LEISURE BATTERY

[dreamwarrioruk]

leave the one on ebay alone, wont last very long, there not rated very high, think 30 amps max. if you end up like me with a 1000w inverter and cooking with a george foreman grill, fridge, lights, dvd players etc it simply wont cope. if however your just running a couple of leds off your lb then it will be ok.
my personal choice would be such as this one.280245546457. email him and say you have a bongo,he knows about the problems with the dashboard lights and he will make you up a special unit which works perfectly with his systems. (you will have to ask him) i have bought a few items from him and have been well impressed. even rang me up to check everything was working correctly after i had fitted it. ive just bought a light changing led from him which indicates the charge state of the leisure battery.
ive used the lesser relays before but they dont last long before they pack up.worst case with that is your starter battery goeas flat as well as the leisure bat.

[onilleymcknown]

Thanks!

Will investigate your recommendation. Lookin to fit a leisure battery too. Does this fellow's set include the link up to the fuses, so that interior lights and the ciggy socket can be powered by the leisure battery? Just researching what everybody says on here. At the moment, I'm stumped as to what amperage of battery to get. Can't see what amperage the starter battery is that I have, as its not marked anywhere on it. Would you know? Or would you have to see it? Bongo is the 2.5 TD 4WD auto gearbox. 1996. I would have thought they're all standard 110 amp?

Lookin in Halfords today at their 110 amp and their 70 amp. Would like the larger 110 for more juice, but advice on here is to use a lower amperage than your starter battery.

onilleymcknown

[missfixit70]

Doesn't have to be lower than your starter battery, just go for the 110A

[dreamwarrioruk]

go for the biggest but bear in mind the size of the battery to fit in the area.i used a secondhand battery tray off a mazda but this limit the size to that of an 85amp/hour lb, i found an 100amp/hour battery with the same dimensions so thats what ive got slapped in there now.
the kit only comes with the stuff to fit the charge relay but he does sell all of the fuse holders, crimps and cable etc to do the transfer of the electrics from the fusebox. to be honest i havnt moved mine onto the lb and im not going to. we manage to camp out for 4 days in the bongo with the fridge etc running and the bongo still start ok.
i have found tho that dvd players and the like will run down a battery quite fast so i made sure that they were powered from the lb.
the starter battery is normally around 85amp and you need a battery with a cca of 650min to start easily.
as kirsty said the lb dosnt need to be smaller as with the scr the lb will only take a charge once the sb has taken its charge.
hope that helps.if you plan on running anything heavy duty off the rear ciggy lighter then please rewire it. ive got bigger speaker cables than the standard poxxy mazda wiring to that socket.

[onilleymcknown]

Thank you so much!!!

You've just de-fogged my windscreen!! I can now see what to do!! I've just e-mailed him, so awaiting reply.

Sorry if my questions are repeats. Sometimes hard to find stuff on here.

[daveblueozzie]

we have found if you have a willinton tray it will fit a 110 LB a bit of a tight fit but it will go in,(mine does and BDC)
if you have a Mazda tray it may have to have the lip of the tray bent down to accommodate a bigger battery.
always buy the willinton LB wiring kit it comes with everything you need and dead easy instructions, as stated earlier the other kits don't have the power to cope.

[dreamwarrioruk]

there are two main spots to get the scr in my opinion, willinton and raw componants on ebay. with the credit crunch i gave him the option of saying a chunk of cash with the raw componants one. both give roughly the same but if willinton dosnt have any made up the raw does and they come within a day or two recorded delivery.
the relays themselves are cheap as chips but buying the whole kit makes life so easy.

[corblimey]

I think it's worth pointing out some significant differences between Willinton's kit and some of the others.

1) Although Williton's kit looks like it uses the same cheap Nagares relay as the Raw Components one, his is actually a voltage sensing relay. Basically he takes the cheap Nagares relay and fits some electronics that automatically switch the relay on when there is sufficent charging voltage available. If you were using the "normal" Nagares relay you'd have to take a trigger feed from somewhere and if you take it from the alternator you then have to deal with the side effect of the glowing dash lights. As Dreamwarrior points out Raw Components has a solution for that if you ask but if you go with a VSR it's not even an issue in the first place. A VSR based split charge circuit is often refered to as "intelligent" since it knows to prioritse the charging of the starter battery if both batteries are flat. This doesn't happen in a system that has a relay triggered by the alternator, both batteries are charged in parallel all of the time. Commercially made VSRs of a suitable rating cost as much or more than Willinton's complete kit.

2) His kit is completely ready to fit. It's Bongo specific so everything is cut to size, connected, comes with mouting brackets, has an additional fuse box for protecting your equipemnt and plugs straight in to your bongo loom to run the radio, blinds, lights, mirrors, etc without butchering the existing wiring. You simply route the wiring and the plug it in and you're good to go.

£67 may sound a lot but iho you'd be hard pressed to buy all the necessary components yourself for that amount. Once you factor in fitting time it really doesn't make a lot of sense to "go it alone" unless you have some very specific requirements. Also, even if you're not techincally minded, it's so simple anyone can fit one. I'm not knocking th Raw Compoents kit btw that does what it says on the tin too.

And that's why so many people suggest contacting him.

btw I don't have one of his kits although I do have one of his modded relays and battery trays.

[dreamwarrioruk]

i have a query regards to modifying the nigares relay as per willinton, what happens if heven forbid there is a fire and the relay is found to be at fault, how do you go with any claim.
also if they are modified how easy is it to replace the whole relay, the standard relays are easy to get hold of, not sure on the availability of a modified one.
having not seen the willinton kit close up i couldnt really comment but would be interested in looking at one if someones fitted the system.
fitting a relay is straightforward but it must be ponted out not to fit a trigger from the alternator as this will cause problems with some of the dashboard lights constantly glowing, you could buy one of the simple vsr to use as a trigger.
i havnt transferred the blinds,etc onto the lb and to be honest havnt found there to be a problem, all blinds pull down automatically. the cigarette socket would be helpful to be on the lb but i would be inclined to rewire that completely, having looked at my wires in there i wouldnt like to put much of a loading on it.
as mentioned before you must make sure that the cables feeding whichever system are thick enough to cope.
when you consider the price of the willinton kit then this would be a better option for someone who is not so electrically minded, especially if its all cut ready to length and crimped up. hope theres no scotchlocks in the kit.

[missfixit70]

Willinton kit definitely has no scotchblocks - it is a properly engineered bit of kit, the new model designed to fit in the hole in the bulkhead where the clutch cable would have gone through



It removes the need to fart around trying to find the right bits, I was hugely impressed, it's been very well thought out & put together, can be fitted & working in half an hour. £67 sounds a lot of money & possibly is to someone in the trade or who knows exactly where to source the bits & have the right gear to put it together properly. But as someone who will look for the cheapest way to do anything & has the ability & knowledge to figure it out for myself, I couldn't recommend it highly enough

[Glenda]

I also got the willington kit after reading posts on the forum and got the Numax 110 amp lb. My friend was so impressed with the kit that he actually wanted to fit it for fun and refused payment.

As all have said its a great kit tailor made for the Bongo.

[corblimey]

Nice pic Kirsty, I haven't seen that version before. Very neat.

i have a query regards to modifying the nigares relay as per willinton, what happens if heven forbid there is a fire and the relay is found to be at fault, how do you go with any claim.

Good question dwuk, I don't know but I'd imainge you'd be in a similar position if any of your (ones) own work went up in smoke. I'd be interested to know how any of us stand regarding diy maintence and such a situtaion. Anyone? Hopefully a correctly fused system should go some way to protect the components in the circuit.

also if they are modified how easy is it to replace the whole relay, the standard relays are easy to get hold of, not sure on the availability of a modified one.

Commercial VSR are also easy to get hold of but they cost about £60 - £70 hence Willinton plugging the hole in the market with his modded relay. I guess if you need a new one and he hasn't got any you either have to wait or pay £££. The actual electronic componentry that Willinton adds is sealed in epoxy potting compond in the empty space in the case so the relay isn't really servicable. Of course, you could always make your own, it's pretty straight forward and there is loads of info about suitable circuits on the web but unless you've got the parts lying around or want to do it as a fun excersie I don't see much point. The other option, as you say, is to use a low spec VSR to trigger a high current relay like a Nagares.

having not seen the willinton kit close up i couldnt really comment but would be interested in looking at one if someones fitted the system.

I'd be interested in seeing one too! I've only seen the pics on here.
Here's one of the early kits that belongs to waycar8


He doesn't make them like that anymore, they're much neater now, but it gives you good idea of what he turns out. On the top left of the pic you can see a bunch of small spade connectors that plug straight into the fuse board down by your right knee. That's how all the accessory circuits get their power without having to cut the Bongo loom.

You're right about the cig lighter cabling, that's pretty shoody but in theory it should be safe because it's fused. The cabling to the rear socket certainly doesn't do much to help save lb juice though, the internal resistance of that poxy cable makes it better suited as a heater than an efficent way to transfer power to the rear.

hope theres defo no scotchlocks

Defo no scotch locks!

[mr and mrs pips]

Been reading with interest.

My 85 amp LB only has enough guts to power the fridge for 3 minutes or so, before the Zig unit reads red.

its been in for 4 years now so I guess its had its time


My question is, 110 amp is ok and if not bend the edge of the Battery tray ?

does anyone know where to get a battery that will fit without the hammer work please.

Hafords LB's were 139.99 for a 110amp while the local eye motor home shop they were £59.99 did not have a tape measure at the time, but the price diference is scarey....

Regards Mr P

[daveblueozzie]

willinton on ebay sell the battery trays , but to be honest we have fitted a 110 LB on a mazda tray with a bit of coaxing/nudging. halfrauds are expensive for batterys.
£60/£70 is a good price for a LB.

[mr and mrs pips]

Good job there is no problems with the SB being lower than the LB

Ive just checked what my main battery is and amongst all the jap writing is 56amp. gonna try and squeeze a 110amp LB in at the weekend.