How to fit a leisure battery

andyrap · Post by **andyrap** » Mon May 21, 2007 10:30 am

Some fantastic information here everybody. I've been wanting to tackle this job for a while but not felt up to it. Now with these instructions and 2 weeks off work (won't take that long hopefully), I feel up to the task!

The only thing I'm still a little unsure of, is how to wire up running stereo, lights, etc from the leisure battery. Alpha's installation looks super-neat so I'd like to try that route with the separate box for relay and fuses. I'm not sure what connections from leisure to fuses and beyond would be needed next.

I'll keep watching this thread with interest and any further advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks all. Top stuff.

francophile1947 · Post by **francophile1947** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:34 pm

andyrap wrote:The only thing I'm still a little unsure of, is how to wire up running stereo, lights, etc from the leisure battery. Alpha's installation looks super-neat so I'd like to try that route with the separate box for relay and fuses. I'm not sure what connections from leisure to fuses and beyond would be needed next.

Use Pippins instructions below
If you want your blinds etc. to work off the leisure battery, just follow Pippin's instructions below:-
Look at the fuse board by the drivers right knee.
Remove the fixing screws and wiggle it forwards so that the rear is visible.

Counting from top left to right the numbering goes 1 to 8.

Fuses 1 to 5 are fed by a thick white/red from fuse BTN under the bonnet, which is always live.
(the fuse, silly, not the bonnet!)

Fuses 6,7,8 are fed only when the ignition is on via the thick red/black wire.
6&7 are curtains L&R, 8 is cigarlighter & mirrors.

1] If you do not have a secondary battery:

You can either select just the cigarlighter/mirrors or probably easier and handier select those and the curtains so that you can operate them without the ignition on.

Cut the thick red/black wire going in a couple of inches from the rear of the fuseholder for 6,7,8. Insulate the end that comes out of the loom.
Use a short length of similarly sized wire to extend the end going into 6,7,8 and tap it into the thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.

If you want to select just fuse 8 for the cigarlighter/mirrors then you would have to identify the blue wire coming out of fuse 8, cut that and insulate the end coming out of the fuse 8. The blue wire going into the loom would then need an in-line 15A fuse fitting and then tapping onto the aforementioned thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.

2] If you have a secondary battery you may wish to feed things from that rather than from the engine battery.

The instructions above are modified only by disregarding tapping anything into the aforementioned thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.
Instead you would need to connect it/them into an appropriately fused wire connected to the secondary battery.

While you are at it you could also feed all the internal vehicle lighting from that source as well.
To do so, cut the blue/red wire coming out of fuse 1 and insulate the end coming out of the fuse. Fit an appropriate 10A inline fuseholder to the end disappearing into the loom and connect it to the secondary battery.

So, there you have it! If in doubt - ASK!
It really is easy

andyrap · Post by **andyrap** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:24 am

That's great - thank you. Next question then, to feed from the leisure battery, is it just a case of taking a cable directly through the bulkhead?

I want to connect main stereo (not acc), blinds, lights and rear cigarette lighter from my leisure battery, so I gather from Pippin's instructions, when I get the feed through, I can connect to these at the fuse box?

Alternatively, if I do it Alpha's way with the electronics and fuses under the bonnet, I would just feed all of the fuses from the battery/relay, and then take several direct feeds off to the relevant items?

Sorry if these questions are a bit noddy

Andy

alphabetter · Post by **alphabetter** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:14 am

You will need to fit your own fuses somewhere in the system. They way the Bongo fusebox is wired means that you can't power individual circuits from the leisure battery and still use the original Bongo fuse. All the installations I have seen bypass the Bongo fuse one way or another.

To get the cable through the bulkhead use the big grommet in the top left of the bulkhead (as seen from the front) that already takes most of the cabling. At least on mine it has an unused part which looks like it was put in specially to allow after-market mods to be fitted.

andyrap · Post by **andyrap** » Thu May 24, 2007 7:06 pm

For anyone in the market for a leisure battery, I found the highly regarded Numax 110 to be cheapest from these people here. £66.24 inc next day delivery.

ParkerNorris · Post by **ParkerNorris** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:51 pm

I picked up a Bosch 110AH from my local Costco for £61.08...

waycar8 · Post by **waycar8** » Mon May 28, 2007 6:36 pm

andyrap wrote:For anyone in the market for a leisure battery, I found the highly regarded Numax 110 to be cheapest from these people here. £66.24 inc next day delivery.

£60 from go outdoors see my post futher up, collection only thoe.