Thread: Dual batteries?

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Folks and sorry for the delay but they are just about ready to go ( tomorrow or Wednesday ) but in the meantime, can everybody who prepaid please send me a PM with your E-mail address so I can send a PDF of the installation instructions to you.
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Looks great! - Will the kit include the battery terminal connectors as shown fitted to the yellow D34 or do I need to obtain them myself?

I've sent you the PM although I think you already have my email address from prior correspondence - regards, Daniel

Hi Daniel and you will not need anything other than the battery.

The kit includes all cabling with an in-line circuit breaker on the main cable, an in-line fuse on the accessories output wire, battery terminal clamps, battery hold down bracket and mounting hardware, main module plus a remote LED and control module, a short pre-assembled lead to plug into the rear power socket and a pre-wired 50 amp Anderson Plug.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, there will be a small “Z” terminal used to connect to the main cable in the back of the RR, I will pre-bolt this to the cable as I found it is a bit hard to get the assembly straight without using a vice and it’s a lot easier for me to assemble it before I assemble the rest of the kit’s cabling than it would be to do while installing the kit.

Just wondering,

Did anyone receive their Traxide L322 DBS kit this week?

With yet another wet and miserable weekend scheduled here I was looking forward to a few hours indoors installing this in the back of the rangie.

Not quite looking forward as much to the aches and pains from hunching over the back of the beast screwing, bolting, grinding, hefting and hauling. Of course accompanied by the usual array of cursing and muttering.

Ah well, there's always next weekend.

Cheers,
Iain

Originally Posted by RangieBit

Just wondering,

Did anyone receive their Traxide L322 DBS kit this week?

With yet another wet and miserable weekend scheduled here I was looking forward to a few hours indoors installing this in the back of the rangie.

Not quite looking forward as much to the aches and pains from hunching over the back of the beast screwing, bolting, grinding, hefting and hauling. Of course accompanied by the usual array of cursing and muttering.

Ah well, there's always next weekend.

Cheers,
Iain

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You will live in a "wet and miserable" city won't you?

I spoke to Ian on Friday afternoon and he is now planning to send the aux battery kits out this week.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Daniel, the Yellow Top is both a deep cycle battery and a winching battery so it can be used to jump start but the Blue Top is a cranking battery and is NOT recommended for deep cycle use.

See the info on Optima’s web site for a comparison of battery types

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Got my yellow top Optima on Friday but still waiting for the Traxide aux battery kit to arrive.

It appears that the advice on Optima batteries is wrong.

Optima "Blue Tops" come in 2 different types. The standard blue top (light grey sides) is indeed identical to the yellow top but has SS male thread posts in addition to the SAE posts. The non standard blue top (dark grey sides) is a marine cranking battery and as advised is not suitable for deep cycle use.

I should have researched this further before taking the advice on face value

The male thread posts are so much more useful for aux battery use (wing nuts with no spanners etc)!

Originally Posted by Daniel

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You will live in a "wet and miserable" city won't you?

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Actually according to the statistics collected by the Bureau of Meteorology over the last hundred plus years, NSW has a higher rainfall and more actual "wet" days per year than down this way in Victoria. I know this from personal experience too, having lived further north than here for about 20 years. Still, the myth continues. Some folk just never learn.

Anyway, this thread isn't about the weather, thanks for the update on the kit availability via Tim.

Sorry to hear about the confusion over battery types. To my mind the extra terminals on the D34M would end up being a pain as using them would mean having to leave the covers over the main posts to prevent accidental shorts. That's just my view though and others such as yourself may find them handier than the regular posts. Never needed them in previous incarnations of dual battery systems. Maybe I'm just used to the terminals with the little bolts now.

Cheers,
Iain



Cheers,
Iain

Hi Folks and sorry for the continual delays and while the kits are not finished, I’ll explain below, all pre-paid kits were shipped via express post this afternoon so you will all have them tomorrow.

The kits are for all in tents and purpose, finished but, I have to put the installation instructions together yet, plus I have decided to provide a warning sticker, to be placed near the cranking battery, to indicate there is a second battery fitted in the RR.

The reason for this is that unlike any other dual battery installation, the Range Rover engine bay shows absolutely no indication that there is a second battery fitted.

Any other vehicle, even when the second battery is located somewhere other than the engine bay, there will be an isolator fitted in the engine bay or at least additional cables coming off the cranking battery.

With the RR dual battery set up, there are no such extras in plain view and if someone was to work on the RR and think that by removing the cranking battery leads they have remove 12v from the vehicle, no so.

I have the vinyl material to make the warning stickers I just haven’t had the time to do the artwork.

As soon as the stickers are ready, I’ll post them out to you.

Thanks for everybody’s patience.

Originally Posted by RangieBit

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Sorry to hear about the confusion over battery types. To my mind the extra terminals on the D34M would end up being a pain as using them would mean having to leave the covers over the main posts to prevent accidental shorts. That's just my view though and others such as yourself may find them handier than the regular posts. Never needed them in previous incarnations of dual battery systems. Maybe I'm just used to the terminals with the little bolts now..........
Cheers,
Iain

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Good points - by "little bolts...." do you mean lead SAE posts that are squared off with bolt holes through them?
The reason I don't like using the lead SAE posts in whatever form is that they always suck acid up them and corrode connections. The marine type SS bolts appear to have better seals and never leak acid thereby providing the obvious benefits. As far as battery top shorts - this is an issue that needs attention no matter what connections are made and really is no different between for example the yellow top of blue top - if one doesn't take precautions then an accidental short will occur. Given the ease of making plastic extrusions I can;t belive that in this day and age batteries do not have included a hard plastic cover over the battery top that would prevent any short.

At least the DIN spec batteries as fitted to LR have the recessed terminals and base mounting - it would appear to have been so easy to design a battery top cover that would completely cover and protect the terminals and associated wiring connections.

My 2005 L322 has to its credit an isolated positive terminal and a negative terminal at the top of the front LHS strut - this allowed LR to fit a decent + battery terminal cover.
My 2007 L322 does not have this useful feature.