Complete equipment for a storm chaser

[Chris Wilburn]

Something I did this year after my cig. lighter quit working was purchase a deep cycle marine battery to run my equip. off. I placed the battery in the backseat floorboard and had no problems with it and you don't have to use your car battery. It seems like a full charge lasted about 12 hours on the battery running a laptop, gps, and wx worx. It suited me just fine. Next year I am going to have 2 marine batteries charged and ready to use. I am also hard-wiring an inverter to my car battery for backup or to charge smaller items. I really like the marine battery thing and it works really good. I am not sure if anybody else does this. If so I would like your opinions and experiences with it.

The thing to remember about chasing is you can never have too much of anything. I don't want to be is Western Kansas chasing a good setup and have it cut short because my car battery dies and I don't have another one or a booster setup that was mentioned. And I don't want a chase to end because I don't have an extra inverter. I like to keep extra stuff around to be safe.

Chris Wilburn

Chris Wilburn

 

[Jared Farrer]

Ya, andrea you might have a problem with your alternater, they are not too expensive to fix. Right now im using:

Canon S3-IS digital camera 6.2 megapixels (extra batteries & Memory)
Sony DCR-HC96 for video (extra mini-dvs incase im having a good day)
Cellphone
Librarys for data

Thats about it for now, I am hoping to get wxworx here soon.

 

[Mark Sudduth]

You can use a LifeLine battery and a decent inverter just to run the laptop and you should be able to get 8 to 10 hours a day off of that battery. Then, recharge it overnight and you're good to go. Batteries + sells them for about $210 for the GPL-27T. We use them for our remote camera project during hurricanes- but I have tested them on a laptop only and the laptop ran for nearly 20 hours. This would be a good solution if all you needed was portable power for a laptop only.

 

[Brad Berry]

Chris, you may want to screw down a couple battery trays in the trunk, and remove those deep-cycles from the passenger compartment. Batteries occasionally disperse toxic and/or flammable gasses. Let one tip over during a sharp maneuver, and have fun getting that acid out of your carpet. Even worse, if you wreck and roll over, it will be like being thrown into a running drier with two boat batteries.

 

[Tony Phillips]

Guys, I was thinking that in my chasing experience, every year I came in the Plains to chase storms, after at least 10.000km (or sometimes also before) I had problem with the battery of the car(chevrolet trail blazer and impala). You well know that, using very often the laptop in the car, there's the risk that the battery goes KO (even if you use the laptop only with the engine turned on). So, I was thinking that, to avoid this truble, it could be very useful to purchase a rechargeable portable battery, apart, to use only for the laptop(and why not, you could charge it every night in the motel).

Anyone knows some kind of battery that you could use with this purpose?

i have a modified Motorcycle battery that i attached a Weather Resistant Covered 12VDC power port to (out of a jeep CJ-5) and i just use a Trickle Charger when i'm chargeing that thing, i'm able to get someware in the negiborhood of 18hours before haveing to charge, and it secures easyily to a seat frame useing either a bungee cord, or a large hose clamp, or all else fails you could try to find a Dry-Cell (if your worried about nasty battery tippage) such as the Optima Yellow top Deep Cycle Car Battery, you can mount these things any which way you want, even upside down, i have one of the redtops in the cab of my chaise vehicle (battery bay was destroied in wreck, battery still works though even with 2" crack down the side of it, and i'm verry pleased with it, i'm assumeing ya'll are comeing down into the planes, thats kinda bizzare that your alternaters would just quit like that, i've heard of people running Duel Alternaters, but this is verry difficult to do and make it work properly, if you do go with the batterys in the trunk bit i reccomend useing doubble OTT welding cable that's rated at 600Amps, this'll give you enough current carrying capacity to run anything in the car, and in a pinch you can jump start the car off of the marine batterys in the trunk with out haveing to run cables around the entire car (make sure to come up with some sort of port in the car to allow for this in a pinch) your alot like me in ways, your always prepaired, and you hate for small things to end an eventfull day (either chaseing or out in the trail) pat yourself on the back for thinking ahead, and stay prepaired

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Interesting answers guys

Now it should be interesting to discuss about the support for weather stations that you mount upon your cars. As I don't live in USA and I can't come in the Plains with my own car I have to equip the rent car with my weather station (davis vantage Pro2).Obviously you can well understand the reason why I can't practice any kind of holes(to mount the weather station). Do you know any other safe method to mount the weather station upon the car? I'll make you an example: the Inspeed Vortex anemometer has got a magnetic base, so you can easily apply it on the "roof" of the car. I should make the same thing with the weather station if I found an appropriate magnetic support.
Anyone knows a fine solution?

 

[Shawn Scovel]

I know with the HAM antena's we (i have) use roughly 3 3" magnets and they handle a great load. i actually think they handle better than a "lip mount" i have wich falls off at 70mph...

-Shawn

 

[Dan Robinson]

I built a simple frame out of 1 3/4" PVC pipe, attached the instruments to that frame, and used white wire ties to secure it to the roof rack. The wire ties are very strong, unobtrusive, easily removed with pair of scissors and cheap to replace. I used adhesive-backed foam on four spots to serve as 'feet' to protect the finish of the car's roof.

Without a roof rack, a setup like this is going to be hard to secure. Mine is very lightweight, but I still wouldn't trust any magnet system to hold it.

This setup lasted over 15,000 miles of cross-country chasing this year on my car. Since its utility is limited due to obvious accuracy limitations, I only use it for certain chasing situations. The rest of the time it's in my basement.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

I built a simple frame out of 1 3/4" PVC pipe, attached the instruments to that frame, and used white wire ties to secure it to the roof rack. The wire ties are very strong, unobtrusive, easily removed with pair of scissors and cheap to replace. I used adhesive-backed foam on four spots to serve as 'feet' to protect the finish of the car's roof.

Without a roof rack, a setup like this is going to be hard to secure. Mine is very lightweight, but I still wouldn't trust any magnet system to hold it.

This setup lasted over 15,000 miles of cross-country chasing this year on my car. Since its utility is limited due to obvious accuracy limitations, I only use it for certain chasing situations. The rest of the time it's in my basement.

It seems interesting, Dan. Could you post one picture of this method(in the case you have this pic)?

 

[Gene Moore]

Something I did this year after my cig. lighter quit working was purchase a deep cycle marine battery to run my equip. off. I placed the battery in the backseat floorboard and had no problems with it and you don't have to use your car battery. It seems like a full charge lasted about 12 hours on the battery running a laptop, gps, and wx worx. It suited me just fine. Next year I am going to have 2 marine batteries charged and ready to use. I am also hard-wiring an inverter to my car battery for backup or to charge smaller items. I really like the marine battery thing and it works really good. I am not sure if anybody else does this. If so I would like your opinions and experiences with it.

Chris Wilburn

On the battery subject, I'll agree the deep cycle marine is the best option for a backup battery, they last much longer on a charge. Also, from my days of running a desktop computer in my chase vehicle.... two batteries are the way to go. At auto supply stores there is a device that will electrically split out the two batteries. This device will allow the alternator to charge both batteries, but if the secondary battery goes dead it won't allow the main vehicle battery to discharge. So, when you been watching the laptop instead of the sky.....and the big tube comes down in the nearby field.....you'll have enough cranking amps to flee.

One more tidbit, about wire ties and putting together "stuff" on the roof. Certainly they are strong, but generally after one and usually two seasons in the Kansas sun they will just crack and fall apart

.....beware and change them out.

Gene Moore

 

[Tim Samaras]

Battery Isolaters are OK...I just can't stand the .7 volt drop..one 'wastes' power through these things.

I run a marine-type battery (Optima yellow) too, but with a different charging system.

I designed/built a voltage detection system that senses the voltage across the main battery. When the voltage rises to ~13 volts, the system 'slams' the marine battery in parallel to my main battery using a monster continuous RV/type relay. The relay then 'latches' on until the ignition switch goes off.

Reason: Second battery is ONLY in parallel when the alternator is charging (vehicle running) and the ignition switch is on. When I stop and kill the engine, the auxillary battery is isolated from the main battery, so it doesn't drain 'em both. Oh, I have a switch that 'slams' the auxillary battery across the main battery for emergency purposes when the ignition is off...sort of like 'jumping yourself'.

I've run this system for four years with no issues.

I have an audible alarm that beeps when the battery voltage drops below 11 volts..which tells me to start the vehicle. Now, the next logical move is to have this alarm automatically start the vehicle for me when I'm inside McDonald's feeding my face during a strong cap day!

Oh, be sure to have a 'meaty' alternator!

Tim

 

[David Drummond]

One more tidbit, about wire ties and putting together "stuff" on the roof. Certainly they are strong, but generally after one and usually two seasons in the Kansas sun they will just crack and fall apart

.....beware and change them out.

Gene Moore

Gene, you can get wire ties these days that are UV resistant. The cost a tad more than the "regular" wire ties, but last much longer. Still a good idea to periodically inspect them anyway. I usually do so first of the season, and after any chase where I engaged any significant hail. Yes, I've actually had hail break those.

 

[Tyler Allison]

Battery Isolaters are OK...I just can't stand the .7 volt drop..one 'wastes' power through these things.

I run a marine-type battery (Optima yellow) too, but with a different charging system.

I designed/built a voltage detection system that senses the voltage across the main battery. When the voltage rises to ~13 volts, the system 'slams' the marine battery in parallel to my main battery using a monster continuous RV/type relay. The relay then 'latches' on until the ignition switch goes off.

I recently installed the same kind of setup in my Subaru. Optima Yellow top with a Hellroaring battery isolater/combiner. The voltage drop is practically 0 and it has a toggle switch to allow me to turn off charging, automatic charging (eg: voltage goes up to ~13 volts), and combined..so I can start the car off the 2nd battery if needed...has little LED light, etc.

It was really easy to install and costs about $170

http://www.hellroaring.com/Basic Aux Audio.php

-Tyler

 

[Shawn Scovel]

Awsome Tyler, thanks for the post. Next month i was about to do the exact same thing you did on my Suburban. Figured it help saving the starting battery when in a bind.

-Shawn

 

[Dan Robinson]

It seems interesting, Dan. Could you post one picture of this method(in the case you have this pic)?

A few photos of the setup we used this season are here:

http://wvlightning.com/chase2006/may18.shtml

Gene's probably right on the wire ties, they might not be a good idea for a permanent installation, especially over the winter. Since I only use my station on long chase trips and special occasions, the ties work well for short-term easy-on, easy-off use. Wire ties also won't scratch the finish on the rack. If I kept the station on permanently I'd use aluminum brackets.