Dual battery setup for 2.8 1GD

[120D4D Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 120D4D]

I ran mine down the drivers side and put the CIG/Merit in one of these:



Mine sits on top of the Drivers side wheel arch/arm rest as I couldn't bring myself to drill huge holes in the trim!

The other reason I went down drivers side it that the AUX is on that side and I could just run it straight down the body cavity.

[2016VX Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 2016VX]

I ran mine down the drivers side and put the CIG/Merit in one of these:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25881[/ATTACH]

Mine sits on top of the Drivers side wheel arch/arm rest as I couldn't bring myself to drill huge holes in the trim!

The other reason I went down drivers side it that the AUX is on that side and I could just run it straight down the body cavity.

Thanks for the response. Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Not sure I want to drill big holes in my new car.

[dBC Member Find all posts View Profile Close dBC]

I went with Anderson Powerpoles. Gives me 4 outlets in the back, and 4 up front, all in a nice small form-factor.

[drivesafe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close drivesafe]

Hi dCB, I'm a big fan of the 30 amp power poles and have fitted to all my batteries, meters and test equipment, but we use to use and supply them in the 2 way and 4 way panel mounts but the small 30 amp power poles only have to be bumped and they snap off very easily.

[2016VX Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 2016VX]

Hi Everyone,
Here is my Dual Battery installation;
- Redarc BCDC 1225D ($415) held in position by an Out of Town 4WD SS bracket ($55) and protected by Redarc FK40 40A Midi Fuses ($60)
- Century/Yuasa 95Ah Deep Cycle Maintenance Free Battery ($280) with Piranha battery tray ($195) (not shown yet in photos)
- 8B&S cable between main battery, BCDC and Aux Battery ($20)
- 8B&S twin core cable run to rear ($40) of vehicle protected by 30A inline Maxi fuse ($15).
- 2 x 12V sockets in rear cargo area ($30), each protected by individual 10A inline fuses ($10);
- All cable joints & lugs were crimped, soldered, covered in heat shrink and put inside split wiring loom. (~$60)
Total spend (excluding own time of approximately 5 hours) approx. $$1,180.00

Not cheap but I am very happy with the job and looks very professional.... even if I so say myself..... Local installers in Sydney (auto-electricians, ARB, etc.) quoted me over $2k to suppyl and fit this system.

Sorry I didn't take any photos during the installation. I was too focused just getting the job done.







More Photos Below....

[2016VX Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 2016VX]

[Hally Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hally]

Hi Everyone,
Here is my Dual Battery installation;
- Redarc BCDC 1225D ($415) held in position by an Out of Town 4WD SS bracket ($55) and protected by Redarc FK40 40A Midi Fuses ($60)
- Century/Yuasa 95Ah Deep Cycle Maintenance Free Battery ($280) with Piranha battery tray ($195) (not shown yet in photos)
- 8B&S cable between main battery, BCDC and Aux Battery ($20)
- 8B&S twin core cable run to rear ($40) of vehicle protected by 30A inline Maxi fuse ($15).
- 2 x 12V sockets in rear cargo area ($30), each protected by individual 10A inline fuses ($10);
- All cable joints & lugs were crimped, soldered, covered in heat shrink and put inside split wiring loom. (~$60)
Total spend (excluding own time of approximately 5 hours) approx. $$1,180.00

Not cheap but I am very happy with the job and looks very professional.... even if I so say myself..... Local installers in Sydney (auto-electricians, ARB, etc.) quoted me over $2k to suppyl and fit this system.

Sorry I didn't take any photos during the installation. I was too focused just getting the job done.


[ATTACH=CONFIG]25886[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]25887[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]25888[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]25889[/ATTACH]

More Photos Below....

Very nice,
I did similar with my 1240 but got tin(from pp) to make ss bracket side ways to see lights through front grill.

[dBC Member Find all posts View Profile Close dBC]

- Redarc BCDC 1225D ($415)

I think that 25A charger from Redarc really hits a sweetspot of price, charge times and battery longevity for those of us stuck with the low alternator output voltages of the 2.8L. Mine's the model before yours (can source from solar or alternator, but not at the same time) but after a year and half I'm extremely happy with its performance. The camping battery still feels like it's brand new; even after months of short city runs, that charger really keeps the charge up to it.

[2016VX Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 2016VX]

I agree dBC. I did a heck of a lot of research (mostly from this forum) and I kept coming back to the BCDC1225D. 40A was too much for me and anything less seemed like a waste of time. Will see how it goes in the summer when we venture back up to Fraser Island for a couple of weeks.

The hardest part was feeding the cables through the car to the rear. The 3rd row seats create issues when removing the trim, but otherwise was relatively straight forward! Piranha battery tray is also built like a brick "Out House".

[drivesafe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close drivesafe]

I think that 25A charger from Redarc really hits a sweetspot of price, charge times and battery longevity for those of us stuck with the low alternator output voltages of the 2.8L.

Speed of charging and improved longevity can be achieved just as well and most likely even better, when charging off an alternator, even with the lower voltages in new Prados.

For example, with one of my isolators and only using the same amount of capacity that you would use with your single battery setup, while camping, because the amount of used battery capacity is spread over two batteries, neither battery is discharged to anywhere near as low as you have to discharge your single battery, to get the same amount of energy required while camping.

Not having to discharge any battery as low as you have to, will mean an improvement in battery longevity.

Again, because batteries in setups using my isolators are not discharged anywhere as low as you have to discharge yours, will mean the batteries would back to a near fully charged state in a shorter drive time than what the DC/DC device could do.

This to would improve longevity.

Another improvement when using one of my setups is, because the current load needed to power accessories, is spread over two batteries not one like yours, this means the current load applied to each battery is much lower than in your setup and this will not only improves longevity but a lower current draw placed on any lead acid battery also means you have a greater amount of energy available ( see Peukerts Exponent ), so this to adds to the batteries longevity.

And one more MAJOR advantage to using one of my isolators over using any DC/DC device, is that because of the way my isolators work, where the auxiliary battery is allowed to continually back discharge into the cranking battery when the motor is off. This progressively raises the settled charge state and condition of the cranking battery, which means BOTH batteries are likely to have a far better lifespan than your DC/DC setup could ever achieve.

dBC, you MIGHT get a single advantage when topping of your battery while driving around town, but you need to know all the real world facts about battery use and maintenance before thinking that that one POSSIBLE advantage outweighs all the real world disadvantages not covered in the glossy advertising used to sell DC/DC devices.

[dBC Member Find all posts View Profile Close dBC]

Will see how it goes in the summer when we venture back up to Fraser Island for a couple of weeks.

Nice. Did you get a solar panel for it as well? You may already know this from your research, but in case not, the Redarc charger needs an unregulated or "raw" panel as it does its own MPPT. More as a test than anything else, I picked up a small cheap-n-cheery panel from Whitworths. It works so well that I now stick it out in the sun whenever I'm camped somewhere for multiple days.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

What was the wattage of the panel dBC?

[dBC Member Find all posts View Profile Close dBC]

Just a 40W. I think it was this one, although they occasionally have them on special:

https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_i...AbsolutePage=1

I just cut the alligator clamps off and put Andersons on so I can plug it straight into the Redarc, which is happy to do its bulk/absorption/float cycle on the strength of just a 40W source. Obviously the bulk stage isn't 25A in that case, just whatever it can muster from the available power source... about 2-3A from memory. "Constant current" is a bit of a misnomer in that case because the charge cycle is power limited.

[2016VX Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 2016VX]

Nice. Did you get a solar panel for it as well? You may already know this from your research, but in case not, the Redarc charger needs an unregulated or "raw" panel as it does its own MPPT. More as a test than anything else, I picked up a small cheap-n-cheery panel from Whitworths. It works so well that I now stick it out in the sun whenever I'm camped somewhere for multiple days.

Hey dbc,

No solar panels yet but I did wire up the Anderson plug to the solar input so it's ready to go. my dad is going to give me a good quality solar panel that's surplus to his need but it is an inbuilt regulator. Does this mean it can't be used with the bcdc1225d?


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[dBC Member Find all posts View Profile Close dBC]

my dad is going to give me a good quality solar panel that's surplus to his need but it is an inbuilt regulator. Does this mean it can't be used with the bcdc1225d?

Yes, I'm afraid so, unless you can find a way to isolate the regulator and tap in directly to the panel output prior to the regulator.