Electrics

[travelling man]

I've 'converted' my connect into a 'stealth' camper.....
Installed a battery in the rear and a battery to battery charger on the cab side of the bulkhead.

Now,I need a feed for the battery to battery charger....first thoughts were the rear of the fag lighter socket,but how do I get to it?
Haynes suggests that the lower storage tray 'slides out'...mine seems to be fixed at the back.

Or would I be better approaching the ignition switch?

Do not,really,want to run a 10/15a wire direct from the start battery if there's a neater way of doing it.

Do not be shy,all ideas and methods welcome!

[travelling man]

Mostly sorted,now!

The 'oddments tray' does indeed slide out...but the little bugger is held by two springy bits of plastic right at the back and two locating lugs each side at the front!

I then removed the radio and six phillips screws,four in the corners of the radio aperture and two cunningly hidden behind the oddments tray...Then there's two locating lugs roughly halfway up,or down,the heater panel before it falls into your mitt.
This lot gave me clear access to the rear of the fag lighter socket,two cables..one black and the other yellow/green on a plug.I carefully cut the plug away from the spade connectors and insulated the black one before re-fitting.I used a 'piggyback' crimp on connector on the other one,so I could get my live feed with some safety.

I did manage to pop the fuse,Mr Haynes claimed it as number 43,no fuse in number 43,but the guy next door at 44 was blown.

So,tomorrow's task is to run the voltage sensing cable from the charger,via a 1a fuse,to the live side of the start battery....thinking of exiting the cab via the handbrake gasket and securing the very light cable underneath until I can poke it up into the engine bay.

[John235]

I am not sure how much current you can take off the existing wiring, it could cause you problems!
I needed an extra feed to run amateur radio equipment.
I added a cable direct from the battery top (via a fuse!)
Run it into the nearside wing, just behind the headlight, along the length of the wing, and "poke" it through the insulation foam at the back edge. This puts it into the door opening.
Once in there there is a blind grommet, about two inches below the door check-strap.

Door 1.jpg

You can just about make out the cable in the photo (if it attaches correctly)If I remember right, it comes into the cab beside the glove box, but it may come out behind the plastic kick panel.
Hope this helps!

[travelling man]

Thanks for your imput,John.
This is the charger unit;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAMPERVAN-12V ... 2749.l2649

With a feed taken from the rear of the lighter socket which is fed from fuse 44(15a)and taken through an auxilary fuse box fused at 15a,I hope that I'm protected.
The feed to the liesure battery is also fused via the extra box.I ran the switching wire,via a 1a fuse,through the cab floor,then into the chassis leg to the front cross member,over the top of crossmember then threaded it up the bulkhead to the battery +.Where the cable was likely to chafe,I secured it with a blob of silicone building sealant or a cable tie.

I'll keep a careful eye on the additions,as a wiring fire is not on my 'must have' list!