Guide: Installing a Dual Battery system (2.8td) - Lots of pics!

[Timbo]

As promised, here's a bit of a guide to installing a basic dual battery system. This was performed on my 2.8td GU Patrol so results will differ between other models, and they may differ between other 2.8td GU patrols.

Product: I installed the DBE140S Piranha "Intelligent Dual Battery Management" system.

Time:
Allow a full weekend to cruise along but realistically after reading this guide, should take you a full day.

What you need:
If you cut the vacuum pipe like I did, you will need;
-a pipe cutter
-a length of hose to bridge the gap (I used 1 meter of 3/8" high performance fuel hose)
-2 hose clamps

If you cut the breather pipes like I did, you will need;
-a pipe cutter
-3 lengths of hose to bridge the gap (I used some clear tubing from a windscreen wiper setup)

If you don't cut any piping and choose to move it around or do something different then you are on your own there as I certainly didn't have the time or the materials to attempt it!

Part 1. The Battery Tray.

This is by far the hardest part of the whole installation. I asked the Piranha salesman specifically if it had installation instructions and he said yes. I should have been more specific obviously and asked him, "does this come with DETAILED FITTING instructions" in which I'm not sure what reply I would have received.

Make no mistake, this kit does not tell you how to fit the tray. You get a piece of paper with a blurry shot of an engine bay, some crap about "some pipes need to be moved, please see a professional", and that's it.

Anyway, on with the pics!

Fig.1 - First problem I encountered was the vacuum pipe. A large section needed to be removed for the tray to even look like fitting.

Fig.2 - I used a pipe cutter to cut the pipe so I had nice ends afterwards. I don't recommend using side cutters because this will crush the pipe into a flat edge where you'll have to squeeze it into a circular shape again with pliers and the result will be crap. (see Fig.6)

Fig.3 - Second problem was that the breather pipes were also in the way. These run from the bottom of the engine (I'm assuming they are differential/transmission breathers) and into the left hand guard. After realising I couldn't move them, I decided to chop another section out. I had to use side cutters for this part as there wasn't enough room for the pipe cutter. I fix them up later. (see Fig.6,7 & 8)

Fig.4 - Here is the rough placement of the tray. This is just showing you which way around it sits.

Fig.5 - I cut the ends off the breather pipes as I had a bright idea about using them later. (see Fig.12, 13)

Fig.6,7,8,9 & 10 - This series of pictures shows you the process I went through to clean up the cut from the side cutters. As you can see, it completely destroys the end of it. I reshaped them first with pliers, then re-cut them with the pipe cutter for a nice clean finish. This also help when sliding the tubing on because there are no burrs or sharp edges.

Fig.11 - This is where the breather pipes stop now. From here, clear tubing was used to extend them up and into the guard.

Fig.12 & 13 - Finished result of attaching the clear tubing and final fitting to the guard.

Fig.14 - The tray finally fits now. I started to bolt it down and made sure that it cleared everything. (which it did)

Fig.15 - This bracket attaches to the seam of the firewall. There is just enough room there to drill a hole. I started off with a pilot hole (thin drill bit) and gradually worked my way up in drill size until I could fit a bolt through. As the drill bits got thicker, they also get longer and allow the drill to be used on a more "square on" position. The thin drill bit wasn't long enough for the chuck to clear the fire wall, that's why it's on a bit of an angle.

Fig.16 - Tray is now in place and I also fitted the Fuel Line in place of the section of vacuum pipe I had to remove. (one day I'd like to replace it with black hose for a more factory look)

Fig.17 - You need to relocate the EGR solenoids onto the battery tray. This isn't hard at all (especially now that there are pictures!) and only took about 5 minutes of puzzle solving to work out how it would sit so that the leads would reach the plugs.

Fig.18 - I'm just showing you an additional mounting point I used to secure the solenoid bracket further.

Fig.19 - Battery in and clamped down.

Fig.20 - I screwed the battery management unit to the fire wall being careful not to cover any exisiting threaded holes already in the fire wall. I can use them for mounting something else like fuse blocks!

Fig.21 & 22 - All wired up and the car is running. Pretty green lights tell me it's charging.

And finally, a couple of pictures of the engine bay after the install.

Part 2 - Wiring of the Dual Batteries

This was the easy part and also pretty fun. During this stage I managed to do some rewiring and cleaning up which was good.

This is a very simple install.

Battery management has two terminals. The one on the right goes the to power on the Aux battery. The one on the left goes to the power on the Main battery. The Earth from the battery management can go to the Negative on the main battery, OR, the Negative on the Aux battery, but you have to Earth the Aux battery to the car body which I did.

That's pretty much all there is too it!

Hope this guide helps someone out.