Thread: dual battery set up

Hi

as with most electrical cabling the shortest route is always the best.
although in my classic i have my second battery in a box in the back of my car
as most of my things i run are from the back of my car and also batteries last much longer not being in the heat of the engine bay. personally if i were to put it under the bonnet i would just run cabling in front of radiator just be sure to protect it from rubbing on too much. good luck with the install.

I ran mine along the front. In front of the bonnet latch zip tied out of the way where it can't rub on anything.

There are already cables running in front of the radiator, at the top, so I ran mine through there. There are (typically) a couple of sharp bits of metal in there so it was worth it to take off the bonnet latch panel, which wasn't too hard, and protect the existing wiring as well as the new stuff.

Same for me, In ran the cables across the front. It was in a Disco but they are just about the same as a Rangie.

Ivan

no worries that was my thoughts, just checking to make sure no one had any issues doing ti this way.


thanks guys

Here is a photo of my second battery - I thought I had one of how the cables run, but I can't find it - I'll take one tomorrow when it's light. Anyway, mine run back into the engine bay and accross the top of the engine. The only reason I did it this way was for convienience, and that I can see all the cables easily and can check easily to make sure they aren't rubbing through. Cables are twin insulated and also have split conduit on them where ever they come into contact with anything.

Although I don't currently have an isolator in the circiut, when I put one in, it will go just above the power steering reservoir.

I earthed my second battery to the body near it, the same way as the main battery is earthed, to keep the cable short.

Yeah, that should work just as well. The reason I ran another complete cable is that 'A' - I have access to plenty of cable and as an Electrician I'm fairly zealous about how I wire stuff up, and 'B' - although using the chassis and body will work, with a car of this age, I didn't want to rely on old joints between body panels, etc where I could get some voltage drop or create a hot spot during high current (winch) use. The earth on the second battery runs to a single 10mm stud that connects both battery negatives and the body. Another lead then runs from this down to the chassis. I am planning on mounting the winch on a cradle that can mount both on the front, or the back of the car, with an Anderson plug at each end - when I do this, I'll be running 2 cables to the back of the car to run it for the same reasons already mentioned.

May be overkill, but that's the way I like my electrics - bullet proof. - Just the opposite of how Lucas did them...