Steves JK

[Steve F]

More mods happening

When I bought the JK it had a dual battery setup, nicely put together with a dual voltage monitor and 100A breaker from the battery etc but it didn't have the second battery in it. It only had the cradle which was attached to the floor in the boot taking up precious luggage space. First thing I did was unbolt it and ditch it. Jumping forward I have my roof rack on order and also some 12v 12W LED work-lights, these will bolt to the roof rack at the rear (one in each corner) and will double as setup lights for camp and off-road reversing lights.

So I can leave them on for a while at night with no worries I've decided to put a second battery in the storage compartment under the floor in the back. It will only be used for running the lights and charging up phones and tablets overnight etc, no fridge or anything like that as there wont be any room for it anyway

The battery I bought is a 22AH deep cycle, full sealed and fine to run in the cabin in any orientation. It'll run on it's side. It's the CBC12V22AH With this in the floor storage there is still room for my twin head 12v compressor and currie tyre deflator.

http://www.fusionagmbatteries.com.au...ts/Cyclic.aspx

And the lights I'll be running, they are 8cmx8cmx8cm



I tested what I have at the moment to make sure the dual setup does actually work and isolate from the main battery.

Current Anderson plug from battery isolator, I knocked up a quick tail to connect to the new battery, this is just the battery out of my wifes motorbike (for testing). The current cable will be run to the storage compartment.



The twin power point already there, one is AUX and the other MAIN, I have an old fluro work lamp plugged in to check the AUX keeps power when the batteries are isolated (it did), also tested the main to make sure it doesn't (it also worked as expected)



Independant battery readout for each one, they are both the same as the engine is running in this pic.



Anyway, that's it. Hopefully 22AH will be enough to be useful, I think it will be fine for many hours of LED lighting and charging each night More pics when the rest of the gear shows and I can set it all up.

Cheers
Steve