AGM BATTERY

Will AGM batteries have a chance to charge on my short 2 to 5 mile drives in town?
Wondering if it would be best just to buy a regular lead battery instead?

 

Paparee told me that the stock tune doesn't charge these to full up. Just 80 percent. So if you get a tune he can refigure it for you. I also run a solar panel to mine

 

Total BS!

 

Wat.

 

A fully charged battery is 12.6 Volts, 80 percent would only be around 10 Volts so that doesn't sound right at all.

 

PM sent.

 

@PapaRee

 

I'll let him explain. All I know is now my volt meter reads 14.4

 

I think the idea is AGM take a stronger voltage to get up to 100% and the stock setup is for lead so you may end up undercharging AGM which is, of course, bad for the battery. I charge my AGM on a charger about once a month to keep it topped off. There are a few threads on here about how folks have modified their charging circuitry to bump up the charging voltage. It got a bit to far down the rabbit hole for me so I just got a charger.

When charging monthly the charger indicates battery is not full and it takes few hours to get the charger to reflect 100%. I have a voltmeter back in the bedside cubby and it will often read about 12.4 but after charging I'll get 12.7 or 12.8. So I think OP's thinking is correct.

 

Id like a agm battery also

 

I don't want a AGM then if I have to charge it. I live in the projects and I'm damn sure not taking it out and bringing into my apt. once a month.

 

You can get a battery tender from auto zone or anywhere else really

 

I don't really know anything about AGM batteries but I did find this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-northstar-agm-battery-voltage-booster-upgrade.604478/ oh and for the OP my friend, with the last name of Custer, just had 2 agm batteries stolen off her travel trailer

 

There's a fuse or something you can install inline with the alternator to up the voltage so that the truck does the charging. But my understanding is that AGM is not directly plug and play so if you don't want any hassles stick to OEM lead acid.

 

I live in the projects. Running a extension cord out to my truck is a "NO GO."

 

I have a dual battery setup in an older Jeep, and wanted to try one in my Tacoma as well. So last spring I installed an Off-Grid Engineering's dual battery system with two (AGM) Full Throttle batteries, mostly to run a fridge off of the auxiliary. Last September, I was curious on usage and charging of the auxiliary battery, so over three days I checked each with a voltmeter after both sitting (at work and in my garage) and driving (to/from work ... 15 minutes) on each of the batteries. My test was not scientific of course, but results are here.

 

You can adjust the alternator charging voltage profile to correctly charge and maintain an AGM battery by modifying the ECU programming. This requires software, compatible programming cable and knowledge of how to do this... OR you can pay a VFtuner "Protuner" to program your truck to do this in just a couple minutes. There are several tunes available with AGM battery options. If you want to do this I would expect to pay $250+ for the tune and service, unfortunately. On the bright side, your truck will drive better with more low end tq, a better behaved transmission (by most opinions) and a less anemic accel pedal. Or you can leave everything else stock and just ask for the charging change to suit and AGM battery.

FWIW I have a 6 mile drive to work most of the time and my AGM battery is healthy after about 7 months with a AGM specific tune.

 

I'm going to buy the AGM battery and not do any modifying to the charging system on my Tacoma. I'm a disabled Veteran living on a disability benefit. I cannot afford all that other stuff.

 

Goodluck. Hopefully it holds up for you.

If on a fixed income, why buy the AGM at all?

If I had a VFTuner Protuner license and was relatively local I would offer to modify the truck programming to suit the AGM battery.

 

@TWTaco might be the guy to ask.