Where to fit extra battery in FL2?

[fender22]

HI all. Have a FL2 TDS4 and thinking of adding a spare battery for fridge etc. Would it be possible to fit another under the bonnet? Has anyone done so?

[FL2 Td4]

HI all. Have a FL2 TDS4 and thinking of adding a spare battery for fridge etc. Would it be possible to fit another under the bonnet? Has anyone done so?

Same question, Anyone has done it before?

[LR2Luver]

I have asked the same question, too. But my own investigations around the car indicate there is no-where to mount a second battery. My solution is to going to be the purchase of a removeable, encased power source (battery) which I will charge from the rear power source in the car. I have haven't yet worked out how to monitor the car's battery voltage to avoid running it flat, but I'm sure there's a way around that. A good thing (I think) about the removeable power source is that can be moved to another location with the fridge. It may not be a desireable solution but it's the best one I can find/think of for these terrific cars.
Cheers,
Andrew

[mikehzz]

When I am on a trip I carry a portable jump start battery with dual power outlets. I run the cooler on it of a night time and have it charging on the back socket while I'm driving. I also use it for running my laptop in the tent. Mike

[Tusker]

I don't know the spec of the standard battery. Is it a calcium? Is the car as sensitive as the D3/D4 seems to be?

If it's conventional - must admit I haven't looked at mine - them two Odyssey gel batteries can usually be made to fit where the original resides.

Odyssey Batteries (http://www.odysseybatteries.com/)

Twice the price, but they do last twice as long. Only problem is they don't like winching. I still use these in a couple of cars that sit for weeks before being given a run.

They can be mounted any way up except upside down. So the smaller, which is is fine for starting, can be laid on its side in the battery tray.

Haven;t looked at my FL2 as I mentioned, but this was the setup I had in my old Disco 200tdi.

Regards
Max P

[CharlesGC]

Hi there,

I have done it and it is actually pretty good when set up right - I wanted it to look neat and clean and it does!

Basically this is how it goes for my car (2008 Freelander 2 TD4 SE):

- Projecta Dual Battery System with push button parallel
- Control unit is mounted in the engine bay against the firewall where the battery sits - hidden nicely and easy access to push the parallel button
- There is a positive (red) cable that runs through the firewall (passenger side) and under the carpet and passenger side door trims
- It, along with a chassis grounded negative lead then poke out behind the passenger rear seat through a tiny hole cut into the boot floor cover and has an Anderson plug
- An ARK automotive battery power box with battery inside is mounted in the boot sitting against the left rear wheel arch and has an anderson connector that joins to the other anderson plug
- The battery box is awesome because it has an LED indicator, positive and negative terminals, and a 12V cigarette lighter outlet
- I have a 300W inverter running off the terminals in the boot (when needed for 240v power)
- If you want you can detach the anderson plug and carry the whole battery pack out of the boot (I never do this though) and you can do the same if you need to access spare tyre

Downsides:
- You lose a little bit of boot space where the battery and box sit
- It takes a bit of time to run all the wires through the car (I had Bruce Lynton Land Rover on the Gold Coast do the work and it was an excellent job)
- Get decent battery tie downs! The ones that came with the box ripped out of the carpet covered wood load space cover just going over speed bumps (at normal 4WD Pace)
- I fixed this by putting two straps on it and buying 4x Stainless Steel 90 degree brackets (used for boat biminis) and mounted one at each end of box and at each side, effectively created stops that wouldnt let the box slide around and put too much pressure on straps

When my starting battery eventually started to die, it was no problem - popped the hood, removed the cover where battery sits, pushed the parallel button, put the cover back on, closed the bonnet and started the car straight away then got a new battery.

The Projecta System will send power to the rear battery only once the starting battery has reached maximum volts. Once you push the parallel button, once the car is started it will turn the parallel off and charge again until the above has happened and then send charge to rear battery.

I will change to a deep cycle battery in the boot sometime soon - should've done so in the first place but was saving money. The system in my car is used for powering medical devices (as I am a Doc) and works perfectly. If I flatten the rear battery, it doesn't matter as it has no effect on the starting battery.

Good Luck! If you are confident and handy then the job is easy, expensive part is the Projecta System (about $230), battery box is cheap ($50-60) and you need to get the anderson plugs and long lengths of positive cable (don't need more than a metre of negative as you can just ground it to the chassis).
I let the dealer do it (who charged stupid labour) because it was the first time it had been done on the FL2 and they knew how to pull apart all the floor trims and carpet - and in reality, they did an excellent job!

[freelander dave]

i have a fl2 2010-td4 - just fitted a dual battery system - traxide controller ($190) - 100amp hour deep cycle amp tech battery supercharge ($350) battery tray supercheap ($40) bolted to the rear cargo floor - ran a 35mm2 cable (bit of an overkill in size) from the main battery down the rear of the engine in through the transmission tunnell (passenger side) to the rear of the vehicle - the controller sits on a bracket above the battery - earthed at the rear tie down point - this runs a 40l engle fridge + lights etc for camping - takes up room but only my wife and i - for travelling rear seats removed - flat piece of timber secured to the seat floor - all gear tied downed securely on the flat board - high country trip on late april if no more rain (along with a defender td5 and a 2.7 d3) - have 16's 225/75 maxxis buckshot muds ready for the trip - travelled previously in the area in a d1 - looking forward to see what the fl2 can do