Thread: D2 Dual Battery Setup

I ran mine down from the ARB tray to the chassis, (encased cables all the way in split tubing) cable tied along the chassis, then up behind the tail light and in through a grommet to a junction box behind the storage a bin trim.

Don't skimp on cable size (heavier = less voltage drop) and run an earth cable all the way.

On the passenger side of the vehicle there is a grommet as mentioned above under the box/panel trim. On the drivers side you can run it through a vent into the same space.
You'll want the passenger side though. Run it along the chassis not inside the car. Much easier to do. There is an earth point up behind the tail lights behind the trim.
Then get a power board/bus board and run all your accessories off that or a single power in fuse board would do as well.
The fridge will run off a 12v connection (cigarette plug) and the invertor may well have a choice as to what plug it has. So make your decision what way you set it up when you get it.
I bought a little waeco invertor specifically for running my laptop and that has a cigarette plug on it.

Cheers fellas.

Gazk: What do you mean by 'run an earth cable the whole way'? As far as i know the traxide kit im getting is pretty much all set up and ready to just route the cables and thats that! (according to traxide. i assume it was drivesafe i spoke to!)

Chook: So along the chassis is easier? That makes sense. I think i read people running it inside the car under the corrugated trim next to the floor matting. Is this a pain in the bum to remove? Im buying a second bit of kit from traxide.. the cig lighter connectors are already wired up and ready to go. So im not sure if ill need a power board or something of the like?

Originally Posted by damo_s

Cheers fellas.

Gazk: What do you mean by 'run an earth cable the whole way'? As far as i know the traxide kit im getting is pretty much all set up and ready to just route the cables and thats that! (according to traxide. i assume it was drivesafe i spoke to!)

Chook: So along the chassis is easier? That makes sense. I think i read people running it inside the car under the corrugated trim next to the floor matting. Is this a pain in the bum to remove? Im buying a second bit of kit from traxide.. the cig lighter connectors are already wired up and ready to go. So im not sure if ill need a power board or something of the like?

I think what Gazk is talking about is the earth cable for the accessories in the back, instead of earthing to vehicle run an earth cable back through to the main earth in the engine bay.

Also, when looking at places to run my cables I decided on top of the chassis as well, I will be running "2 gauge" cable with a cross sectional area of 32.15mm2 with the earths all running back to the main engine bay earth.

Originally Posted by CJT

I think what Gazk is talking about is the earth cable for the accessories in the back, instead of earthing to vehicle run an earth cable back through to the main earth in the engine bay.

Also, when looking at places to run my cables I decided on top of the chassis as well, I will be running "2 gauge" cable with a cross sectional area of 32.15mm2 with the earths all running back to the main engine bay earth.

Yes, ( I think the Traxide kit has a figure 8 "paired" cable)
Run the earth cable for the gear in the rear to the aux battery and earth that to an engine bay earth point.
I also ran my cables along the top of the chassis rail.

AWG [American Wire Gauge] may also be called the
Brown and Sharpe (B&S) Wire Gauge.
For Reference: (some of the sizes)
AWG Ø [Inch] Ø[mm] [mm²] Max AMPs Chassis wiring
2/0 = 00 - 0.365 9.26 67.4 283
1/0 = 0 - 0.325 8.25 53.5 245
1 - 0.289 7.35 42.4 211
2 - 0.258 6.54 33.6 181
3 - 0.229 5.83 26.7 158
4 - 0.204 5.19 21.1 135
5 - 0.182 4.62 16.8 118
6 - 0.162 4.11 13.3 101
(conductor sizes)

Conversion Table:
Metric Size
mm2 AWG Size
0.5 - 20
0.8 - 18
1.0 - 16
2.0 - 14
3.0 - 12
5.0 - 10
8.0 - 8
13.0 - 6
19.0 - 4
32.0 - 2
52.0 - 0

So I need to run a positive and negative from the aux battery to the rear.. And then an earth wire from the rear to the front? I'm a real novice when it comes to electronics and I have never actually seen the kit from traxide so i dont know what wires are included and how it's set up. I assume everything I need will be there. Let's just hope!

Hi Damo, all you need is a positive and negative cable from the cranking battery ( via the battery isolator and circuit breakers ) to the auxiliary battery.

And yes your kit is supplied with 6B&S twin sheathed cable, that’s red and black 6B&S cables housed in an additional plastic insulated cover.

Cheers drivesafe. So aside from the cabling you just mentioned, i need to run a +, and - wire from the aux battery to the rear of the ca
r. Im just slightly confused by the talk of 'earth' wires. I thought the - wire connected to the battery would be the earth wire?