by martynvella on Thu, 03 May 2018 6:53 +0000
Well finally got round to doing a mod as I am headed off soon onto some rougher tracks and the aux battery in the ARB holder is considerably heavier than they are rated for.
I made the first step about a year ago when I put a small AGM battery rated at 670 CCA in as a starting battery to see how it went, amazed me at the cranking speed, and still does every time I get home on break after driving several hilux utes at work. This battery is much lighter than the AUX and the original start battery.
I have swapped their positions putting the heavier battery in the original start battery position, much stronger and the shorter starting battery fits in the ARB holder much easier.
The job was much easier than I imagined with neither starter cables needing modifying, just re routing and the first conduit mount bracked bolted on to the bolt on the oil filter housing holding another bracket perfectly, both the positive and negative starter cables were perfect length and layed in pretty well. The chassis earth went back onto the same bolt it come off.
What did(does) need extending is the positive feed to the under bonnet fuse box and the body earth cable. I have used 6B&S cable as that's all I had laying around, a little lighter than the positive cable and a lot lighter than the body earth, intended as temporary but done well because by nature if a temporary job works I never get round to changing it.
I have not given it a run yet but the only problems I can envisage are codes from voltage drop from the lighter cables but unlikely as the original cables were very large and probably over kill but it is unusual for a manufacturer to use something heavier than required but time will tell, and maybe stress from engine movement but not likely as it has reasonable slack to allow for movement.
Will post the results in time.