Traxide/Second Battery Installation Tip.

[Jpdv]

For anyone who's interested, I've been delaying installing my second battery/traxide setup, because I was a little concerned at just how tight the selected battery was... I had read the posts promising that an HVT70LD would fit, but it looked bloody tight once I'd squeezed a tray into the space.

After some gingerly lowering the bonnet, I was at least happy that I wasn't going to put a bloody great dent in it with the terminals(!). Concern number 1 removed. Concern number 2 was the prospect of rubbing through the bonnet sound insulation mat and shorting everything against the metal bonnet in mid-drive somewhere... My answer was to get some talcum powder and dust the top of both terminals with it, and then fully close the bonnet. This gave the following result:

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It clearly showed that only the earth terminal was touching the matting. I can live with that. The better news was that I then started fumbling about where it touched, wanting to get a feel for any earthing risk if it rubbed through: by pure luck, and obviously because the Gods of the mad tinkerer love me, I discovered that the talcum spot is slap in the middle of a recess/gap in the lower part of the bonnet:
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So the message is, it will just about fit, but if you are worried, tweak and adjust before any metal bashing or hole drilling in order to get that terminal under that lovely little hole...

I also then removed the plastic fold away handle from this end of the battery - it means that the earth strap has a bit more room as it rounds the upper corner of the battery:

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Finally, drilled and filed a suitable hole in the OEM battery cover to run the cable to the cranking positive terminal: it's not water tight, but you're deluding yourself if you think that cover is, anyway:

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End Result before running accessory cables. Note that I also rigged a minimal height clamp from a bit of gal plate - much lower than the commercial plastic handles, but watch for accidental shorting if you go this route(!) The. butterfly nuts are temporary, because the bloody threads they are on are not metric, and. I don't have any substitute nuts to hand - so I've ground down the tops to stop them rubbing holes in the matting - I'll replace them with cone lock nuts when I get the time, to reduce the profile a bit further...

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[BMKal]

I have the Fullriver DC85-12 battery in mine - also a tight fit.
I extended the positive lead and turned the battery around so that the terminals were toward the rear of the vehicle for more clearance as you have done, and have used a short length of very heavy leather belting with large flat washers above and below the leather as the top of my battery clamp. Works well and has not moved since I installed it a couple of years ago.

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[Jpdv]

Nice idea - gets all the nut/bolt stuff down lower. I did wonder about a length of webbing, but didn't have anything to hand...

[scarry]

Done similar on other vehicles,used blue tac on top of the battery terminals.
It can be shapped into whatever height one wants,which helps.

[drivesafe]

There is a video that one of my customers did, when he tested fitting the 85Ah battery in his D4.

The video is shot under the bonnet and shows everything clears when the bonnet is closed.

If someone out there has a link to that video, please post it up.

I can’t find it but will keep looking.

[scarry]

Tim,just for interest,i have the DT 90,how many milliamps does it draw?
Does it draw the most when the relay is on,that is both batteries connected?

[drivesafe]

Tim,just for interest,i have the DT 90,how many milliamps does it draw?
Does it draw the most when the relay is on,that is both batteries connected?
While on, it will draw around 250ma and less than 10ma when off.

Both the DT90 and the UST-175 ( replacement for the USI-160 ) have a maximum 72 hour shutdown process to reduce battery discharge when the vehicle is not in use.

If, when not using your vehicle very much, and you want to save battery energy, just set the Toggle Switch on your In-Cab module towards the LED.

This will allow both batteries to charge while driving, but will shut the DT90 down shortly after you turn the motor off ( in round 15 to 30 minutes ).

The short delay allows both batteries to be used while the vehicle goes through its Shut-Down process, which helps to leave the cranking battery in a higher state of charge when ever you turn the motor off.