Replacing my battery guage

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
It must change. The meter is a DROK unit.

How does it know the %? if this is just a prorated scale from 12=50% to 12.6=100%, for both open circuit and under load, flooded/gel/AGM - hey, who cares, right?

It must change. The meter is a DROK unit.

Mex - is this number 84 printed there permanently, or does it randomly change? :)

dougster wrote:
replace it with something more useful?

yes

You do need some means of monitoring the battery charge. Install 12 VDC Drok digital display from Amazon, $12 or so. Make sure it's DC, because they make AC models as well. Don't fall for $3 displays, they are all cr-ap. Voltage is not the best way to estimate SOC, but much better than your defunct OEM Christmas lights.

Or you could do it the South Of The Border way...

Connect two wires, one to each post. Bare an inch on the ends...

Strike the two together.

If a big blue arc results the wires glow and your skin blisters...

"You're good to go"

I mounted a freebie Harbor Freight VOM beside the original panel and hard wired it behind the panel. It cost nothing and now I can see the actual voltage rather than worthless idiot lights.

There is only one way to know with some assurance what the SOC state of charge of you battery(s) are and that is with a battery monitor, and currently it is the Bogart Trimetric or the Vectron. I chose the latter because of ease of set up and use.

I got a meter like THIS from ebay a couple of years ago.

I cut a hole in my gauge panel and wired the meter through a miniature momentary-contact pushbutton switch. Press the button, see the voltage.

These are super cheap but read very close to my Fluke multimeter.