Dual Battery setup for D5 5 seater TDV6, where to put the battery?

[juliatea]

Hi all, sorting out the touring setup for the cargo area in my D5.
So far have removed the sheet of plastic in the back of the car on the basis that it is unlikely to be strong enough for the engel fridge, and my drawer that I had made for the D4 (it does fit).
I have attached my wheel winch adapter that I had made up for the D4 and have had a sheet of 18mm ply cut to replace the plastic sheet and the faux plastic rails.
Also just received my Traxide setup from Tim.
What I am not sure about is placement of the battery behind the drivers seat.

For any of you who have already gone down this route, how did you place and secure the battery, and how much of the foam box did you have to cutout.
I am intending to use an optima yellow top. Does everyone use a battery box?
I will also need an Engel socket and am wondering where to site it, as I intend to put the fridge behind the drivers seat to allow access to the cranking battery and the jack.
Any suggestions will be helpful.

Thanks Julia

Have also just had a run with the dreaded oil dilution problem but will put that in a separate post

[Jr2017]

Hi Julia

i have a 7 seater.
Have. Removed 2 rear seats and added a floor with storage under.
i store my second battery on floor behind seats strapped to a pc ply max size to spread weight.
seems to be working fine .(12 mnt )
Didnt loose any storage space this way.
Made a ply floor with upstand.
Tied down by 4 anchor points,I’ll just need to lift up floor when I need access to spare tire.
ill have to modify next time where traveling.
Slide out draw is a ply on alluminium strips with esky strapped to is.

jules

[IndusD4]

As you have a 5 seater, I thought there was enough room for an extra battery under the plastic cover you're already upgraded. But the battery would probably have to be installed on its side. The advantage of that location is that it is close to the main battery as well as where your fridge would be.

Ron

[juliatea]

Thanks Jules
Sounds about the same spot that I am looking at.
The 5 Seater comes with a large polystyrene box where your 2 rear seats would have folded down, I think will just have to carefully cut a corner out of the box of the right size to admit the battery.
I have 18mm ply in place of the plastic floor provided by land rover, and will bolt the drawer and the fridge slide onto that. Fortunately the spare wheel winch adapter I made up for the Disco 4 fits straight onto the disco 5 and pops up thru the ply. The only thing cannot get here is a spare wheel winch grommet as the adapter requires a hole cutting into the centre of it and then sealing.
Land rover is obviously not keeping a full stock of disco 5 spares here, Fortunate that I am going to the UK in a couple of weeks and can pick one up there.
Julia

[juliatea]

Hi Ron
Thought about putting the battery on its side but not being autoelectrically minded was not sure how safe that would be. I am intending to use a yellow top optima, as the traxide optima combination worked well in the Disco4. I have someone sorted who has installed other dual battery setups before on discos but has not done a traxide set up yet so will discuss with him when I have the positions of the drawer and fridge slide sorted and marked out on my ply sheet. hopefully will all be sorted by next week.
Julia

[DiscoMick]

I have a sealed AGM on its side under the rear of my rear drawers, behind the drawer, so out of sight. It can be done if it is the right battery.

[tony_s]

Hi Ron
Thought about putting the battery on its side but not being autoelectrically minded was not sure how safe that would be. I am intending to use a yellow top optima, as the traxide optima combination worked well in the Disco4.
Julia

Hi Julia. I’m pretty sure Tim told me the Yellow Tops are fine on their side. Maybe check with him.
Tony

[tony_s]

Julia, have you any photos of your tyre winch adapter? Would be useful, although I’ve made up my floor to still allow full access.
Cheers
Tony

[Lee Jackson]

I am redoing my Dual Battery. I am planning on using the space that would be the footwell for the third row passengers. I am planning on removing the head rests and utilising this space.

I am also planning on a 6 inch platform as my base for the fridge. This way i can still open the back flap to get to the spare tyre. All in planning at this stage..

[tony_s]

Hi Lee
I would like to remove the rear seat headrests so I can use the space for storage. The question is how do you remove them?
Tony

[tony_s]

Here is how to remove the headrests. I found the second post to be useful. Bit of a pain to do but worked ok. With the D5 you need to work from inside the car due to the construction of the seats.
Tony
Rear Head Restraint Removal - Discovery Sport Forums (http://www.discosportforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3027&p=30479&hilit=headrest+removal#p30479)

[juliatea]

Hi Tony,

Re the wheel winch adapter. I made it for the disco4 a few years back so probably best to have a look at the posting that I made back in 2014 as I cannot now remember the precise details.

Have a look at my posting from then

DISCO3.CO.UK - View topic - D4 remote access to wheel winch, cars built after jan 2013 (https://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic106209.html)

There are also pictures attached in the gallery.
The first couple of attempts were difficult. Basically I used the fork of a very large bottle screw. Got one from a crane parts supplier in Silverwater, Sydney. At the time i could not find a suitable size at the boat shop.
I then disassembled the fork and had the local exhaust repairer weld a stainless steel nut onto the top, he was terrific really helpful.
The next bit was to find a short enough socket to fit on the nut and then attach the right size socket extender (15cm).
Fitting the whole assembly over the winch top with a piece of rubber tubing I found in the garage, that fitted inside the hole in the winch winder (no rattles) with a washer on either side inside the fork, and the pin was threaded through the hole in the fork and locked with a split ring.
I might say it was a beast to fit at the time as the access in the disco 4 was a bit more awkward.

A couple of other things I did was to seal around the edge of the winch winder platform with guttering goo to prevent water ingress and also to cut a hole in the grommet and put a thick rubber O ring on the extender, on either side of the grommet.

Have used exactly the same setup for the Disco 5 although I have used a shorter extender which pops up thru the hole in the wooden sheet that I have put in the Disco5.
Have not been able to get a lower grommet from the spare parts people as this apparently is only available from the UK, lucky that I am going to the uk in 2 weeks.

Have also used a silicone hose from Autobarn car parts 76x76 mm and cut it to size to fit in between the 2 floors around the winch, difficult as the 2 skins are not parallel, will seal that with silicone. To complete the job would rather wait till I have a spare lower winch grommet, before I start cutting a hole in the original

Fitting this time was very much easier as I tied a piece of thin whipping twine available from Whitworths onto the car at one end threaded it thru all the different bits in the right order and tied the other end to the end of the hole in the pin, then pulled the whole lot gently through. This time it took only 10 minutes instead of half a day with curses.
The final thing is to put a bit of silicone hose on the extender at the right height under the board so you cannot pull the extender plus socket off the nut.

Works extremely well and the top of the extender just pokes up through the hole in the floor. I have a flexible socket extender which fits on the top of the setup if the fridge is in the car when we are away as access between the fridge and the drawer would otherwise be awkward.

Sorry if this sounds a bit garbled but it was a beast to do and it took ages when I was still working. But it does work very well.

Regards Julia

[tony_s]

Thanks Julia.
It is always nice to have someone else do the initial hard work! Then, as they say, we can build off the shoulders of the giants!
Cheers
Tony.

[RobA]

Watching the progress of these fitout threads with some interest as I am going to finalise the spec of a D5 over 2019 as part of our planning to replace the D4. I'm hoping that the new Defer will do the job but remain unconvinced it will have the towing capacity we need for the Q+

So hidden winch and nudge bar, dual battery and I am heading into my local dealer to measure up the rear area for a slide out tray per our D4. Hoping to see an aftermarket roof ladder and spare wheel carrier during this year as well I hope

Rob

[loanrangie]

Here is how to remove the headrests. I found the second post to be useful. Bit of a pain to do but worked ok. With the D5 you need to work from inside the car due to the construction of the seats.
Tony
Rear Head Restraint Removal - Discovery Sport Forums (http://www.discosportforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3027&p=30479&hilit=headrest+removal#p30479)

On Saturday i was with Lee and looking at removal of the headrests and possibly 6+7th seats, headrests came out but there is wiring for the retractor motors and no sign of a plug to release it ?

[IndusD4]

There does appear to be a connector however it is inside the seat. You'd need to dismantle the seat to disconnect it. See here (https://disco5.co.uk/forum/thread796.html?highlight=headrest&start=15) the disco5 thread on the 2nd/3rd row headrest removal. A couple of members had the 2nd row headrests removed by dealers due to not being able to fit certain child seats.

Ron

[tony_s]

Lucky we haven’t got electric seats in the back!
Tony

[Lee Jackson]

Hi Guys,

I found these which will be very useful.

Long weekend coming up so will attempt to remove the headrests.

147742
147743
147744