Hi,

I'm converting my 53 plate Doblo into a camper, and I've bought a split charge kit with the intention of fitting a leisure battery behind the driver's seat. However, from what I've read it's a good idea to vent the battery box to the outside of the car with windscreen washer tubing or similar.

What I want to know is, what's the easiest way to go about this? I'd rather not go drilling through the body work so i was hoping there might be a way to get the tubing outside using a pre-existing hole near to the battery. Any ideas?

Thanks

Hi,

I fitted my leisure battery in a box behind/under the passenger seat and connected the vent on the battery to a 6mm nylon tube which exits through a hole I drilled in the floor pan. Liberally coated the hole with Waxoyl so not much chance of rust.

From what I remember the exhaust pipe in the way on the drivers side.

Photo shows pipe coming out the box and heading downwards.

Cheers

Ron

Our just buy a dry cell battery and fit it under the drivers seat. Ideally though the box should be acid safe.

Thanks for the replies guys

Poperon, which battery are you using? I'd like a 110ah one but I think it'll be too big. Also, did you have any problems routing the cable to under the bonnet?

Hi,

We used an “Elecsol 100” from tayna.co.uk. The 110ah one was just too big to fit. To get the battery and box with lid to fit we had to cut away some excess carpet and underlay; this isn't too difficult with a sharp stanley knife.

You could probably see from the photo that the cables exit the box on outboard side of the box. Some go towards the back of the vehicle (under the plastic trim which runs by the doors) and the big cable which goes to the battery I've routed in that 13mm split flexible conduit.

The conduit runs towards the centre of the vehicle in the box section (which is open in places) to the fore of the battery box. It meets an upstand in the floor pan and this is where I drilled a 13mm hole which comes out right next to the plastic cover over the ducting which houses the brake and diesel pipes. Un-clip the covers (2 if I remember), drill holes to take cable ties, replace covers with unfastened cable ties in place. Run the conduit towards the front of the car on the outside of the ducting and up to the battery, fixing with millions of cable ties. Photo attached...not very good but shows the conduit cable tied to the ducting cover.

Thought it was a good idea to keep an eye on how charged up the leisure battery was. So wired in a cheap voltmeter with switch...see other photo.

All has worked fine for over 2 years now.

Cheers

Ron

Thanks for the info! Really helpful