Man, how clever are dual battery systems getting these days? A few years ago, a marine switch by which you manually had to select which battery was getting charge was all the rage. Then we started seeing isolators that would click over automatically, sending juice to the battery that needed it while protecting your starting battery from losing current while parked up. Then came voltage-sensitive regulators, which took things even further in terms of performance. Well, the CTEK DS250 and Smartpass are the next evolution. When combined, these have all the same benefits of a traditional isolator or voltage-sensitive relay; however they will actually charge your batteries much faster. You can hook your solar panels and accessories directly to the unit too, which is a clever feature. We’re not going to bignote ourselves as auto-electrical gurus … but what we can say is the CTEK DS250 and Smartpass have helped keep the electrical system in our project GQ Patrol ticking along just peachy. And for that, we salute them!
Priced from $580
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