MN Dual Battery

[ronnieq]

Fair call on the hourly rate Greedy the $1600.00 also included the driving lights. A basic battery only system from the big suppliers( we all know the 3 letter theives TJ.... and AR....) will set you back $1200.00 easily.

Greedy wrote
I'll do some research and have a crack myself

I know I used to do all my own work on the 3 Patrols I have had I did all the electrical, mechanical and fabrication.
Now its just easier to open my wallet than my toolbox its always painful though .

Greedy wrote
Each to their own I s'pose Ronnie. Personally, I don't like silver either.

I had to take Silver to get delivery before end of December to get the 50% tax rebate it wasn't my first choice to be honest ,Ironbark was, so it was silver or the blue.I am really happy with the silver now.
Regards Ronnie Q

[ronnieq]

Thanks for the compliment on the shed photos Dave.

Cowboy Dave asked
I'm curious though, what are these two switches?

One is the Jump Start option for the Redarc Isolater and the other is for the driving lights.
Regards Ronnie

[Greedy]

Ronnie, What amp auto reset circuit breakers are used? I was thinking of going the same way but could only get 50 amp breakers. These are fine for charging the battery but I was worried they wouldn't carry enough current for the jump start function. Your thoughts???

[Cowboy Dave]

I finally got around to buying a battery and dual battery kit yesterday. Haven't worked out how I am going to do it yet.

The battery I got is a Remco RM12-105FT - it's a deep cycle AGM battery (105Ah). Allegedly though it is dual purpose so that it would be suitable for cranking as well. They're made by Federal batteries http://www.federalbatteries.com.au/RM12-105FT/

RM12-105FT.jpg

As you can see it is a funny shape - much longer and slimmer than the usual shape. It's about 4.5" wide, 9.1" tall and 19.5" long.

I didn't much think about it til afterwards, but if you removed the existing battery and tray and replaced it with something long, you might well fit two of these side by side? Haven't got under the bonnet with a tape measure as yet but perhaps something to think about if anyone is wedded to the idea of having two under the bonnet.

One catch to think about though - it weighs just shy of 25kg so a pair might be a bit heavy on one side?

[ag9111]

CD
AGM batteries do not like heat. Under the bonnet will shorten its life span

[Cowboy Dave]

yeah there is that - mine is going somewhere in the back. still, not sure how much heat there has to be nor how much it will shorten the life. maybe some shielding would help? anyway just an idea for anyone desperate to get two under the hood.

[koshari]

ML and MN share same engine bay layout, chassis, body shell and tray, its just been extended 200mm between tailgate and wheel arch so info is pertinant to both.
I run two heavy duty cables, double insulated, the whole length of the vehicle. One into the tray for the spare battery, one to the towbar for the camper trailor. Soldered on two anderson plugs. Mounted the dual battery controller in the engine bay and wired everything up in just over an hour. Its not a big job compared to the cost of the battery, material is pretty small cost. What will be expensive is some sort of mounting for the battery under the tray if you have to buy it. From memory somebody makes one for the Navara and its worth $700 or $800.
I'd go a sealed maint free battery that can be mounted on its side, if sticking under the tray.
Heat kills AGM batteries, so keep them out of the engine bay

i did mine pretty much the same as this,

protected the cable at both ends with a 32ampNIT HRC fuse enclosed in a small piece of 20mm pvc conduit, ram 2 cores of 6mm2 flexible double insulated cable from the battery to the firewall behind it where my redarc battery isolator is mounted. then i run the positive tail from the isolator cable tied across the top of the engine bay to the existing loom, down the drivers side just inside the brake booster and into the chassis rail where it is protected all the way down to the back where the 107AH deepcycle SLAB (sealed lead acid battery) is mounted.

[Cowboy Dave]

where/how did you mount the actual battery?

[jonhart80]

I have a ml 2009 v6 petrol and I put a tjm dbs and a duel battery tray under the bonet from prahana off road

[koshari]

where/how did you mount the actual battery?

i mounted mine on a custom bracket/plate that bolts to the 70mm tube thats part of the tow bar ,

it uses 2 clamps to connect to the top of the tow bar, and is situaten in the rear drivers corner under the tub , beside/rear the spare wheel,

[Cowboy Dave]

i mounted mine on a custom bracket/plate that bolts to the 70mm tube thats part of the tow bar ,

it uses 2 clamps to connect to the top of the tow bar, and is situaten in the rear drivers corner under the tub , beside/rear the spare wheel,

I'd be very interested in some pictures if possible, I've been trying to work out something quite similar for mine and all ideas are bound to help.

[Dylan 191]

Quick search got some hits


viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2084&p=33310&hilit=dual+battery+towbar#p33310

[Cowboy Dave]

yeah I'd seen that one. Koshari's sounds like it is more around the side? I figure the more input I get the more likely I will do a decent job of mine when I get to it.

[brownegaz]

An interesting thread going here, I am going for the Redarc system, I have two 55Ah AGM batteries that will be fitted in parallel, they will go in the back of the ute in a seperate box, eventually a roller drawer system will hide them from view.I do my own electrical installs, if anyone is interested I will post photos once I get started.

Hey Ronnie can you let me know how you managed to fit the UHF radio where you have it, I am driving an MN GLXR auto, I have a small compartment at the front of the centre console like yours but it has a flip up lid thingy on it, I have a radio similar to yours, I think its a GME TX 3220, I cant decide where to fit the bloody thing.

brownegaz

[brownegaz]

Hey Ronnie
One thing I noticed from your photos is the two positive terminals on the Redarc isolator are exposed, when I did my instal on my previous car, a Navara, I managed to get some plastic covers that went over these terminals, if you were to drop a spanner or something metalic and it landed between a positive terminal and the car body you could end up with a dead short, ie lots of sparks and probably pop a fuse, this is in no way a critisism of your instal its just an observation.I was under the impression that Redarc were supplying covers for these terminals.

Have you tried out the emergency start arrangement using the push button you have mounted on the dash, I used mine a couple of times when I managed to flatten the main battery overnight and it worked well, I was very glad I had it fitted because I was miles from any help.
I have to extract my digit and start installing my dual battery system.

brownegaz

[koshari]

i mounted mine on a custom bracket/plate that bolts to the 70mm tube thats part of the tow bar ,

it uses 2 clamps to connect to the top of the tow bar, and is situaten in the rear drivers corner under the tub , beside/rear the spare wheel,

I'd be very interested in some pictures if possible, I've been trying to work out something quite similar for mine and all ideas are bound to help.

heres a few with the battery removed, (using the battery in the caravan over easter).

under bonnet showing battery isolator and cable,

i need to lower the spare wheel to remove/replace the battery btw.



drivers side front wheel arch showing cable running from engine bay into chassis rail,



rear corner of undertub besides spare wheel in rear drivers side battery tray (battery removed) mounted on tow bar 70mm box tubing.



you can see the 4 studs that hold the stone deflector plate in place at the front of the tray to protect the battery from debris coming up from rear wheel.

[koshari]

Hey Ronnie
One thing I noticed from your photos is the two positive terminals on the Redarc isolator are exposed, when I did my instal on my previous car, a Navara, I managed to get some plastic covers that went over these terminals, if you were to drop a spanner or something metalic and it landed between a positive terminal and the car body you could end up with a dead short, ie lots of sparks and probably pop a fuse, this is in no way a critisism of your instal its just an observation.I was under the impression that Redarc were supplying covers for these terminals.

me too, i placed an extra nut on the end of the posts so the supplied insulation boots could be fitted to the studs again.

[snowman]

koshari,

mate i would be careful with the wiring in the middle photo. it looks like it is on the chassis side adjacent the wheel. when 4wding a stick could easily flick up onto this and take the wiring with it. see if you can protect it a bit better than that. just my opinion.

[Cowboy Dave]

thanks Koshari. I'm having a bit of trouble working out eactly what I am looking at in the last shot but I expect it will make sense when I get under the back again and try to get the same viewpoint. It has given me at least one new idea, it never would have occurred to me to run the wire down the inside of the chassis rail. The last two cable runs I did went along the same path as the standard loom with a tonne of ties and split loom and what have you. It looks very neat (stock even) but was a total PITA at the time. Down the inside of the rail could have saved me hours. Will have to check entry and exit points on mine to see if that will be workable. My wire is certainly thick enough that it will push through!

[Cowboy Dave]

okay now I get it. what threw me was the reference to 70mm bar, I was thinking it was on the side somehow but it is on the bar across the back like Mr T's. On mine that bar is 100mm square so that's where I got mixed up. back to the drawing board for me.

[ronnieq]

Hi Browngaz

One thing I noticed from your photos is the two positive terminals on the Redarc isolator are exposed

Thanks for picking that up on the install I will sort that ASAP. It was just an oversight on behalf of my electrician ,which is really unusual for him and really unusual for me because I normally go right over any work I have done ,but I do trust this guy.

Hey Ronnie can you let me know how you managed to fit the UHF radio where you have it, I am driving an MN GLXR auto, I have a small compartment at the front of the centre console like yours but it has a flip up lid thingy on it, I have a radio similar to yours, I think its a GME TX 3220, I cant decide where to fit the bloody thing.

The radio is a remote head unit so what you see is only 31 mm x 29mm x 128 mm ,yours is about 86 mm deeper, 117mm x 29mm x 128mm .I have it held in place with Velcro (the type with the adhesive back) so I can move it for cleaning and there is no screw holes at all.The only other place I considered was facing up on the side of the console ,as you mentiond yours is an Auto so i am not sure if that is an option.

Have you tried out the emergency start arrangement using the push button you have mounted on the dash, I used mine a couple of times when I managed to flatten the main battery overnight and it worked well, I was very glad I had it fitted because I was miles from any help.
I have to extract my digit and start installing my dual battery system.

No I havent used and hope I works when I need it as I go away a lot on my own.

I really like your canopy what brand is it.

Thanks Again Ronnie Q

[Cowboy Dave]

I really like your canopy what brand is it.

Thanks Again Ronnie Q

Mitsubishi genuine canopy by the look of things.

[brownegaz]

Your spot on Dave, its refered to by Mitsubishi as the "tradesman" canopy, Im quite happy with it so far, my ute back is chocka blok with all my gear so its appropriately named.

I have seen a post here where someone has fitted a UHF radio on the passenger side of the centre console so I might go that way, must be a tight fit.

brownegaz

[koshari]

My wire is certainly thick enough that it will push through!

best use a piece of that yellow plastic strip that tongue and grove flooring panels have to join them as a leader, then tape the cable you are pulling to that end of the "tongue" and use that to push through. you will be pulling your hair out trying to thread the cable through by itself as its nod rigid enough and will kink and get stuck all the way along.

[koshari]

koshari,

mate i would be careful with the wiring in the middle photo. it looks like it is on the chassis side adjacent the wheel. when 4wding a stick could easily flick up onto this and take the wiring with it. see if you can protect it a bit better than that. just my opinion.

yes my mechanic told me this as well, he suggested popping the plastic clip out and moving the cable behind the rubber flap.