2nd battery

  • Greg 210 and Dean 366
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03 May 2014 14:26 #1 by Greg 210 and Dean 366
Greg 210 and Dean 366 created the topic: 2nd battery
Trying to work out wiring for batteries on 366 we can not locate a solenoid but cant find it did some Oka's come with batteries wired together or is it just well hidden. 366 seems quite different than 210 as far as wiring goes.

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03 May 2014 15:56 - 03 May 2014 15:58 #2 by Hank Onthewater
Hank Onthewater replied the topic: 2nd battery
Dean/Greg, in my van the solenoid is behind the drivers seat, hmmm let me go out and make a picture .......



the 2 bolts in a horizontal line in the middle hold the solenoid
the 4 bolts on the corners hold the plate on which the solenoid and switch are mounted

All this behind the driver's seat.
No, your eye sight is still good, the photo is a bit blurry.
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Last Edit: 03 May 2014 15:58 by Hank Onthewater.

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03 May 2014 16:02 #3 by Paul Scherek
Paul Scherek replied the topic: 2nd battery
I doubt if many Okas still have their original wirng. It may be easier for you to do your own dual battery wiring rather than sort out the original as modified over the years.

I did a very simple set-up on mine. I bought a cheap 200 amp soldenoid that is triggered by the "Ign On" power. The starter and nothing else is powered by the second battery. Thus nothing can drain this battery unless the Ign is on. Everything else is connected to the first battery. When Ign is on, the two batteries are joined together by the solenoid so that the second battery is charged along with the first battery, and both batteries are paralled for best starting power. Helpful on very cold mornings.....

When Ign is off and just Aux is on, the radios, 2-ways etc can only drain the first battery so there never should be a problem starting.

I am presuming you have a separate battery for the house power?

Cheers, Paul

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03 May 2014 18:32 #4 by Dean and Kaye Howells
Dean and Kaye Howells replied the topic: 2nd battery
The Oka has probably the best standard 2 battery system of any 4WD, and I say this with some experience. The drivers side battery is configured as an 'engine start' battery ONLY and nothing else. Whilst this may be considered an inefficient use of a power resource it is a major source of 'peace of mind' as it doesn't matter what happens to the other 'main' battery you can always start the vehicle to become mobile and charge any flat battery's once the engine/alternator is running.

What is absolute 'gold' here is that the battery coupling (between the start and main battery) is done by a solenoid mounted on the back of the plate (shown in the previous post) carrying the battery couple switch which is powered by the W+ feed from the alternator. What this means is that it doesn't matter how hard you try (or stuff up) it is very difficult to achieve two flat batteries. You can always start the vehicle. There is no better system than this.

There are many (expensive) dual battery systems that promise, and may deliver, the world but NONE give a more simple and reliable dual battery system, and in an Oka you get it as standard. If I was building a brand new 4WD with all of todays technology available I would still use the standard Oka dual battery system design, it's brilliant in it's simplicity, reliability and operation.

For a 'house battery' it's best to use a third battery; coupled to but isolated (when stopped) from the 'main' battery for the 'ideal' setup.


Deano :)

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04 May 2014 05:10 #5 by Greg 210 and Dean 366
Greg 210 and Dean 366 replied the topic: 2nd battery
Thanks all. 366 does not have solenoid mounted near the switch as indicated in the pics. on 210 its located on the mud guard near drivers side battery (starting battery. 366 start battery is on L/H side

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04 May 2014 06:54 - 04 May 2014 06:56 #6 by Outback Jack
Outback Jack replied the topic: 2nd battery
This has been posted before.....



File Attachment:

File Name: OKADualBatt.pdf
File Size:131 KB





Not sure, I think there was some errors as well in the diagram
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Last Edit: 04 May 2014 06:56 by Outback Jack.

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04 May 2014 08:27 - 04 May 2014 08:32 #7 by Dean and Kaye Howells
Dean and Kaye Howells replied the topic: 2nd battery

Outback Jack wrote:

................................Not sure, I think there was some errors as well in the diagram



Looks pretty good to me Lobo. This is what #413 has and it's a pretty good design.

The only limitation I can think of is when a winch is connected (on the key switch terminal to the Aux. battery in the circuit diagram). What can happen here is that if winching with the engine running half the winch current will go through the battery coupling solenoid which is not designed to take this load and its contacts will burn out which will result in the start battery not charging. This is one reason why it's a good idea to couple the batterys using the key switch. Even so the key switch is only rated at around 125 amp continuous and the solenoid at less than 100 amps so it's still pretty marginal when winching. Another winching limitation is that there is no +ve isolation to the winch, the winch is powered all the time, a fault or a bent nail in the winch control plug could see a major problem.

These limitation can all be overcome by replacing the single pole key switch with a dual pole key switch wired like this ..........



Note. In my diagram the Oka start battery is called aux batt and the Oka aux batt is called main batt.

Deano :)
Last Edit: 04 May 2014 08:32 by Dean and Kaye Howells.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Frank

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