1998 Y61 Safari (GU Patrol) twin battery question

[wechosethegoodlife]

Hi All,

In NZ I picked up a nice Y61 lwb Safari 4.2TD. It has a factory twin battery setup. I am uncertain how the battery setup works - any ideas welcome. Wiring diagrams would be nice if anyone has anything to suit. I do know the alternator is 12V so I expect the system is 12V but not sure if one battery is a backup or if they are merely wired in parallel to double the amperage. Maybe they are independent with some sort of charge controller & some automatic or secret switch???

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Shane

[Yendor]

Hi Shane,

To the best of my knowledge the Y61 with dual fitted factory batteries are 12 volt.

If the alternator is 12 volt then the batteries will just be connect in parallel.

I have had a look at the wiring diagrams that I have and none show any sort of factory isolation switch being fitted.

Both batteries positive leads are connected to the starter motor, refer to attached photo.

The symbol <TC> is the wire circuit refers to TD engine for cold area.

The easiest way to check is to remove the positive lead from the driver side battery and connect a voltmeter to the lead and the other end to the engine.

If you you get 12 volt then you will know the batteries are paralleled together with no isolator.

Cheers Rodney

[wechosethegoodlife]

Thanks for that information Rodney. I had a suspicion that was how it is but was hoping not - mainly due to the expense of needing matching batteries. No wonder it has 2 new identical & expensive batteries in her. Good thing is a lot of the hard work is already done for dual battery setup just need to isolate a battery.
Shane