Thread: Help needed on Routing Batt cable into cargo area.

<span style="color:blue">the switch isnt NECESSARY but it would save on carrying jumper leads.....

or better still....it will make sure you never forget your jumper leads.....
if you leave your headlights on or radio or anything thats still connected
to the main battery....you will have a flat battery.....

if you have jumper leads you just hook up the auxillary to the main and
theoretically you are up and running again....
if you dont have jumper leads......you need to get your spanners out and
swap the positive terminals over.....

if you are in the defender......you need to remove the handbrake to get to the batteries.....
now the handbrake, by this stage, will already be whinging......
having her get back out of the car and standing there holding the seat squab
whilst you stuff around trying to get it started just wont go down too well.....


a switch makes sense to me......only to join the two batteries together
in the above situation.....and probably no other reason i can see....</span>

Hi tombraider, there are a number of dual battery devices that allow the device to be controlled by a switch to turn them on manually but none of these devices, including the Sure Power ( ARB ) isolator work quite like the SC40 or SC80.

The main advantage that both the SC40 and SC80 have over other dual battery devices, is their ability to give you up to 50% more operating time while powering from your auxiliary battery than any of the other devices will.

So Zook, what your saying is that fitting a battery switch is not so much intended to help start you fender if the main battery goes flat but to keep the peace on the home front. Much better idea. :wink:

Cheers

Hi Grizzly, my main concern with fitting a battery switch is, as weeds has already pointed out, the human factor of forgetting to switch the battery switch back to isolate after using it. This would then negate the protection that the SC40 or SC80 would normally guaranty.

Cheers.

Being a novice at electrics I sourced my dual battery system from ARB safe in the knowledge that they are expert in these things.

When on a recent trip to the Kimberley I ran everything dead by leaving the engel running overnight.

We intended to leave early the next morning so we filled the engel with drinks and food. Wife says will it be alright?, of course said I no problem we have a dual battery system.

Next morning remote wouldn't open the door and I couldn't activate the ignition to start the car, by this time her indoors was beginning to get a bit anxious and I could almost hear those words "told you so".

I could only open the drivers door with the key so could not easily get to my jump leads which were stowed in the rear of the vehicle.

Found a friendly soul with jump leads and we proceeded to try and jump start, we tried through the starter battery with no success.

Next a meter was produced which showed the starter battery brimfull of power but the main battery flat as a tack , then put the jump leads on that and away we go everything fires up and all is well.

Our next port of call was Broome so we spoke to the ARB guy who said "oh yes that happens a lot with vehicles run by Telstra because they run engels and other stuff so we often fit a jump switch on the dashboard to open the relay which I can fit for you or you can jump it across the relay with a bit of wire", I opted for the latter.

He kindly provided a bit of wire for me to use should it happen again for which I thanked him and said how greatful I would have been to have been given the piece of wire when he fitted the dual battery system and also the knowledge as to when I might need to use it.

On the way to Broome my wife had re-activated the radio by following the instructions in the handbook rather than drive in silence apart from the rythmical rattle of the TD5.

There are 2 points to this story:

1. You can subcontract the installation of aftermarket stuff but you should make sure you understand how it works,and

2. Never underestimate the determination of a wife to listen to the radio/CD player she eventually read the manual.

Hi harryw, not sure from your post, as to which battery you have your fridge connected to. It sounds like you have the fridge connected to the main ( starting ) battery, if so, is there any specific reason you do it this way

Cheers

Hi drivesafe

The way it is installed is that the original (main) battery runs all the accessories and the one installed by ARB is isolated by a relay when the ignition is off, as I understand it.

This was meant to give me the scenario of running accessories from the main battery when the car is not running and have the new battery there solely to start the vehicle in the event of the accessories reducing the power to a level in the main battery to that which it couldn't turn the engine over.

Sadly the engel drains the thing so flat it hasn't got enough in it to open the relay to bring the reserve battery into the electrical circuit to turn over the engine hence the problem I had in Kununurra.

To supplement this I have a solar panel which I hook up to the main batttery to run the engel during the day and this most times leaves enough in it to take it through the night.

Previously with the solar panel in play and by the time we had packed the camping equipment the sun had been boosting the charge for 4-5 hours so there was always enough power in the main battery to open the relay and fire up battery 2, so I was unaware of the problem that the engel was causing.

This was the first time I got caught out.

What complicated the initial diagnosis was that the battery being 3 years old was the possibilty that it had in fact karked it.

Hi again harryw, if I was you, I would seriously consider having that set up looked at by someone other than whoever installed it.

The hole idea of a duel battery set up is for the control device to protect the main ( cranking ) battery and when installed properly, all your accessories should be coming off your auxiliary battery ( they call it your starting battery ) and you should then never have a flat starting ( cranking ) battery.

In short, a dual battery set up may allow the auxiliary battery to go flat but you should, at ALL times then just have to turn the key and your vehicle is running.

You have already got problems when you can’t even unlock the vehicle.

Go and get it set up properly and then it will be a lot easier and far more realistic in it’s operation.

Cheers.

You put that so politely Drivesafe :!:

I would have said - Whoever installed your system is a damn fool

And yes, follow Drivesafes recommendations and change to aux for accessories ASAP.

Cheers
Mike