Thread: Concealing Aux Battery Wiring

hi away, you will need two special bolts to hold the auxiliary battery in place in the second battery box so while you are waiting for the D3, ask your dealer to order in the two battery securing bolts, LR Part numbers XYG 000051 and XYG 500061. They are different lengths and only cost about $4 or $5 for the pair.

Now there is a bracket but it’s for the existing battery on the passenger side and is the opposite fit for the battery mount on the driver’s side. You can rework it or if you can do a bit of your own manufacturing, ( as I suspect you can from your comments elsewhere ) you would be better off making your own.

While you are in the driver’s side battery box, have a look at the firewall for a rubber grommet. This should get your cable into the cab without the need to make a new hole.

Anyway, have a look at these two threads on the UK D3 web site I told you about. they have some good info on fitting the battery.

http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic3133.html?highlight=

http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic6456.html

Cheers

Whilst mine is a D2 not a D3 the basics should be the same.

I ran my cables under the vehicle, following the brake pipe route, and clipping where the pipes were clipped/fixed to the body.

i also ran the cables in flexi poly tube (black) to offer a little more protection.

My thought was if the brake pipes are reasonably safe - my cables should be as well.

On the D2 I brought the cables up inside the rear drivers side panel, where the tail lights are, and then through the rubber grommets to the inside of the vehicle. not sure if the same set up would work on a D3, but it would be my guess it would.

BTW away, forgot to mention that I make a D3 specific Dual Battery Controller that LRA got me to make up for the sepcial electrical needs of the D3 and RRS.

You can get some info on it at my web site.

www.traxide.com.au

Originally Posted by ladas

Whilst mine is a D2 not a D3 the basics should be the same.

I ran my cables under the vehicle, following the brake pipe route, and clipping where the pipes were clipped/fixed to the body.

If you follow this idea, you should make certain that the cables cannot rub against the brake pipes. Contrary to what you would think, if the soft plastic rubs against the steel pipe, it is the pipe that will wear away. I found this out the hard way - when I replaces the joiner hoses on my fuel lines, I twisted the nylon fuel line so it was touching the brake pipe - and it wore a hole in the brake pipe. The reason this happens is that dust gets on the surface of the softer material, and gets embedded, so it doesn't move relative to the soft material but acts like sandpaper on the hard material.
John

and drivesafe, I had already visited your webpage and will be ordering a controller soon. A question....can you cascade the controllers? I will be having an aux battery up front (for my two-ways, GPS, laptop etc), one in the rear (for running my two fridges) and a connection thru to my camper (that has 305 A/H of capacity) so that I can charge these while driving along.

Looking at your diagrams I can independently control the front and rear batts, but if I cascade another controller off the rear battery, will this then control the camper batteries or am I asking too much?

The camper batteries are charged by two x 123W solar panels thru a plasmatronic 20A regulator when we are stationary.

Originally Posted by away

and drivesafe, I had already visited your webpage and will be ordering a controller soon. A question....can you cascade the controllers? I will be having an aux battery up front (for my two-ways, GPS, laptop etc), one in the rear (for running my two fridges) and a connection thru to my camper (that has 305 A/H of capacity) so that I can charge these while driving along.

Looking at your diagrams I can independently control the front and rear batts, but if I cascade another controller off the rear battery, will this then control the camper batteries or am I asking too much?

The camper batteries are charged by two x 123W solar panels thru a plasmatronic 20A regulator when we are stationary.

Thats a lot of power from the alternator isn't it?

Alternatively could the photovoltaic panels on the van help generate charge into the batteries or fridges whilst the vehicle is in motion

Or get a small wind turbine (tube type) on the roof of the camper

Originally Posted by dobbo

Thats a lot of power from the alternator isn't it?

Alternatively could the photovoltaic panels on the van help generate charge into the batteries or fridges whilst the vehicle is in motion

Or get a small wind turbine (tube type) on the roof of the camper

Thanks Mat. I would be working on the assumption that my batteries would be nowhere near flat at any time because I have excess capacity. Hopefully I'd never need more than twenty amps to be split over the whole lot.

The solar panels are glass, so I cover and protect them against stone damage, but I guess when I'm on bitumen I could rig something up to utilise them.

I don't like the idea of the extra drag even a small wind turbine would add to the rig (Gear on the roof rack, boat on the top of the camper already).

If I were in doubt about how much current I would need, I'd leave the camper batteries disconnected.

Hi away, no problems. You could fit an SC80-LR up front and a standard SC40 either in the rear of the D3 or in the camper.

When you get closer to the installation, give me a phone call because the new units might be ready and they have additional logic in them to carry out the specific task you want to do.

Cheers.