4X4 BATTERIES BUYERS’ GUIDE FULL CHARGE

MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE TURNING TO LITHIUM AS A SOLUTION

UNLIKE the average tarmac-dwelling motorist, a 4x4 adventurer requires a more sophisticated battery setup. For those lured by dirt and remote campsites, a capable cranking battery that’ll reliably fire an engine into life is essential, as is a unit that’ll power a host of campsite essentials for days on end: fridges, lighting, charging docks for the kids’ phones and laptops … the list goes on.

Obviously a stock starting battery isn’t going to have the required juice to start a vehicle and power campsite electrics – cranking batteries are designed to provide short bursts of energy.

Enter the deep-cycle battery. Rather than provide short, strong bursts of power, a deep-cycle battery instead provides consistent power for longer, and they’re ideally used as an auxiliary battery in tandem with the main starting battery, as they’re great for powering campsite accessories for lengthy periods while the starting battery snoozes.

TYPES AND SIZES

ESSENTIALLY there are three types of batteries used on the 4x4 scene: starting batteries, dual-purpose batteries (a mixture of starting and semi-cycling abilities) and pure deep-cycle batteries. A quality starting battery, as John Kilby, Century Yuasa Batteries’ national training manager, told us, must be able to cope with “excessive under-bonnet temperatures, continuous vibration and repeated impact from