Driving on battery power only - how far did you get?

[23split]

Driving home across the Australian Bight in a '69 camper van and the charge light has come on. There's no help, auto parts shop, vw part from about 1600km (1000 miles?) in the direction I am heading.
Question is, on a fully charged healthy battery, how far could I expect to travel (100km/55-60mph cruising, no stops, daylight only, no electrical loads, on points/condencer ignition)?
Next service is about 220km where I could recharge the battery, then 300km beyond that, otherwise it all outback/desert.
Can you drive with an alternator putting out on ~12-6volts?
Any experience with this would be great.
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'60 rag-top Beetle 2188 turbo
'61 Deluxe Mirco-bus 1916
'69 steel-sunroof Baja Bug LS2
'69 Westfalia camper 1776

[66brm]

I've driven that drive in my 66, my suggestion is don't even attempt it, 8hrs from Perth to Kalgoorlie, a day to the border of SA, another full day to Port Augusta, all with no assistance between Perth and Adelaide apart from truck stops. This time of the year the heat will be killer at times, you don't want to get caught out there.
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[oprn]

I think you will be surprised either way whether it works out or not. Surprised if you make it or surprised how quickly you perish in the heat if it does not!

Personally I would start by checking the fan belt...

Back when I was in high school we had an old spinster teacher who drove one of those old 4 cylinder flathead army Jeeps. It was a 6 volt system and she came to the automotive teacher asking him to put in and wire up a spare battery because it was giving her trouble starting and she was going home for Christmas. He did that and she headed out 8 hours one way in -40 weather and a blizzard with only about 6 hours of daylight that time of year.

When she got back she ripped a strip off him for doing a poor job because the Jeep wouldn't start to go back to school. He brought it in to find that the generator had not been charging the whole time!

[slalombuggy]

The starter will kill the battery faster than the ignition, Every time you stop for fuel you'll have to push start it if you want any life at all.

Your ignition might pull 5-7 amps, divide that into your battery capacity and it will give you a rough guess on how many hours it will run. That's assuming your battery is actually functioning at the rated capacity and you have absolutely no other electrical loads pulling amperage off the battery.

Good luck

brad

[Bruce Amacker]

I'm pretty sure a standard point ignition only draws 2-3 amps, I have a picture of an ammeter on one somewhere, I'll look for it.

The deciding factor is how strong the battery is and how much heat will affect it. Push start it for sure when you stop, but if the battery is strong I think you should make it home. You could monitor the voltage for S&G if you have a meter handy, I'm thinking you'll still have spark until the voltage drops below 7-8 volts or maybe lower. There's actually a mathematical formula using the amp-hour rating of the battery divided by the amp draw that gives you hours the battery stays above 10.6, but it's all dependent on the health of the battery. (IIRC, a battery rated at 100 amp-hours /3 amps draw would be 33 hours.)I had a dune buggy in the '70's the gen never worked on from day 1 until I sold it.

Good luck, whatever you do. Let us know how you made out.

Edit: I found the picture, it shows 2.59 amps on the coil feed wire which would include the idle solenoid and choke coil.
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[FreeBug]

Check that it isn't worn brushes. You can jam them down a bit farther with paper or something.

Maybe jam the choke open so you can unplug it, every little bit helps. Fuel gauge? Can't think of any other power draws you can eliminate, but someone here can, I'm sure. Alarm? Radio memory? I think I'm getting ridiculous, but you get the idea...

You can go quite far on the battery only, if you baby everything. Don't forget how much the brake lights can rob you...42 W if you keep your foot on it. Shut off the door light, it's easy to forget and leave your door open in daylight.

If you have to stop, try to do it on an incline pointing down. Unplug the battery every time you stop, just in case...

[WesleyGarrard]

I made it 126 miles on just battery alone.

My alternator wire broke loose on a road trip and I had no clue until I made a stop and the starter was really weak. We did a push start and prayed that we would make it to the next town.

Luckily, all I had to do was run a new wire to the alternator and everything was good to go for the rest of the trip. On my Beetle at least, my cousin's trike was another story.

My Beetle probably could have gone farther if I did not have an electric fuel pump and I was not running with the lights on in the day time.

[23split]

Thanks for replies/advice so far people.
Had heard people have driven their older vehicles some fairly long distances on battery power alone but wasn't sure if this was fact or just folklaw.
Have checked out the bushes and they are very worn but I think making contact, which is making me think that the internal regulator may have gone?
Can remove any parasitic loads (fuel gauge, generator light - no choke so I can't think of any more) and throw a fully charged battery in there, might even be able to buy a spare from the roadhouse here. There is a good chance I can phone ahead for some parts too.
_________________
'60 rag-top Beetle 2188 turbo
'61 Deluxe Mirco-bus 1916
'69 steel-sunroof Baja Bug LS2
'69 Westfalia camper 1776

[23split]

Going on Bruce Amacker's advice I did the calculation on my battery so assuming that it's healthy (it charged up nicely on the fancy Projector trickle charger I borrowed last night and tested well on the charger's fault detection at least) so with a 3 Amp draw I have a theoretical driving range of ~29 hours, more than enough to get me home, or at least closer to civilization and some spare parts.
Luckily it not that hot out here for the next few days at least.
_________________
'60 rag-top Beetle 2188 turbo
'61 Deluxe Mirco-bus 1916
'69 steel-sunroof Baja Bug LS2
'69 Westfalia camper 1776

[Cusser]

[Zed999]

I ran my camper for 6 months with no charging. Furthest was 180 miles. It never stopped. Don't use the lights or wipers.

[nextgen]

My bug has a push button starter under the rear seat the goes directly from the battery to the starter. No tiny wires going to the front of the car, keyswitch , fuses etc.

16 ga directly to the battery.


If life and death -- PULL THE PLUGS -- no compression .

In the outback -------- Hmmm, do I want to die or suck sand in my enginie????????
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[rugblaster]

The only experience I've had close to this was in the late '80s. We had a '85 Mercedes Benz 500 SEL with about 65k on the clock. We were traveling 500 miles from central Texas to South Padre Island to spend Christmas with my wife's parents with our 6 month old daughter.

The car stopped running, without warning, outside Pleasanton, TX and had to be towed off the interstate into this little town. The alternator wasn't charging so I had a fellow at the only car repair place charge the battery. We made a trip to a mom and pop auto parts store. They, of course, had no parts for this car. We bought a spare battery instead. By time we got all this done the sun was getting lower in the sky and we still had about 250 mile to go.

We felt like Apollo 11 astronauts as we powered off everything we could think of to save the battery. We drove perhaps 125 miles before the first battery quit. We were running everything involved with the ignition and fuel injection and nothing else I could think of I could turn off easily. I don't think the battery will simply drain to zero, but when will it not support whatever system requires a certain amount of power. The sun went down around where the King Ranch area is and there is hardly anything out there, pretty desolate. I followed a 18 wheeler truck, right on his bumper with no lights on for an additional 80 miles before my nerve gave in. I don't think he even knew I was there.

We stopped at a motel in the little town of Raymondville and called South Padre to tell the family we weren't going to make it. My brother-in-law knew a guy in that town and he brought us a small battery charger, I wired both batteries with coat hangers and hose clamps, trickle charged them all night and drove into the coast the next morning, Christmas day.
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[Bama Dave]

[EverettB]

This is different from your Bus since it's 12v but I drove at least 200 miles on my 6v Bus with the generator light on.
The battery was fully charged at the time it failed as I was driving home on the freeway from Los Angeles, CA to Phoenix, AZ

No issues until it got dark when I was about 30 miles from home. If I turned the headlights on, the engine would cut out a little.
I mostly drove with parking lights the last 30 miles.
Dangerous but it was 95% well-lit highway so I wasn't super concerned.

So if it's 200km, then 300km I think you are good if the battery is charged.

I agree you do not want to have to turn the starter too much.
If you have to stop, leave it running or push-start it.
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[oprn]

[nextgen]

Oprn, OMG you are right. I could not think how he was not going to get wrist cramps from keeping the starter key twisted.

I figured he was going to run on the starter alone and it would help to pull the plugs so the engine would be free and less effort for the starter.


OK so he wasn't going the Tesla route. Got it now!!!
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[FarmerBill]

Back around the turn of the century, I fried a generator coming in to Bakersfield. I wasn't able to replace it until I got to Seattle. I did the trip from just south of San Francisco to Seattle all in one shot. It took me 3 and a half days and 4 battery charges. (not all of these were full charges) Total distance of around 800 miles (1287 km).

The trick is to kill power to all non essential electric, so no headlights, radio, or turn signals. Roll start always, never use the starter. Every time you crank your starter you use up big chunks of your battery charge. Drive at 50-55 and I was able to go all day.

Your coil should be pulling about 3-4 amps per hour out of your battery. The average small car battery, in new condition, has about 45-50 amp hours in it. So between 15 and 11 hours of operation. As long as you don't have other things like fuel injection or a fancy ignition system, and you don't use anything else powered by your battery.

This assumes perfect conditions, any number of things could effect a battery's ability to hold a charge. And without disconnecting the battery from everything except the ignition system, you're probably losing amps hours in other places. My maximum drive time before I needed a charge was around 9-10 hours.

[FreeBug]

I made it from Reims to Calais with no charge, which is about 170 miles. This
includes quite a bit of stopping and starting in the queue and to get on the ferry.

This was 6v.

[Zundfolge1432]

I drove a 71 Ghia from Atlanta Ga. to Mobile Ala. a distance of about 328 miles. The last 60 miles without headlights. It was a fairly new interstate battery and deep cycling probably sulfated the plates and shortened life but I got rid of the car shortly thereafter.