OK, let me do a brief intro. I have a drawer system and fridge in the car. The drawer system can be removed in about 5 minutes (refitting takes a little longer) so I don't leave it in. However, when it is in, to maintain access to the fuse box on the RHS, that cover panel has to be left out - that leaves that area rather exposed.

What I did was make a half height flat 10mm plywood panel that fits where the original panel clips in. It is screwed to the remaining support trim. The dual battery electrics are attached to this plywood panel. The reason for half height is so that I can access the fuse box.

In the well under the RHS, I have two paralleled 45Ah sealed deep cycle AGM batteries. They are the same size as those used on my wife's mobility scooter. Fortunately, I bought them at trade price from a contact on the AULRO forum.

The batteries are connected to the heavy 12v cable in the fuse box via a dual battery controller and self-resetting circuit breakers. I also have an isolating switch in series with the connecting cable. The batteries also have a cable, via a self-resetting circuit breaker (not seen here), to an external 50A Anderson plug for the solar panels when camping or for plugging in a battery charger.

Feeding from the batteries is again via a self-resetting circuit breaker to a multi-way fuse block. Currently, the only connections to the fuse block are the Engel refrigerator socket and a 3x12v cigarette socket/2xUSB combo I picked up from ALDI. I may change this to a different unit that has a digital voltmeter included - I forgot I had it in the workshop.

I could have bought one of Drivesafe's Traxide controllers or used the controller I built from an Electronics Australia design about 20 years ago (and which was previously in my RRC) but I picked up this dual battery controller on the cheap. It is programmable for cut-in/cut-out voltage, can display both main and house battery voltages, etc. While it auto-disconnects when the engine is off, it can be connected at the press of a button or can be connected when the ignition is turned on (I'm not using that feature). It's more sophisticated than the one I made.

OK - pics. Note this is the first pass and I should have put more thought into the layout. My intent is to buy another RH fuse panel cover, screw a new plywood panel to it and cut out the back. That way instead of screwing it in, I can use the catch to hold it in place.

The switch panel only controls the Engel fridge at this time.

Very nice drawer system, is it retail or did you make it?

It was a commercial unit that used to be made many years ago. It was called a Chuckwagon. Unfortunately the plastic boxes are no longer available and these drawers are no longer made. I made my own version many years ago for my '86 Rangie.

http://p38arover.com/rover/rovermod.html#storage

Wow, that looks like a big fridge!



It looks a bit heavy duty for my purposes, but then we don't have that much of a need of stuff like that here in the UK.
I'll look out for your Rangie with the big box next time I'm visiting my family in Coogee.

No, it's only a little 29 litre fridge. It's a bit small for my needs but I picked it up secondhand from a fellow LROC member many years back.

Coogee is about 70km from me. Ron B. VK2OTC
2004 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

Impressive Ron. Well thought out.

I have the Traxide unit. It's been in for about a year I suppose. It's going well but seems to malfunction every now and then. I have to reset it by disconnecting and reconnecting the batter. Maybe I should install a switch to make this process a bit easier. ______________________________
Vogue tdv8 08MY poverty pack - wow

Thanks Peter. No, it's not well thought out as far as layout. It's messy and needs to be redone but I wanted it in for the Easter camping trip. I'll be camped for 5 days but will be heading into Moss Vale on Saturday to meet up with Scouse and his family for a steam train trip.

As I said, it's a first pass and I already have some improvements in mind. I was also thinking of using Anderson plugs to quickly connect/disconnect the system from the car.

Re yours, there are smaller battery switches around. I had this one in the workshop. Try your local boating supplier, e.g., Whitworths or Bias Boating.

Apart from the controller, all I had to buy were the circuit breakers from Jaycar. I had everything else. Ron B. VK2OTC
2004 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

Ta Ron. What amps capacity do you think I need for a switch? ______________________________
Vogue tdv8 08MY poverty pack - wow

Hmm, good question. If you aren't switching at high current, maybe 150A. Mine is 250A.

See http://www.boatingandrv.com.au/battery-switch-with-key/

See also http://www.boatingandrv.com.au/search.php?...ery+switch

In the pic below, you can see how little room there is on mine:

Click image to enlarge

Ta Ron. It's been a while since you changed over to the L322. What do you think compared to the P38? ______________________________
Vogue tdv8 08MY poverty pack - wow

I really like the P38A after the Classic but this L322 is a whole lot better. I love driving it.

I'm just back from a weekend of camping (more shortly) and on the dirt roads it's a delight to drive. It's a bit sensitive on the throttle on very steep dirt roads compared to the P38A which has a cable throttle, not fly by wire. I went to low range 3rd or 4th on a lot of the steep stuff for better throttle control. (I will probably get some better tires fitted to my 18" RRS rims and fit those for off-road. I was running the 20" rims all weekend.

Back to camping and battery charging...

Where I was camped was beside a river in a deep valley (hence the steep climb in and out) so the sun didn't come over the hill to burn off the mist until about 0930 and was gone behind the other side of the valley by 1600. The maximum charge current out of my solar panels was only 3 amps so, over the 5 days, the battery voltage slowly dropped to 11.9 volts.

There just wasn't enough charge and I was really only running the Engel fridge (at 3 deg C). The temp in the car was around 30+C during the day. I left the windows partially down.

I'll do some testing at home this week home because I've previously got 6-7 amps out of the panels into the car battery which, admittedly, is older and has a lower terminal voltage. That was in summer so I don't know of that has any affect.

I'll go over all my connections and solder joints to check for faults and voltage drop.

Here's the panel in situ. I will be making some changes, including adding the digital panel meter you can see at the top of the pic. It includes two higher output USB power sockets.

You can see why I left it at half-height. I can get my arm in to change fuses if needs be.

The rail you can see at the bottom of the pic is one of two (one each side) lengths of UniStrut to which I bolt down the drawer system.


Hmm, I thought the images I was taking were out of focus but when I look at them in LightRoom, they are sharp. When they are reduced in size and exported from LR for uploading to the forum they lose clarity.

I found one issue with my set up. The controller is not ignition controlled (it can be) so when the engine is running it connected the starter battery and the house battery and leaves them connected until the car starter battery voltage drops below an adjustable cut-off value. Sounds good so far.

But...

My car battery is a couple of years old and its terminal voltage is down around 12.2 volts. The new house batteries have a voltage up around 13.8 volts. After shutting down the engine, the house batteries back-feed through the controller to the car battery in attempt to charge it. Once the house battery has dropped to equal the main battery, the controller disconnects leaving the second batteries depleted.

In the short term I need to find an ignition-controlled point in the rear to connect to the controller. That will isolate the main and house batteries when the ignition is off. In the longer term, I should replace the starter (main) battery. With winter approaching, I suspect that time won't be far off.

Another item I want to add is an ammeter. It might have to be an analogue automotive type so it will deflect in either direction depending on whether the house batteries are being charged or discharged. The digital panel meters I've seen thus far on eBay are uni-directional. Ron B. VK2OTC
2004 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

It's a good idea to have your starter battery charged by your leisure batteries at all times.

My motorhome does this and at least you're always guaranteed to be able to start the engine and thus charge the leisure batteries.

I also have solar charging and the charge current is never particularly high, which I put down to old panels. I've heard that the newer ones are far more efficient.

I have a 40 litre Engel that's seen a great many trips and it's invaluable. I use mine for extra capacity to my motorhome fridge / freezer when we're away on longish trips, or simply as a beer / wine cooler.

Nice installation you have there. I look forward to your trip reports.  Si. <This is my name.

I eat rat poison.

A man ain't truly been insulted until he stands buck naked in front of a woman and she didn't even notice. Or care.

Equally, one could say it's better to parallel the starter and house batteries for greater capacity then disconnect them before the starter battery voltage falls too far.  Ron B. VK2OTC
2004 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA