twin battery fitting

[aerialdave]

Has anyone in here done the twin street conversion ?
On my Mk7 it was straight forward,
but on the custom it has a +red diode with loom dissapesaring back sat above where the second battery goes,
Any pointers ?

[moley551]

There was a post about this a few yers ago, I priced up the parts needed and with dealer coding etc, I think it worked out over £400. After trying a smart relay ect, it worked but was very limited, I've now got a totally independent battery with a solar panel and it works really well and keeps the battery fully charged. The charge controller could also be connected to the Van battery to charge it, but I'm not sure how the van will react to the battery being topped up constantly.

[aerialdave]

Spoke to a transit tech at ford he said ignore it just tape up diode & just connect up as normal it will be fine.
Job done

[S60r]

Spoke to a transit tech at ford he said ignore it just tape up diode & just connect up as normal it will be fine.
Job done

Hi Dave, I've thought about doing this... why are you adding second battery? Have you had probs?


Cheers.

[aerialdave]

Yeah had a few flat battery's I have a sound system & when I forget & leave the radio on along with my numerous rear led loading area lights 4 hours of that im like noooo & getting the customer to give me a jump start lol

Pretty straight forward brief description for first timers
Whip the drivers chair off (torques bit) sit chair sideways on passenger seat
Take metal plate off (8mm socket) & remove plastic covers (clipped all around)
Theres a filler plastic cover where the second battery goes whip that out there are two dead plugs on top of that slide them out & tape em up & put them out the way.. (Not needed so I'm told by ford tech)
Matached battery goes in a treat.
Just need 1ft of each colour big ass cable & terminals
Black to black
Red ta Red
Took about an hour

[moley551]

The normal twin battery system is much more complex than just double the capacity, normal starter batteries don't last long if you repeatedly drop the voltage, Leisure batteries (deep cycle) don't like high current draws, ie starting. The stop/start systems use AGM batteries that will do deep cycle and high current. The standard single battery even with two of them will be killed quickly running inverters or lights for long periods.

[aerialdave]

The normal twin battery system is much more complex than just double the capacity, normal starter batteries don't last long if you repeatedly drop the voltage, Leisure batteries (deep cycle) don't like high current draws, ie starting. The stop/start systems use AGM batteries that will do deep cycle and high current. The standard single battery even with two of them will be killed quickly running inverters or lights for long periods.

Yeah that's why I didn't connect the diode because that's something to do with the smart system with regard to the easy start but already on fitting the new battery I've noticed that when I start my van now the stereo doesn't go off which means it's not dropping below a certain voltage.
So Happy days

[moley551]

The normal twin battery system is much more complex than just double the capacity, normal starter batteries don't last long if you repeatedly drop the voltage, Leisure batteries (deep cycle) don't like high current draws, ie starting. The stop/start systems use AGM batteries that will do deep cycle and high current. The standard single battery even with two of them will be killed quickly running inverters or lights for long periods.

Yeah that's why I didn't connect the diode because that's something to do with the smart system with regard to the easy start but already on fitting the new battery I've noticed that when I start my van now the stereo doesn't go off which means it's not dropping below a certain voltage.
So Happy days

Sadly Dave I don't think the "Happy days" will turn into happy months, It sounds to me like your original battery is goosed and it will shag the new one, long term it would probably be better to just replace the old battery.

[S60r]

Mine hasn't showed signs of failing yet, but as soon as it loses charge once it will be down the recycling place at the tip. I will change out the Ford one the moment it plays up.

Had a few Fords and their batteries now.......and they are never right once they have lost their charge. They never seem to fully recharge again. The average life of the silver calcium Ford ones seem to be just around 2 years. I had one fail just over a year old on a Galaxy. Even a Euro car parts cheapie was better than the oem Ford battery.

I hope the twin battery solves your issue though.

[aerialdave]

Mine hasn't showed signs of failing yet, but as soon as it loses charge once it will be down the recycling place at the tip. I will change out the Ford one the moment it plays up.

Had a few Fords and their batteries now.......and they are never right once they have lost their charge. They never seem to fully recharge again. The average life of the silver calcium Ford ones seem to be just around 2 years. I had one fail just over a year old on a Galaxy. Even a Euro car parts cheapie was better than the oem Ford battery.

I hope the twin battery solves your issue though.

Agreed mate 1st one when the van was new lasted just about two years.

[aerialdave]

The normal twin battery system is much more complex than just double the capacity, normal starter batteries don't last long if you repeatedly drop the voltage, Leisure batteries (deep cycle) don't like high current draws, ie starting. The stop/start systems use AGM batteries that will do deep cycle and high current. The standard single battery even with two of them will be killed quickly running inverters or lights for long periods.

Yeah that's why I didn't connect the diode because that's something to do with the smart system with regard to the easy start but already on fitting the new battery I've noticed that when I start my van now the stereo doesn't go off which means it's not dropping below a certain voltage.
So Happy days

Sadly Dave I don't think the "Happy days" will turn into happy months, It sounds to me like your original battery is goosed and it will shag the new one, long term it would probably be better to just replace the old battery.

I did contemplate doing it but the other battery is only nine months old(got my brain ticking now)

[loot]

Any updated thoughts on this.
My brother has a 17 plate mk1 custom with 130 e6 engine +blu..

He's always having to jump start it after a few days. He's bought a few batteries in the last 3 years. He's a gas safe so may or may not be doing regular stop starts.
I'm seeing battery second split relays for 0to 100 quid.

I'm looking into it now but any info would be appreciated.

Do the bms need adding? It doesn't currently have ss but i do want it to have a split relay the same as the mk7.

Cheers.