Thread: 2nd battery under pax seat - Defender ?

And the pics look like ????

Originally Posted by DeeJay

The plastic bin?
It's held tight down on the batteries by bubble wrap

Not the bin... thebottom of the (now deeper) battery box (pax underseat box).

I have 2 Optima dual cranking/deep cycle (D31M and D27M) under the pax seat. Both easily start the vehicle and both work well at running fridge and accessories when camping. I have a manual marine switch which selects which battery is idle and which one is connected to the vehicle's electrics. A dual battery gauge is mounted on the cubby box.

All of the original brackets, bolts etc were removed from the box under the passenger seat. I originally had one D31M (900A CCA) and wanted to fit a pair of them under the seat. However they wouldn't fit without doing some alterations to the metalwork or at least leaving off the sliding lid to the box. I settled for the smaller D27M (800 CCA) which has worked really well. If I was doing it again and didn't already have a D31 I would just use two D27Ms in which case there would have been a lot more room to play with and possibly not the need to remove the original brackets and stuff.

The batteries are held in place by some strategically placed pieces of timber, which were then screwed and bolted to the box. Some pieces of rubber sheeting have been jammed between the 2 batteries and between the sides of the batteries and the metal box. Although these are marine glass mat batteries and designed to be bounced around, I preferred to prevent any movement of them in the underseat box.
I have since given them a good thrashing with cold weather starts and short runs, long hot weather runs, running them flat and bouncing the crap out of them on corrugations and potholes. They haven't suffered like other parts of the vehicle and have now performed faultlessly for 13months.

Disadvantages
1. Have the perfectly good (used for 3 months only) original Landrover battery leftover and looking for work to do.
2. Optima batteries are expensive. (although I guess I already had one)


Cheers
Mark

Would a ratchet strap / seat belt type arrangement be suitable / strong enough for a battery hold down ? Looking for a neat, effective solution to this - the standard mtal set up is rubbish.

Anotehr relatedthread with a tidy battery tray setup
Job 1 - Dual Batteries

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Would a ratchet strap / seat belt type arrangement be suitable / strong enough for a battery hold down ? Looking for a neat, effective solution to this - the standard mtal set up is rubbish.

On my boat i have 2 x 1000cca batteries in the plastic boxes held in place with the straps you pull to tighten rather than ratchet straps.. they work fine in that instance... and they just sit on an ally shelf...

In the deefer box they should be fine...

Steve

Did youi get the straps made or are they availble for that purpose from somewhere ?

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Not the bin... thebottom of the (now deeper) battery box (pax underseat box).

Its about 20 higher than the fuel tank on the other side - which is dented, but this box is stronger with those skid plates ( 25mm angle steel making a "V") so it should take a beating OK.