Club 80-90 Forums

Hello,

I hope someone can help me.

I'm just wiring in some ceiling spotlights that will eventually be connected to a leisure batter, when I buy one. I need to know which direction to lead the wires....to the front of back of the van. I would like the leisure battery to be fitted under the passenger seat and to have all my controls fitted to the cab side of the metal wall.

I had read that the leisure battery should be positioned close to the engine battery but there is no space in the engine compartment. I would prefer it if it wasn't in the back either.

Can someone tell me if it's ok to put the leisure battery under the passenger seat and, if so, how do you lead the cable to the engine compartment? Do I just run some conduit through the metal wall and in the subfloor? How do you get the cable into the engine compartment? Do you need to drill a hole in the lid and lead the conduit to the hole?

Once I know where the leisure battery is going to go and will know where I need to direct my lighting cables.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Hannah.

Mine is under pass seat, max 175mm high for standard seats.
pretty standard place for it.

My leisure batt is under the passenger seat too, but it's petrol and yours Diesel ( I assume, as your batt is in the engine bay. )

Petrol's get the cable from the starter batt ( under the drivers seat ) by dropping down under the floor and running along the chassis under the van. You could follow that route from front to rear?

Not sure if other Diesels follow that route, although I can't see why not. One of the Diesel owners will be along soon to give a definitive answer on that I suspect.

Make sure you use a relay or similar setup to ensure the leisure batt isn't connected until the engine is running.

Mine is under the Drivers seat LHD. Have a look at the Go westy website. They offer an auxiliary battery kit and a handy video to watch on their YouTube channel to tell you how to wire it all in


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The downside of putting the leisure battery under passenger seat is you'll be forever restricted by the size and generally pay more for replacements. If you can allocate space in a cupboard or under rear seat, you can fit virtually any sized battery on a deal that suits you.

Thanks for your advice everyone.

I watched the video on Go Westy. My mind is now totally scrambled I think I will leave most of rest of the electrical installation to a professional

I just need to decide where the battery is going to go.

Can I just confirm......someone said I could run a cable down the chassis from cab to engine compartment. Would that be on the undercarriage of the van?

If I plan on siting the battery in a cabinet at the back so it's closer to the engine battery, how would the cable be fed into the engine compartment? Drill a hole in the lid or near the lid?

If I put the battery at the back of the van, I will probably also plan on having all controls their too, including a solar panel control. Can someone tell me how much noise these things make.....leisure battery (I assume nothing), split relay, inverter, solar controller, etc? I think if they do lots of humming and clicking I might opt for everything to be in the cab.

Yes you can run cable on the underside alongside the other cables. Use cable ties. Suss out the most logical entry/exit points and use rubber grommets to avoid cable abrasion/shorts. Best route probably through sloping bulkead. Solar controllers are silent.

CovKid wrote:Yes you can run cable on the underside alongside the other cables. Use cable ties. Suss out the most logical entry/exit points and use rubber grommets to avoid cable abrasion/shorts. Best route probably through sloping bulkead. Solar controllers are silent.

Great. Sounds like having it all on the cab side of the metal wall is the best solution. Out of sight and leaves more living space in the back.

Whether I will be fitting the undercarriage cables or not is another matter. Not quite girls' work but you never know

Thanks for your help everyone.