Bongo Fury

Hi all - I'm a newbie... well, sort of: I've had a Bongo for a year but not posted here before and I'm not experienced at car mechanics. My Bongo has two batteries under the bonnet, and I was told one is the leisure battery. Don't know which one though!

I recently used my Bongo at a festival. (Yes, I was in a field on Friday 20th July - I didn't get flooded but my back home the chimney did get hit by lightning!)
I used a powered coolbox for a while, had the radio on also used an iPod charger and cassette adaptor some of the time when I was sheltering from the rain, and I charged mobiles for my son and his friends. And on the last day... yep, ran out of power. What a mug, eh?

I got a jump-start from someone nearby and got started with no problems, and the battery's been fine ever since, just as before. Starting is great, and so on. But on Wednesday the whole family is going camping at a festival.

What should I do to avoid having the same problem? (Surely not just 'don't use electrical stuff'!)

Should I switch something to use the leisure battery when we're parked up? (From reading the forums it seems I was silly to think it was handled automatically.)

Could someone possibly give me some hints & tips - preferably designed for someone who doesn't have a multimeter or know how to use one!

Thanks all! See you on the road...

Keith

Buy yourself a digital volt meter and spend half an hour
learning how to use it.

Thanks - I appreciate that that's what I should do in the end. But what I need to know is Bongo-specific stuff; if I did do as you suggest I suspect I'd still be in the dark regarding the leisure battery, its use, and how to avoid going flat!

Lets say I got a multimeter and worked out how to use it. Come to think of it, I know someone who does own and know how to use those things. So...

What should I do to make sure my camping electrical useage comes off the leisure battery? Is that possible?

Thanks!

Keith

Just disconnect the engine battery whilst parked up.

Heh. Great suggestion, makes sense to me! So whatever I run will only be draining the other battery, leaving the standard one untouched and ready to come to the rescue if things go that way.

Now, am I right in assuming that the main battery is the one on the left as I peer into the engine compartment? That's the one with a set of fuses next to it.

And BTW, I looked into that fuse compartment. The cover lists them as:
100A - Main
30A - Head
30A - Fan
40A - Fan2

But the fuse for the 'Main' one isn't there. Is this a Bad Thing?

Thanks, and sorry for the dumb posts!

Keith

your main strating battery is on the drivers side, and the one on the passenger side is generally the leisure battery.



BUT...................is there a thick wire leading from one battery to the other battery?, its on top of the air intake plastic thing for the fan

if so then its the winterpack where both batteries are used in unison for sever cold weather starting, you will have a button on your dash near the steering wheel with a picture of a engine with 4 snake like lines in the middle of it.

and if indeed this is the case, its not a leisure battery and both batteries will drain at the same time.

If both batteries drain at the same time, it's not wired up as a leisure battery.
Are they both the same size? If so, it's definitely not a leisure battery - you just have the twin starter battery winter pack.
I just put an isolator switch in the cable joining the two positive terminals.

Yes, there is a thick lead running from the passenger-side battery to the driver-side one, and yes they're the same size. And I do indeed have that button with the snake-lined engine graphic. (I've never switched it on before though; it lights up when I do.)
I've learned something new (again!); my Bongo is fitted with the 'twin starter winter battery pack', not a leisure battery as I thought.

Am I right in assuming that a leisure battery will (a) be wired differently, and (b) be better at delivering low(ish), sustained power...
whereas the regular one (of which I have two) is wired in parallel (as a label inside the bonnet states) and is better at giving a big power kick for starting?

Thanks for your feedback! It is amazing to have somewhere like this to turn to. (I've just resubscribed today BTW, I thought it was the least I could do by way of thanks to Ian.)

Keith

francophile1947 wrote:I just put an isolator switch in the cable joining the two positive terminals.

Interesting idea. I could certainly do this (with a bit of help from a friend perhaps). Would this effectively keep it in reserve, so if I ran one down I could slap myself on the wrist but be able to switch it in and start the Bongo?

If the batteries are wired directly together in parallel like that, what does that button by the steering wheel (with the engine graphic ahd the four wiggly lines) actually do?

Absolutely right in your assumptions.
As I said, I just put a switch in the large wire so that I can isolate it - I'll do a full leisure battery arrangement when the batteries need changing.
If you just take it for a short run each day, your batteries will soon be topped up.
I believe there is a factsheet in the member's area re fitting a leisure battery.

hello keith,


basically the button, if you press it or turn it on, it operates some kind of diamphram in the exhaust that closses up and then in turn makes the engine idle a lot faster as the exhaust gases cant escape. which makes the engine warm up quicker.


i have the same on mine, but i have converted mine into a leisure battery, its easilly done BTW. just unclip the main wire that links them together from the battery on the pasenger side and fold it over and tape the battery terminal up (the bit thats on the end of the wire ) and strap it up with a cable tie somewhere. (handy if you starter battery is flat and you could do with an extra bit of amps to fire the beast back into life, just undo move across and plug back on to the other battery) allthoe some people do cut it off at the main battery but i chose to keep mine.

The extra battery on the Factory fitted winter kit is connected directly to the starter solenoid, the starter is also uprated to 2.2 kW.

If the batteries are connected simply between positive battery terminals thin this would achieve the same result but must be a later addition.

There are many users on this site which prefer to use twin traction batteries rather than go to the trouble of fitting a
LB system (including me) all it requires is a bit of intelligent use and you can actually use a bit more power and still start
the Bongo, which is especially true if you use the Bongo for camping for only 10% of it's use.

thatkeith wrote:Would this effectively keep it in reserve, so if I ran one down I could slap myself on the wrist but be able to switch it in and start the Bongo?

If the batteries are wired directly together in parallel like that, what does that button by the steering wheel (with the engine graphic ahd the four wiggly lines) actually do?

Aha - another query before I'd posted the last
Yes it would, just remember to turn the switch before driving off, or you won't charge your second battery.
The button should work a flap in the exhaust that restricts the exhaust and heats the engine up quicker - it does nothing on mine cos' the exhaust has been changed for a different one.
Forgot to say that you will only flatten your second battery if you rewire things to work from that battery. It's a simple job and only takes about half an hour - instructions here:-
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.

Wow. Thanks for all this info! I'll see if I can fit an isolator switch before Wednesday to make disconnection of the second battery easy to do in a field. (And good point: I must remember to switch it on again when I'm done camping.)

Longer term, I will read, re-read and digest the excellent-sounding wiring info. I should be able to follow it, and I have a friend who can check my logic too. But it is something I'm not going to attempt before the trip just in case of disaster!

Thanks, one and all!

Keith

The isolator thingy idea is all very well - except if the "leisure" battery has been flattened so much that when you connect the engine battery to it (using aforementioned isolator thingy) that the charge drains straight out from the engine battery into the "leisure" battery (it will equalise) there might then not be enough combined oomph to start the vehicle.

It also requires memory useage (you!) to remember
a] to isolate the batteries when starting to camp
and
b] to reconnect them when about to drive off.

Go for a proper split charge system.

I would also suggest that you read through the recent battery info post regarding safety warnings.