Savannah aux battery setup, in progress

[koolmoe]

Bought batteries, terminals, and had 10 awg wire...and spent a couple/three hours this afternoon setting up a proper auxiliary setup.

Batteries:

Exposed box and removed seat (which removing was easy, putting back on was kind of a pain):

Existing hole to be used for the ground (I know it's meant for a tiedown but I had a bolt that fit and it was the easiest option):

Hole 'sanded' to metal:

Everything in place.
Two batteries and some styrofoam behind for a tight fit.
Batteries wired in parallel.
One hot wire run from main battery, under carpet, up into aux box and spliced with one hot Yandina wire.
Other Yandina hot to battery 1 pos.
Battery 2 pos with two additional hot leads out to inverter and future fuse box.
Four ground wires; batteries, inverter, Yandina, and future fusebox wire.

There's about a .25" clearance from the top of the batteries and wire terminals to the bottom of the aux box lid. I need to carpet or elecTape the bottom of that lid, just in case.

I know all wires being red isn't recommended, or even dumb, but it's not hard to trace these and I had a spool of red 10 gauge wire already... Maybe I'll wrap the ground wires in some elecTape too...

I'm leaving the stock fridge relay in place, I think, cause we rarely use it when parked and it would drain the battery bank in an hour or so anyway, eh?

All done for now with mounted and functioning inverter (which I've had around for years) and Yandina/spare wires coiled in the aux box. Anyone recommend a good fusebox? I probably don't need more than 4 or 5 fuse banks at most...

Rainy day tomorrow... Perfect weather for setting up the wife and kids with a Disney movie or two then running out for a fusebox and a couple 12v receptacles, holing up in the bus, and getting the rest of this wired up!
KM
_________________
--
Current: 1990 Westy GL (Savannah. Good to be back!)
from '95 til 2008: 1995 Pathfinder (frame rusted out, charitable parts donation)
from '91-'95: 1982 Westy Diesel (Smokey. Traded in for far too little!)
from '87-'91: 1980 VW Rabbit (my econoPorsche - passed on)

[McVanagon]

Your batteries look like they pretty much add up to he one I have.

I've had it for about two years, and have yet to see any issues with it.
Nice job!

How about these for fuse boxes?
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/...stid=17912

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/produc...hasJS=true
_________________
'69 Mike
'85 GL
'87 Wolfsburg Hardtop

[koolmoe]

Great to hear. What are the dimensions of that battery? Generally, anyway...how does it fit in the box?
KM
_________________
--
Current: 1990 Westy GL (Savannah. Good to be back!)
from '95 til 2008: 1995 Pathfinder (frame rusted out, charitable parts donation)
from '91-'95: 1982 Westy Diesel (Smokey. Traded in for far too little!)
from '87-'91: 1980 VW Rabbit (my econoPorsche - passed on)

[McVanagon]

[koolmoe]

Very nice.
You don't have swivel seats? Is why you can fit the amp and fuse block under the seat, eh?

Nice setup, definitely, especially all the inline fuses. I dig the 12v receptacles...those feed out through the van? How are they run - under the bus?

No ground on the battery? Not needed due to the fuse block ground? Or just not in place when the photo was taken.

And since you're engaging me, is that 10awg wire throughout? I just picked up a fuse box from the local West Marine - almost exactly as the previously links point out, but more pricey, and the connectors seem to look for small gauge wire... Should I run 10 gauge up to the dash (for fuse #3) or is that too large? 14 gauge better?

I get an error 'processing page' looking at the PDFs (color space error), likely related to my Acrobat Reader... no worries, but great to know the website for the battery company!
THANKS!
KM
_________________
--
Current: 1990 Westy GL (Savannah. Good to be back!)
from '95 til 2008: 1995 Pathfinder (frame rusted out, charitable parts donation)
from '91-'95: 1982 Westy Diesel (Smokey. Traded in for far too little!)
from '87-'91: 1980 VW Rabbit (my econoPorsche - passed on)

[McVanagon]

Here is the rest of that thread that photo came out of.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=246921

I do not have swivel seats so that area is quite accessible, making it a lot easier.

Those 12v receptacles are "distribution posts." I basically use them so I don’t have to attach 10 wires to post of the battery (which can be hard to do, and it can be a bit messy, asking for a short sometime) I run one extra wire from the battery to that post, then I can tap off that as often as I want.

You busted me, I took that photo before I finished.

I used 8awg wire between the batteries/fusepanel. I used 12awg for running up to the dash. 10awg wouldn’t hurt, but I like to run larger wires whenever I can.
_________________
'69 Mike
'85 GL
'87 Wolfsburg Hardtop

[koolmoe]

Excellent. I remember reading that other thread but thanks for the pointer to it. It answered my next questions about tapping into the dash. I'll find that lighter hot and get me some of them thar crimp connectors, and some 12 gauge wire for the leads from the fuse block.

I think my biggest challenge now with all the new wire runs is deciding whether to run the 12v receptacle grounds back to the fuse block or finding another ground location close to the receptacles. I really don't want to drill new holes into the old gal...

You run those distribution post wires under the bus? You drilled big holes into the floor of the aux box to run them out. I'm scared to do that (plus don't really have the hardware for it).
I appreciate your time!
KM
_________________
--
Current: 1990 Westy GL (Savannah. Good to be back!)
from '95 til 2008: 1995 Pathfinder (frame rusted out, charitable parts donation)
from '91-'95: 1982 Westy Diesel (Smokey. Traded in for far too little!)
from '87-'91: 1980 VW Rabbit (my econoPorsche - passed on)

[McVanagon]

[koolmoe]

Major Step 2 done today. Yay me!

The two biggest hassles today - trying to figure out where to tap into the front hot (fuse 3) wire and drilling the hole for the first (likely of a few) 12v receptacles.

I dropped the fuse block but with the mess of wires behind it, I didn't have much play room and no idea what wire led to what fuse. After poking and prodding that a bit, I decided to trace the cigarette lighter wire. With three our four red wires behind the dash and little room to work with, however, I wasn't sure I was finding the right one.

I pulled the vent cover behind the shifter off in hopes of being able to trace that wire better...which exposed a couple connections I had made months ago in wiring in the stereo...and almost in front of me was the splice of 5 wires, wrapped in elecTape...

Ah ha.

So got my 10awg splicers, smashed together all the radio/dash wire into a mass of copper a little larger than 10awg, butt connected it, and did a little extra wrapping securing with good old electrical tape. (the other elecTape bundle are the radio grounds, which I should butt-spliced while in there, but forgot, easy to do later though).

The aux lead I ran under the dash, down the steering wheel post, thought the convenient hole is what I assume is a brake bracket, and behind the carpet in the footwell, along the side, and behind the seat.

Of course, wired this way, fuse #3 is critical. If intact, I'm not sure what exactly would happen, but surely not good - power feeding in from both directions. Perhaps akin to 'crossing the streams'.

I didn't want to leave a fuse out, as I don't want someone saying 'hey, the fuse is missing." and put one in.
So I found a popped fuse, wrapped it in elecTape, and inserted. Hopefully that's enough reminder and warning...

So here's the setup:

The additional hole is the only major screwup on this job (so far). I swear I used the 1 1/8th" hole saw the 12v receptacle called for, but apparently the 1" got put on instead. I blame gremlins. I couldn't believe the receptacle wouldn't fit after I drilled it!

So redrilled with the PROPER bit further down than I'd wanted and wired it up. I reused the wires I had previously led to the inverter for the fusebox, allowing me to pull the two 'future leads' I had thought I had smart foresight to install. I didn't NEED to run the inverter to the fusebox as it has its own fuse, but figured why not and keep everything a little cleaner, and less wires in, and coming out of, the auxiliary box.

And yes, you may see some black wire in there! The dash run used up almost all my red wire so bought some black wire to do the grounds correctly. After getting this all setup though, I just did not want to undo many of the aux box grounds....but I will, someday, to get the proper wire colors/codes in place.

Future plans to run a couple more 12v receptacles down the side - one by the back bench and maybe one way down to the back closet. Of course, that wiring will likely all be black

For now though, very cool; have a decent inverter for any AC needs, have an extra 12v plug for non-cabin needs (the plug in there currently leads up to a small fan), and all dash/cabin lights running off the aux setup - which was the Biggest Goal cause I want to be able to use those lights, stereo, and power when camping if needed without worrying about getting started the next day.

THANK YOU to all who helped in this thread and all past threads I spent WAY Too Much time reading to learn how to do all this stuff. I'm pretty pleased considering my general lack of experience with this sort of thing.
Groovy.
KM
_________________
--
Current: 1990 Westy GL (Savannah. Good to be back!)
from '95 til 2008: 1995 Pathfinder (frame rusted out, charitable parts donation)
from '91-'95: 1982 Westy Diesel (Smokey. Traded in for far too little!)
from '87-'91: 1980 VW Rabbit (my econoPorsche - passed on)

[Timwhy]

Moe,

Very nice! You may be able to fix that other hole with a forstner bit.

I too had a smaller bit and my recepticals were to big , so out came a larger forstner bit and I had no problems drilling it out.

Just take your time with the cordless and don't force it.
_________________
'15 Audi A3 Quattro
'09 VW Tiguan (dead)
'87 VW Westy
'91 Tin Top
'90 Cabby
What the Westy wants the Westy GETS


http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=Timwhy&show_results=summary

http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMWHY2?feature=mhee

[foodeater]

If you use a combination of a step-up bit and a forstner bit you should have no trouble making that hole larger. You can get the hole started at 1.125" (1 1/ with the step up bit, just enough so that the 1.125 forstner has a shoulder to sit in, preventing it from skating on the sufrace around the hole.
_________________
89 Bluestar-2.5 Subaru Powered-RIP
'84 Westy Tiico-daily driver-sold
'82 Caddy diesel-sold
'87 Vanagon Syncro-RIP
'81 diesel rabbit-sold
'82 Vanagon auto-RIP

[koolmoe]

A "forstner bit", eh? That's a new one. Websearch shows it a take on the hole saw. Hmmm. Well, if I can't find a useful insert of some sort to fit in that 1" hole, may well have to buy another tool!
Or maybe just dig the old rasp out of Dad's basement....though can't imagine that'll work well with laminate...
Cheers on the thoughts!
E
_________________
--
Current: 1990 Westy GL (Savannah. Good to be back!)
from '95 til 2008: 1995 Pathfinder (frame rusted out, charitable parts donation)
from '91-'95: 1982 Westy Diesel (Smokey. Traded in for far too little!)
from '87-'91: 1980 VW Rabbit (my econoPorsche - passed on)

[riceye]

Really nice work getting your electrics in order!

Here's a suggestion to get the hole size up to where you need: Back up the hole with a piece of plywood, chuck up the 1" hole saw with a short pilot bit and make a pilot hole in the plywood. Switch to the 1.125" hole saw with a long enough pilot bit to reach the pilot hole, and drill away. Remove the plywood, and you're done.

Good luck, and again, nice work!
_________________
'87 Westy Weekender - daily driver on salt-free roads

There's gonna be some changes made.

“I find that things usually go well right up until the moment they don't.” - Ahwahnee

"Quality isn't method. It's the goal toward which the method is aimed." - Socrates, later quoted by R.M. Pirsig