12V Plug & A Little PsychoDelica

[FalcoColumbarius]

Garyo once told me that I was psycho for cleaning my valve cover. Having crawled under his ride I realised that he knew what he was talking about. So Talking with Jay & Christine of the TardisDeli I decided to go with a 12V plug that ran directly to the battery.

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It has thicker wires than your average cigarette lighter so it can sustain power longer without fear of catching fire, &c..
In order to execute this job I had to get everything out of the way (two batteries & the radiator reservoir) and looking at everything I realised that things had gotten pretty dirty over the last few road trips ~ so I thought: Let's do a little house cleaning !

First thing was washing all the crap off the batteries.

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And when comparing before with after:

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Unfortunately the acid had stripped paint off of the battery plate and the ledge below so I decided to clean them, too ~ and also paint them in order to protect them. However, it occurred to me that just plain old black was a little boring so I thought a little colour might cheer things up a little!

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There was some rust that I had to clean up and I used a little Tremclad to help protect the metal.

PsychoDelica.jpg (14.26 KiB) Viewed 6629 times

Continued:

[FalcoColumbarius]

Next comes the battery brace and have I got an idea for you.....

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While the paint is drying, let's check the water level of the batteries... Look, they're a little low. The water should be as high as the bottom of the plastic rim in each hole.

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So a little distilled H2O and Bob's yer uncle!

Jay has now got the 12V plug in place

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I guess it's time to start putting things back together and I see that the Tremclad is still a bit tacky perhaps we can speed this up a little

Cheating On Drying Time.jpg (19.5 KiB) Viewed 6597 times

Now we get to put things back together and check out the interior decor...

Continued:

[FalcoColumbarius]

First comes the battery bank plate:

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Nice, nice..... you gotta like that... So when it goes all back together and:

Et Voila.jpg (25.33 KiB) Viewed 6576 times

Et voila! I have a new heavy duty cigarette plug; my battery bank is all topped up and ready for the next adventure; the metal surfaces are all protected; ~ and.... I have a really kinky paint job under my passenger's butt (and they don't even know it)!

Falco.

[delicat]

Falco at its best!

You'll never cease to impress me, in some funny way...
Maybe one day I'll grow up and wash my truck!

David

[jessef]

Maybe one day I'll grow up and wash my truck!

David

Ditto. I washed my Pajero once since owning it. Then a wash when I sold it.

Haven't washed Granola proper yet.

Nice job Falco.

[patty]

I like em dirty, shows the use of 4 wheel. That and I have major branch and twig scrapes in my paint that mud covers o so easily.

Muddy=Badass

[FalcoColumbarius]

So maybe we ought to have that "concours d'excellence" we were talking about, Delicat and see where that takes us....

Falco.

[electrik_jester]

very haute there Falco
tres haute even.

[nvanadm]

Falco,
Is your 12V plug that is hooked directly to the battery fused? Also, do you have an isolator or do you just have it there for accessories?

The reason I ask is that I went to start my Deli today and it wouldn't...it tried but it wouldn't. I only drive it about twice a month and they are still the Japanese batteries. I know Voltage isn't everything here, but one is reading 11.2V and the other 12.2V. The one that's reading 11.2V was swollen and frozen whe I took it out.

I thought since I had them both out I would add a 12V plug too. I would consider doing the whole isolater thing with a deep cycle battery, which I would like to do anyway, but i'm a little sketchy on the one wire that needs to go to the ignition...and it's really cold outside

[TardisDeli]

The plug is made by Marineco and yes its fused.It sounds like you need to install a fixed mount battery charger or battery maintainer since your letting your Deli sit idle for long periods.Also if you plan to have two seperate battery banks it would better for charging purposes that both batteries are similar in size .Cheers Jay Tardis Deli

[FalcoColumbarius]

Falco,
(A)Is your 12V plug that is hooked directly to the battery fused? Also, do you have an isolator or do you just have it there for accessories?

(B)The reason I ask is that I went to start my Deli today and it wouldn't...it tried but it wouldn't. I only drive it about twice a month and they are still the Japanese batteries. I know Voltage isn't everything here, but one is reading 11.2V and the other 12.2V. The one that's reading 11.2V was swollen and frozen whe I took it out.

(C)I thought since I had them both out I would add a 12V plug too. I would consider doing the whole isolater thing with a deep cycle battery, which I would like to do anyway, but i'm a little sketchy on the one wire that needs to go to the ignition...and it's really cold outside

(A)Yes. It is most definitely fused with an in-line fuse and was installed by Jay of the TardisDeli. It was a big party that day at Jay & Christine's and a "drove" of us were doing stuff. I don't isolate my batteries. I want them together and happy. Having experienced being alone and apart from the one that I Love ~ I don't want my batteries to have to go through that, besides my glow plugs like both of them (kind of a Ménage à six), especially when it's -25C. I do have a bachelor battery living in the back (the cabin's a pigsty since he moved in) and he comes with a compressor and inverter with a few different sockets to plug into. The 12V plug I use for a few things, including charging the bachelor battery.

(B) I was going to say disconnect the 11.2 but you've done the right thing ~ it will only bring the other one down. You need to replace those batteries with cold cranking deep cycle ones. I would also make it a habit to run your engine more than twice a month to remind it of what it's supposed to do, it will also keep the seals from drying out.

(C) As far as your latter statement I would contact Jay (who's very good) as although I have been learning much wisdom and new tricks I am really a painter. I like to think I have good perception, mind... .

Falco.

[nvanadm]

Thanks Jay and Falco. Your help is much appreciated.

It sounds like you need to install a fixed mount battery charger or battery maintainer

Jay, it seems as though hooking up a battery maintainer would require me to have it plugged in all the time, correct? I don't really have anywhere convenient to do this. Would solar be ok? Something like this one... http://www.princessauto.com/all-seasons ... maintainer
I know it won't be as good as an actual maintainer, but it may work for me. If I do go solar, how many amps should I be looking for?
I can also start my van and let it run more frequently if you think that would also help.

Thanks again,
Adam

[TardisDeli]

Solar would work great if you lived in arizona or if you get a good quality solar panel {expensive one} that is. Running the engine once a week might work, but how long you would have to run it and at what RPM you need to charge the battery back what you took out of it to get the engine started i don't know.The average engine charging system only gets a battery charge to about 80 percent thats why all my vechicles [including boats ] have onboard chargers. Cheers Jay Tardis Deli

[nvanadm]

Thanks Jay, maybe to make this really easy I should just go buy two new batteries and keep the negative terminals disconnected until I need to drive it. Pain in the ass, but so is trying to start a Delica with a dead battery in the winter.

Thanks again Jay (and everyone else too!)

[FalcoColumbarius]

It's not just the batteries you should be concerned about. If you are leaving the wagon off for weeks at a time I would be worried about your seals, because if they dry out then you start getting hot oil on your timing belt. This compromises the integrity of the timing belt. New batteries: $150 or so; Replenishing oil reserves: as much as $10 a month; seal and timing belt job: $800 or so; not get around to doing it and halfway across the dust bowl where the timing belt snaps as your doing 110 KPH = new engine and a rather large flat bed bill. I say run the engine for ten minutes every couple of days, or even every day if you want to be a stickler about it. I came across this situation when I was purchasing my wagon. Fortunately I was still negotiating with the vendor and we reached a mutually beneficial settlement. But when you add all the elements together and what could possibly happen ~ I would truly hate to read a post like that in Delica Canada, we've had one like that already.

Falco.

P.S.: Sorry if I sound like an old hen.