G'day guys welcome to another DIY install video. I finally decided to add a dual battery system to
my camping vehicle and because my LDV T60 does not have a smart alternator
I've gone with a cheap, simple option of a voltage sensing relay instead of a dc to dc
charger. After some research and shopping around, I chose the KICKASS® plug-and-play dual battery
system which has a dual sensing VSR. There are a couple of reasons I chose this option. Firstly,
because I already have a battery box that I want to use inside the vehicle. Also, my vehicle is my
daily driver, so I don't want a permanent setup with a second battery in the back (I'm going to
have it in the cab) and lastly because a pre-wired kit is obviously a lot easier to install.
I costed up all the parts that I needed from the Anderson plugs to the various fuses
and I couldn't build it for as cheaply as what i could buy the pre-wired kit
from KICKASS®. When I ordered it from Australian Direct it was only $95 including delivery
but at the moment I think it's selling for about $110 which is still not a bad price.
Included in the kit is a user manual with installation instructions,
a waterproof 12 volt, 140 amp dual sensing VSR with Anderson input and Anderson output plugs.
There's also an override switch which allows you to charge the starter battery from your second
battery if anything should happen and the battery should go flat. A short section of cable to
run between the battery and the VSR which has an inline 80 amp fuse, six meters of heavy duty 8bns,
twin core cable with an Anderson plug on one end, pre-crimped Anderson connectors on the other end
10 x 300 mm cable ties and a bag of other extras so there's an extra, Anderson plug,
there's some extra fuses, some spare lugs, an Anderson plug cover and some other bits and bobs.
First issue I had was finding somewhere to actually install the VSR as there's not a lot
of space in the engine compartment of the LDV. I finally settled on sticking it to the cover of the
fuse box using some extra strong double-sided tape I figure that if the tape gets hot it's only going
to get stickier and it won't fall off I started by attaching the shorter cable to the battery
with the red obviously going to the red and the black cable to the black
And the other end of the shorter cable has an Anderson plug which plugs straight into the VSR
You can see it's actually marked with input from the vehicle.
Next I ran the six meter cable starting inside the back seat of the car where there's a grommet
which leads to the outside. I ran the cable all along the chassis because the end that I was
running has got the lugs on it The end inside the car has got an Anderson plug on it. It was
easier to feed the end with the lugs through the grommet and then along the chassis of the vehicle
I then fed the end up through the engine bay, attached the Anderson plug
and connected it to the VSR
After making sure I had enough length, I cable tied it along the chassis and cut off the tags
Finally I tested it with engine off and engine on to make sure the switch was actually kicking in
when the engine was running and turning off when I turned off the engine
And that's the final result! The fridge gets tied to those two fixing points, the battery
box gets strapped down in there and that's the charging cable that comes from the front