Nice....just be careful with the heat coming off the compressor.
Greetings to All,
A few months ago we made a trip with my MY17 Disco Sport to the Flinders Ranges. The car coped with everything thrown at it (although we were not too adventurous!), but storage space was an issue. This got me thinking as to how I could install a dual battery system and on-board compressor. What follows is for a 5 seater, with factory cargo divider.
It turns out to be very easy. If the styrofoam surrounds around the spare wheel are all removed, this frees up a great deal of space around the spare wheel; and between the wheel, cargo barrier and rear seats. Two Optima yellow tops fit in between the rear seats and the spare wheel. The can be secured using a tie down strap running from a small hole in the outer seat runner to the inner bolt securing the two lateral braces that are under the original styrofoam surround. The existing inner bolts can be replaced by an M8 eye bolt to facilitate this. The batteries are connected in parallel, and charged from a Redarc DC-DC convertor.
The ARB twin compressor can be mounted low on the cargo barrier, with M6 vibration isolators and oversize washers. The 4L air tank fits in the recess on the R between the spare wheel and the wheel arch. I had longer stainless braided air hoses made at a pneumatic tool supplies, and mounted the air outlet and the switch to the side of the cargo barrier. The switch wires need to be cut, extended and joined. The compressor is wired with an Anderson plug directly to the new dual battery set-up.
With all this, there is about 5 cm of rear seat travel lost. The resulting space between the cargo barrier and the rear seat back can be utilised with bags that attach to the barrier (3 of the MSA small bags fit across the barrier). There is additional space around the spare for a bottle jack and other tools. The air hoses and inflator for the compressor are stored in the MSA bag above it.
With the false floor back on, only a small amount of space is taken up by the compressor, the rest if the install is hidden. A 28L Waeco fridge fits nicely in front of the compressor, and I am having some custom drawers made to fit along side (600 x 550 footprint). An important consideration is access to the spare; therefore the drawers and fridge are secured with tie-downs and not bolted in.
I hope this is useful and happy to provide further info. I hope the pictures tell the story (but on uploading some of them are upside-down, sorry!).
Regards to All
Scott
Nice....just be careful with the heat coming off the compressor.
Impressive!
Hi Scott, that’s an interesting location for the auxiliary batteries.
I bought a new VW Tiguan in December last year and with no room under the bonnet, I found a similar solution for mounting the auxiliary battery in the rear cargo area.
While I only removed enough of the styrofoam to allow the battery to fit, leaving the bulk of the rest of the foam in place for the sound dampening.
With removing all the styrofoam from your wheel well, have you noticed any change in the sound levels?
Hi,
No, good thought. But no, I haven't noticed any change. I did have to remove just a little of the foam under the carpet behind the back seats, to allow the batteries to sit level, but again, no change in the sound/nise.
Best,
Scott
Thanks again Scott and BTW,
thanks for sharing
I’m quiet hesitant to pull things apart in the car and have decided to go with an external Ryobi compressor for $90 from Bunnings which works off the same batteries as all the plus one tools.
Will be looking at a goal zero yetti rechargeable battery via a removable solar cell as a secondary backup, it can also be hooked up to the car battery as a booster with an adaptor.
It’s probably a more costly option but saves me hacking into the car as I’m more likely to butcher it beyond reasonable repair - lol
Scott how did you find the car on your trek do you have any other
Mods?
Just curious as I’ve only done a
Small amount of off roading and the car so far has exceeded my expectations with everything stock from factory.
Will be looking at some Grabber AT tyres next.
“”Cheers
G
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