Thread: Running 6b&s to rear anderson plug

Originally Posted by JAYRO

I got in touch with Redarc and they say :

" As the Land Rover Discovery uses a variable voltage alternator, the BCDC1240D will require an ignition switched feed to the blue trigger wire.

Hi again Jeremy and once again, you do not need a DC/DC device as your D4 alternator will easily equal what that 40 amp DC/DC unit can do with one battery and, as you have mentioned, there is a possibility of you adding a second battery.


If you do that, then your DC/DC device will take many hours more to recharge low batteries as compared to what your alternator can do by itself.


This is FACT, not selling fiction!


The reason I know this to be factual is because there are over 4,500 D3s and D4s with my dual battery systems fitted, and not just here in Australia. I have customers throughout the Middle East, with the high temperatures there and many customers in Arctic countries like Finland, Estonia, Sweden Norway and Canada, even in these cold climate countries, no one needs a DC/DC device because their D3s and D4s work better at charging batteries, even banks of batteries, better than a DC/DC device can.


The only time you need a DC/DC device with a D3 or D4 ( or any other vehicle ) is when you are fitting Lead Crystal Batteries or Lithium batteries, and when people genuinely need DC/DC devices, I supply Sterling Battery to Battery chargers as these are the only DC/DC devices that work properly at charging these sorts of batteries.


Next, my isolators do not turn off at 12.7v, they turn off at 12.0v, giving you an additional 45Ah of usable accessories power. With my setup you probably would not need an additional house battery capacity and you could replace the battery energy you used in about half the time your DC/DC device could ever do it in.

Originally Posted by JAYRO

I also thought from having set up off grid 12v before that it wasn't a good idea to hardwire the batteries with a direct unregulated feed. The alternator to battery direct I thought would be unstable with voltage and also throw out the accuracy of any solar regulator. i.e. it's not reading the true battery condition when being charged.

Originally Posted by JAYRO

Jayro

I ment to correct this earlier. It is an industry standard to connect all the charge sources direct to the battery and everything will work perfectly.


You can have a direct connection from your alternator, you can have a solar regulator and a 240VAC battery charger, all connected to your house batteries, and when on the road, your alternator and solar panels will be recharge your batteries while you drive and when at a powered site, during the day, your battery charger and solar panels will again recharging your house batteries together.


It is never a good idea to try to run a 3 way fridge while trying to recharge house batteries. The fridge will just cause too much voltage drop.


Depending on the size of your 3 way fridge, you could use the FRIDGE circuit in your S12 ( White ) plug at the rear of your D4.


This is a brilliant setup because it is only powered up while the motor is actually running.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Arthur and not sure where you are getting your info from but the SBI12 turns on at 13.2v and turns off at 12.7v

Next, it is a 100 amp continuos rated solenoid, not 80.

.....

Apologies, you're correct .. my bad re the on volts and max continuous current.
Forgot the specs.
Didn't know that it turns on at 13.2, never tested that bit, I just note it always on at 12.7 .. which as you say is the off voltage(ie. my bad assuming it's the on voltage too).

Originally Posted by JAYRO

....

" An alternative method ... is to have your Anderson plug feed to the back of the vehicle run through an SBI12. The SBI12 override wire then requires connection to a fused, ignition switched positive feed. This then disregards the voltage sensitive thresholds normally utilised by an SBI12 (Until the ignition positive feed is removed, in which case it will disconnect the Anderson plug at 12.7V). Once this override is connected, the blue input trigger wire may be connected directly to the red input wire of the BCDC1240D, as it is now ignition controlled."

after asking for a little more clarification :
..." there will be a 60A MIDI fused input from the battery positive terminal to the “Start Terminal” of the SBI12, and your Anderson plug will be connected to the “Auxiliary Terminal”. Black earthed to common ground, and blue “Override” wire will then be connected to your spare fuse tap.

So... in short it seems a little over kill they way I have planned to set it up, however it seems that it'll make the caravan charger ignition controlled whilst protecting starter battery for below 12.7v.

Nothing in their literature about the blue over ride wire on the SB, neither the old paper instruction sheet, not the PDF version(the two sheets have slight differences) but specs and install instructions basically the same.
Interesting to know that a 12v feed into the blue wire will override the voltage sensing component of the SBI12.
Did they make any mention of the ability to connect an LED to the blue wire as normal to indicate that the SB is actually connected if you do connect the blue wire to ign?

That is, if you had it set up that way, where ignition controlled the SB's on state, if it failed(someone recently commented that theirs failed) .. you'd never know if it was sending power to the anderson plug.
I'd still be 'worried' about having the anderson plug active when not in use.
A good starter battery will hold 12.7volts for quite a long while.
Fitted brothers TD5 with a dual battery setup a while ago, and got him two Optima batteries to go with it all.
His redtop Optima hold 12.7v itself easily over night.
When connected with the Redarc (we used one on his too), it held 12.7 volts for close to 2 days.. I had his D2 at my place for two weeks and played around with it a little.
My Century battery tho(10 months old now) will hold 12.7v on a mild night for maybe 6-8 hrs before it finally drops.

Interesting reading .. learned somethign new, and also got back up to speed with correct specs too!
And I agree with Tim .. re the DC DC charger philosophy .. but if you're using the Redarc DCDC charger as the MPPT controller for van's solar, then it also makes sense what you're doing too.

Originally Posted by Geedublya

Until your parked in the shade or get a week of rain.

only silly people park beneath trees,,

and its surprising just how much charge you get even on a rainy day,,

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Dave, the D3 and D4 are the easiest vehicle I have ever come across to run twin 6B&S cabling through.
If you run cabling of any form along or through the chassis, you must make sure you know they are not going to do any body-off servicing or you are going to have to replace the damaged cabling when you get your D4 back.

Tim,
I have no doubt you are right about the ease of cabling the D3/D4, but unfortunately I struggled, and ended up running 8B&S instead. More a statement about me than the car.
Yes, the need to make mechanics aware of the chassis cable run in the case of body-off work is a concern, but it is a risk I am ok with. The cable run is of-course protected at the battery, and so the worst case is that I have to patch or replace the 6B&S run.
As always, thanks for your thoughts Tim

Hi Dave and while I only run cabling through the cab, as you have already run your 8B&S along the chassis, if you want to up the cable size, your do not have to replace the 8B&S.


Simply run another length of 8B&S parallel to the existing cabling. This will take your 8B&S ( 7.9mm2 x 2 ) to just under 16mm2.


As for Jeremy, I have to be honest here and say I am sorry he has been mislead, and by the sounds of it, by a few different people. And following their “misleading” advice, he has spent a lot money and ended up with a setup that falls short of an optimum charging system, based on what his D4 can do.


There is a lot of B/S advice about what is needed when a vehicle has a Variable Voltage Alternator Operation, and most vehicles now have some form of this. But many of these vehicles still do not need DC/DC device, Especially none of the Land Rovers ( DS is an exception but for a different reason ).


I am now supplying kits for the D5s and they are working so well that I now have two dealerships making enquires because of how well they are working in some of their customer’s D5s.


Anyway, I hope Jeremy gets his setup sorted to what he wants.

Have no idea how you could struggle running cable through a D4 by following the Traxide instructions :O the hardest part was trying not to lose those damn metal clips.

Who on earth would cut out at 12.7V? lol That's the voltage of a 100% charged battery.

Originally Posted by Russrobe

Have no idea how you could struggle running cable through a D4 by following the Traxide instructions :O the hardest part was trying not to lose those damn metal clips.

Who on earth would cut out at 12.7V? lol That's the voltage of a 100% charged battery.

Not all people have bought a traxide kit so are not following their advice. Plus it gets pretty busy through that grommet with heaps of accessories