Benny Dual Battery Setup - At Last

Well today I have finally completed the dual battery monitoring and management setup and resolved the outstanding issue with the TJM IBS system in Benny.  It has been a long journey since deciding to install it with the help of Joe from Das Mule back in the summer.  It is certainly a lesson in preparing as I am sure with more preparation, reading and understanding I could have save myself some effort but then again may be not.

It all started at the opening of Das Mule's new store back in the summer with the impulse buy of a TJM IBS Dual Battery Monitoring system.  I knew I wanted to monitor both batteries having learnt the hard way that keeping my main battery on a tender was not keeping my house battery charged.  I knew the house battery was being charged whilst driving but I had no idea of the level of the battery as even the little switch on the cooker showed me the condition of the starting battery.  

The initial installation of the TJM system seemed to go well until the drive home when the failure to link light started flashing and beeping.  I ended up trouble shooting the error and found that the IBS monitor was not cabled correctly.  A simple mistake easily corrected, but no prize, still the same error.  After discussion with my friends at Das Mule we switched out the module for a different one.  At first it did the same thing so I tested it with a different battery and whoa it worked.  Switched it back and all was good for about 3 months.

That is until randomly whilst driving the failure to link light came on.  I have to be honest at that point I was very frustrated as the system seemed to fail for no reason.  This left two possible tests.  Test a different battery or the power cable between the two batteries.  It is worth mentioning that during the initial installation the original VW relay was removed and the cooker panel LED cabled to the house battery.  The fridge connection was not needed as the fridge had been removed in favor of the GoWesty fridge elimination kit.  During the installation the existing power cable between the two batteries was used.
 

That was the state of the nation until this weekend.  I might not have been able to work on Benny but I have been thinking about the problem.  After talking to Joe and reading a bunch I decided that I would start by testing the power cable between the two batteries.  Well long story short and much to my surprise the new power cable resolved the problem.   So by the end of Saturday I had removed the seats and tested the power cable.  Whilst this was good news it also presented a challenge I was hoping to avoid.  You see the existing power cable was route through a hole in each of the battery compartments and I had not idea how to run the new power cable.   A little head scratching and I decided I should be able to pull the new cable through by attaching it to the existing one.

Sunday morning and I was ready to get going confident that I could pull the new cable through.  I installed a connector to the new power cable at one end and attached it to the connector of the old  cable and started to pull it through and then the worst thing that could happen, happened the old cable came through with no new cable attached.  The connector on the old cable pulled off.  Alter 5 minutes of verbally kicking myself for an ass it dawned on me that the condition of the connector could have been the problem.  It did not however fix the fact that I was left with having to figure out the one thing I had been avoiding.  How to run the new cable.  It turns out that both holes in both Battery compartments exited under the van but whilst I could see the cables through the wheel wells the route from one hole to the next was inaccessible short of taking things apart underneath, something I did not want to undertake.  After a considerable amount of head scratching I came up with a plan to use a rod with the cable zip tied loosely to it as a guide.  Did it go smoothly, like hell it did but in the end it worked and I was able to thread the cable under the van.  The hard part done I was free to put the batteries back and cable them up.

Earlier in the week whilst planning this weekends effort I decided I would add a battery charger and purchased the Pro Sport 20.  Well like all well laid plans the cables were not long enough and this time instead of trying to make it all work I changed tactics.  I decided to wire in a battery tender plugged into the fridge power outlet in the cupboard.  It worked like a charm and with a different  tender to manage the main battery (not wired in) I now have both batteries being monitored. 















Weekend Mission Accomplished

Products

TJM IBS Dual Battery Monitoring System (Available Here)
Battery Tender

Resources

12V Copper Cable Lugs for Pennies - Great you tube video