Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 at 14:38
Hi Tony,
I assume for a battery that size you would have the 30A charger. I'm also assuming that it would be similar to the 20A charger that was supplied with my 60AHr Thumper (except bigger wires). I don't have the instructions handy but can describe how I installed
mine...
My 'charger kit' was basically two little black boxes (one for the front of the car and one for the back of the car) each with a fuse holder, and a pair of thick cables to connect them.
From memory, the 'control' box has five wires coming out of it:
Four thick, one thin - the two thick long ones go to the back of the car (where the Thumper will be positioned), the two short thick wires (have yellow crimp connectors on them?) get connected directly to the vehicle's main battery and the thin one is a control wire that gets connected to a circuit in the vehicle that is live only when the engine is running - this controls the isolation of the second battery so you don't run the main battery down overnight etc.
The main fuse box in my Jackaroo was right next to the main battery and conveniently there was a spare fuse space which had one end live only while the engine was running so it was simply a matter of feeding the thin control wire through the back of the fuse box and into that spot. I crimped a spade terminal onto the end of it so I could just slot it into the empty fuse terminal - use a test light to find a suitable terminal (or wire) that is live only while the engine is running.
You'll also need to find a place to mount the 'control box'. This should be as close to the main battery as possible as the wires from the main battery to this box are unfused. I used double-sided tape to fix it to the inner guard just next to the battery - clean the surfaces
well beforehand and it should hold fine - it's only a light-weight box (
mine just contained a 30A relay and the fuse holder).
Now comes the fun part! If it's not already, disconnect the second black box from the long thick wires - these have to be fed to the back of the car (or wherever you plan to put your Thumper in the car). Hopefully you can follow existing cable
routes behind the trim for most/all of the way, particularly through the firewall: hopefully you can squeeze the cables through an existing grommet (it will help if you cut the ends of the cables at a tapered angle and feed through one at a time, or pass a small wire through from the other side first, securely attach the end of the thick cables to the smaller one and pull them through, otherwise you may have to drill another hole and fit another grommet).
At the back of the car I made a few slight modifications because I didn't think the black box with the cables dangling out the bottom was neat enough. I removed the socket from the black box and mounted it directly into the trim in the car and connected my big fat cables (from the front of the car) to the back of this socket. I even found a little plastic plug to go into the socket when I wasn't using it!
The problem with this set-up was that these great thick wires had only a fuse at the front (protecting from power supplied by the main battery), but there was no fuse on the Thumper end so even when it was 'isolated' from the main battery, there were these great thick cables running the length of the vehicle which were constantly live (powered by the Thumper) and were unfused at the Thumper end. Even if you install it as the factory instructions (ie. with the little black box in the back of the car), you will still have the most vulnerable part of the wire unfused (ie. the link from the Thumper to the little black box) - I worried that some careless loading of the car (or load shifting while driving) could damage this wire and cause a fire in the car, powered by my Thumper!
I then installed the fuse holder (that was originally in the second black box) into the side of the top cover of the Thumper next to the socket that the charge lead uses. Inside the Thumper cover, I took the postive wire from the back of the socket and diverted it through the fuse holder so that all parts of the circuit now have fuse protection.
I hope that helps but I fear I probably given too much confusing detail?! Just post a follow-up to this message if you need further clarification on any point.
AnswerID:
390752
Follow Up By: Tony - Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 at 15:56
Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 at 15:56
Hi Timbo,
just a quick question, looking at the pack we have. the 2 black boxes.
The one that goes to the back with the anderson plug has the thick short wire with yellow crimps that connects to the through car cable.
the other box has the long thick wire, short thick wire with yellow crimps and thin wire.
because the back end connects by the short wire with yellow crimps, my first thought would be to match it at the top end, being the short thick wire with yellow crimps attaches to the main cable aswell and the long thick wire attach to the vehicle battery. You have it the other way round at the engine end.
can you please confirm.
are the short wires exactly the same at both ends meaning both input type and the long one is an output
Cheers
FollowupID:
658577
Follow Up By: Member - Timbo - Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 at 16:18
Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 at 16:18
"are the short wires exactly the same at both ends meaning both input type and the long one is an output"
That's how I understood it to work - otherwise, why not just combine the two boxes if they're going to be installed right next to each other?
I think it is important to have the first black box installed as close as possible to the vehicle battery because the cables between the vehicle battery and this first box are unfused (generally unavoidable for a short run (ie. <20cm) but very unwise for cables that will run the length of the vehicle!)
The yellow crimps on the back end box are to allow you to connect it easily to the cables once they are run from the front of the car ie. it's difficult feeding the cables to the back of the car, but IMPOSSIBLE if the back end box is already attached! (I'd forgotten about the second set of yellow crimps because I didn't end up using that part of the kit, just soldered the cables to the back of the back-end socket)
PS.
Mine didn't have the Anderson plug on the second box, just a little round socket that was a 2-pin version of the CB mic socket!
Hope this clarifies - but don't hesitate to ask again if still unclear...
FollowupID:
658581