I'm thinking that I should make the wire run from the back seat to the
starter battery as short as possible. I could go through the floor and
along the frame rail and up into the battery box and do it with less
than half the wire of going all the way around. Staying inside the van
has its obvious advantages but if I ran it along the frame rail under
the van I would sheath it in something to protect it from road debris
and water. 1/2" black plastic lawn irrigation tubing makes a great
sheathing material. I'll most likely ground the aux battery somewhere
nearby the battery. For all the 12V stuff I plan to run off the aux
battery I'll probably put a fuse block under the rear seat as well and
route the radio, fridge, lights, etc back to that block and eliminate
all that stuff under the driver's seat. Now all I need is a super-
cheap 100 watt solar panel...

Jeff / San Anselmo
On Feb 13, 2008, at 9:00 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

>
> Date:    Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:42:46 -0800
> From:    Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: SURE POWER 1315
>
> RE: did you put the charger under your rear seat as well? Did you
> use an enclosed battery box or a tray and a strap? How did you route
> the cable to the starter battery? Gauge # of the wire?
>
> Charger is under the back seat with the battery and permanently
> plugged into
> the 110v oulet down by the floor, will be hard wired to the 110v
> lines when
> I get the chance to do the work.
> Although and AGM (sealed) battery it is in a battery box, box is
> screwed to
> the floor and the lid of the battery box held on with the strap
> provided.
> That protects the terminals from coming in contact with anything
> else under
> the back seat.
> Two #2 cables go from the aux battery through the 'hidden
> compartment then
> behind the fridge/sink/stove cabinet and up to the original aux
> battery
> compartment.  The ground is grounded there and the hot goes to a large
> terminal post.  The connection to the starting battery (attached to
> the
> 1315) is the original, about #10 or #12.  That will be replaced with
> a #4
> but snaking that in between the battery boxes seems to be a task and
> has
> been put off for now.  When it is in I'll add a switch that will
> allow the
> two batteries to be connected for starting, a feature of the 1315, not
> implemented yet.
> I chose to route the aux up to the old battery compartment because I
> already
> had wiring in place there to a fuse block for all add ons (inverter,
> CB, 12v
> outlets, etc) and initially I just connected the aux battery to the
> same
> cables that were connected to the original small aux battery.  That
> changed
> after I was sure everything was working the way I wanted, changed to a
> better and more permanent setup.