Thread: 2nd Battery in a D2

Hi maggsie, from memory either or both TJM and ARB have a battery tray kit for the D2 and it mounts where you suggested.

I can’t remember what size battery I had fitted in my D2 but someone else will have the correct size for you.

A tip for you, once you have the tray fitted, make a reflector from a thin sheet of stainless steel and mount it on the edge of the battery tray so that it will reflect the radiated heat, coming from the engine, away from the battery. This will give your battery a longer operating life.

Cheers

I'll pay ARB a visit on Monday. Also looking at these hybrid batteries, combination of deep cycle and a starter battery in one, $285.00 for an NZ70 from a local business dealing only in batteries, battery management systems etc.
Thanks
Maggsie

Hi Maggsy,

The battery which fits the ARB Tray in my Disco 2 TD5 is an Exide/ Champion ED4. Not a huge beast of a battery, but adequate for an Engel for a day or two. Make sure you put a heat shield on as per drivesafes' post or the heat will cook the 2nd battery....Like I did!!!

Johnsy

I have an ARB second battery tray to suit the D2 for sale on EBAY.

Hi again maggsie, I would do a little research before you parted with your hard earned money.

You would be wise to avoid a high tech battery because of the heat, even with a reflector, AGM and the likes, do not like heat so you are far better off fitting a standard wet cell deep cycle battery, heaps cheaper and will still give you a good working life.

Cheers.

PS, have a look at my web site for Dual Battery Controllers.

http://www.traxide.com.au/

Hi maggsie, the N70 won't fit in the ARB or TJM battery tray they are designed for a smaller battery like the N50, i would get (what i have) the fullriver 60AH as it will fit in the tray, but you may have to adjust the hieght in lowering the tray a bit as the fullriver is the same height as an N70 Exide but much shorter so will fit in the ARB/TJM tray.

I made my own tray to fit an N70 Exide, but because of heat from the turbo the larger N70 died fairly quickly, this is why i went to the shorter Fullriver, it is now fitted and is a further 3 to 4 inches away from the turbo.

I can't say enough about how important the heat sheild is, i now have a second one in front of the exsisting one.

I also run a Traxide SC40 dual battery controller from Drivesafe, great unit.






Baz.

Thanks for all the info, I rang ARB and learnt that they supplied a tray suitable for a small battery, no bloody good for my purposes. He then tried to talk me into parting with $850.00 for one those battery packs, yeah right!
I'll look at fabricating my own to suit an NZ70. As mine is the V8, there are a couple of things in the way plus there is still the heat issue from the L/H exhaust manifold. I thought of removing the the current battery box/jack setup as it is one unit and putting 2 x NZ70's in that spot at 90deg, but they are 300mm long and I think they will sit up too high for the bonnet to close. Further measuring will confirm. The other choice is to run heavy leads and put a sealed battery box in the back.

Hi again maggsie, naturally I’m promoting my gear but when available space reduces the size of battery that you can fit, if you fit an SC40 or an SC80, you will give your auxiliary battery at least a 50% increase in operating time because of the fact that, unlike any other dual battery controller, the SC40 and SC80 uses some of the stored capacity of your cranking battery.

If you fit, say, an N50 auxiliary battery and an N70 cranking battery and use an SC40 to control the dual battery set up, you will effectively have the equivalent of an N90 auxiliary battery.

That’s at least about a 60% increase ( depending on how low you take your axuiliary battery ) in stored capacity available for auxiliary use and the whole set up should be less than half the price you were quoted.

Just a suggestion, cheers