average driver?

Currently we have begun to install Odessey AGM "Asborbed Glass Matt" batteries during the last 6 months, No failures of yet. We service the front line vehicles monthly or Bimonthly and normally have to charge the vehicle before completing the battery test, so far this has not been required with the Odessey's. 6 Months is a little soon to have a valid opinion though.

This still does not address the problem as it is only a band-aid approach, We last upfitted our police vehicles in 2003 and at that time dual battery systems were the approach for the high amp lightbars of that era. This kept the vehicle from being a no-start during during an officers shift. Since then fleet management has become the forces mandate and purchase and upfitting has gone to an outside agency. With the new era came low draw lighting systems and they were sold on not going with the dual batt system, Now we have repeated dead batteries with a no start, why? Because we have replaced the high amp draws for short periods with low amp "Parasitic" draws for long periods. These parasitic draws are far worse than any high amp draws because they slowly lead to sulphation of the battery plates and this means longer and longer recharge times and finally a no-start.

Currently the upfitter is installing a Powertamer or Linde timer set for 2-4 hrs. Our drains average 4-5 amps up to 10 amps when the battery in the Toughbook is low. Frankly I don't think many batteries can last with that type of drain. If you want to fix the problem you need to address all the systems that draw power when the engine is off. Most systems can be improved in these areas.

Many cell phone cradles can be set to power down when engine off or remove and charge in the office.

Linde or Powertamer timers use a relay that draws 300-500Ma using a latching relay could remove that draw. Lower the timer setting to the min time req for normal operations.

Computers are the largest draw so may net the largest gain. Turn off the screen after 5-10 mins of inactivity, go into Hibernation after 25-30. Don't forget to power down other items related to the computer like GPS, GPS antenna amps, Card swipes, network interface transmitters and anything else your IT personell can find.

Instruct officers to shutdown VHF radio's when out of the vehicle for extended times.

Camera systems do they need to be on timed power?

Flashlights don't need to be in the charger cradle if fully charged.

Watch out for siren/lite controllers that have high draws, I have come across several electronic flasher units that draw 50-75 ma in standby mode.

These concerns have been brought up with our police fleet managers but since they have an outside agency doing the upfitting we have been told our mandate is to maintain not engineer the vehicles, "Can't you just install a better battery" To that end we have.

On a side note our Sprinter paddy wagons have aux battery systems that have also sufforded failed aux batt's, at 375ish dollars replacement we our glad Dodge has warrentied them.

Whew that was quite the spew....There is huge room to improve and a close look at your system may review a few, try to have a draw not exceeding 200Ma for no more than 2 hrs would be a good start. your operations may be different but with the use of a good tech that understands vehicle electrical and batteries specificly you can work this out so that dead batteries are just the odd bad battery once again.

City of Victoria Fleet Maintenance.

We heard from the Odyssey battery guy in Cobble Hill too but at triple the price of Battery Direct, we've been reluctant to try them as Battery Direct warrants for 3 years in our police vehicles. Of course, you have to go through the hassle of failure and replacement when it happens.

We've had trouble with making our laptops go to sleep. If we set that and they hibernate, the wake up does not always do the same with the Sierra MP555 modem and the Telus 1X connection is not picked up again. I must research this as many of our troubles are related to the computer draw.

We had a 2003 Tahoe in the shop that we puzzled over and found that the initial draw after shutting the vehicle down was 8 amps that slowly dropped to 4 amps. When the Lind shut down the draw went down to 120 mA and if we isolated the Lind then the draw was 40 mA. The GM dealer said that the standby draw should not exceed 50 mA. He was a bit worried about letting battery voltage drop to 10.5 because if it drops to less than 9.5 during cranking the ignition system will not start the vehicle.

GM Fleet Maintenance said that what we are seeing is not out of the ordinary.

Have you ever met anyone who would admit to being less than a better than average driver?

Monday I get sent to get vehicle as it was dead again, this time the email states that the passenger rear window cycled on it's own then quit altogether. Again I tested for a draw and had the same draw of 40 Ma with all upfitter circuits off. I decided to pull all fuses to isolate this even farther and found the HVAC fuse was drawing 32 Ma. This draw would not return when the fuse was replaced until the key was cycled. Was getting ready to send this to GM as a possible failed electronic part when I came across a notice using NAPA's Identifix program about how the the Aux heater system can take up to 4.5 hrs to time out.

When you perform a drain check do you break the circuit to insert your digital meter, if so you may be missing a lot of timeout or failed electronic circuit problems.

Further to the Tahoe while I had the meter in place the meter spiked to 6 amps out of the blue while I was investigating the failed  passenger window, shaking the door caused fluctuations. removing the alluminuin doggy door panel revealed that the outside agency upfitter had wrapped the window switches in sandwich bags with zaps straps at the top which had allowed the water to run down the wire into the bag and the switch was floating in green water, Nice! Need less to say that went back for warranty! hope they checked the other side as well.

Needless to say this was our true drain not the 40 Ma that I spent time tracking down.

Yes plz track down this hibernation issue as it may help Stu our IT guy to get our toughbooks to draw less, Kinda sounds like maybe it might be the 1X system hanging.

Shoot me a PM or Email if ya need to BS.

City of Victoria Fleet Maintenance.

It is time to try something else.  I have researched many different batteries but I would like to get some feedback on real world experience.  Can anyone give me any feedback on what type of batteries you are using and what kind of lifecycle you are getting out of them.  Anything I can get would be helpful.  Thanks.

http://www.odysseyfactory.com/

As for the draw issues... There will be Lot's of pros and Con's to what your about to see.. Here is the way I see it... If the key is off... Everything is off... No exception.

You stay off the start battery all together..... If you want to run one dead, do it on a auxiliary one... At least your odds of starting the vehicle in any given situation are allot better.

Draws just kill batterys and thats all there is to it...... and getting everyone on the same page is just hard to do.... Just turn it off... Just plug in the charger when it's parked... Soliar panel for a charge..... Just not going to happen folk's.... PC fans come on when it gets hot and will stay on all night long...

Bob Hogan
Fleet Service
bhogan@covinaca.gov