need some ideas

drexpigeorgia · 06-07-2008, 07:58 AM

Ok so I have been working as a PI in the southeast for a while but was deployed and returned recently. My forenza is black, my windows are 4% tint, and I do surveillance operations sometimes lasting 8-12 hours in the middle of the hot Georgia days. I have come up with some solutions to not running my car to run the AC for several hours but I am afraid to waste the money if it doesnt work.

I found that I may be able to route a secondary battery to my trunk with a battery isolator and a ac plug connected to it. This way I can run a seat cooler for several hours rather than the AC. I know that some of you might actually have secondary batteries hooked up to your vehicles for stereos and I would like to know how it works.

I am pretty tired of sweating my balls off and running my car for long periods of time.

Spedrick · 06-07-2008, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drexpigeorgia

Ok so I have been working as a PI in the southeast for a while but was deployed and returned recently. My forenza is black, my windows are 4% tint, and I do surveillance operations sometimes lasting 8-12 hours in the middle of the hot Georgia days. I have come up with some solutions to not running my car to run the AC for several hours but I am afraid to waste the money if it doesnt work.

I found that I may be able to route a secondary battery to my trunk with a battery isolator and a ac plug connected to it. This way I can run a seat cooler for several hours rather than the AC. I know that some of you might actually have secondary batteries hooked up to your vehicles for stereos and I would like to know how it works.

I am pretty tired of sweating my balls off and running my car for long periods of time.

Wish I had an answer for you. Instead I have a question. How did you get into the PI business. I'm in the Baltimore, MD area and would be interested in doing that myself....maybe taking pics and video of cheating spouses or scumbags claiming to be handicapped to collect a check and then go bowling, mountain climbing and bungee jumping when they think nobody is watching.

drexpigeorgia · 06-07-2008, 08:52 AM

Well it depends on each state. I have military experience in intelligence and I also took an online course for private investigation before I was interviewed for an "intern" position(florida). I did that for 2 years and now I am fully licensed and can run my own business if I want to.

The cheating spouse thing is not so glamorous as it seems. Alot of the cheating spouse stuff we do turns into one spouse trying to get dirt on the other, but eventually the one your spying on gets wind that the other hired a PI on them and your at risk of being shot at. My company mostly does insurance fraud with some interviews, locating persons, evidence documenting, etc. It can be quite fun actually especially the travelling. I have alot of stories.

But if you're serious about finding out what you need, you can email me and I will find out for you.

pyaaw! · 06-07-2008, 11:45 AM

i have not installed an extra battery to my forenza yet, but i had one on my 04 yukon. just find a mount, a mounting location, and enough 4 to 0 guage battery wire/cable. then connect the two batteries in parallel ( positive of one batt to the positive of the other batt, and neg of one to the neg on the other). the cold cranking amperage (cca) rating on the battery tells you the amperage of the battery at (if i remember correctly) 32 degrees F. by putting the two batteries in parallel you are combining the cca of both batteries and keeping the voltage the same (12V). but if you put the batteries in series, you have doubled you voltage (from 12V to 24V), and also you have to add the cca of each batt together to get the total cca. if you do put the batteries in series on accident, and turn the key, you can say good bye to your electronics and electrical system.
sorry for being wordy but its the only way to explain it correctly.

gse_turbo · 06-07-2008, 01:00 PM

what I would suggest is...

• have a stereo shop find you a 200amp alternator (from another GM vehicle) or rewind your existing 80amp unit.
• buy a optima redtop battery as your primary
• install a secondary battery in the trunk but just one that is powerful enough to start the car
• run a battery select switch like what's used in a boat (mount it in the cab)

this way you have a strong power supply that will last a long time and wil charge fast, this way the secondary battery is only used to start the car when the primary battery dies.

I'm pretty sure that if you ran the batteries in parallel they would both die together.