Nissan Frontier Navara D40 Expedition Portal Project Vehicle for 2007, Part 3 - dual battery and auxilary loads and other modifications

Project Nissan Frontier Part 3: Powering Up
Dual Battery, 2-meter/70-centimeter radio, and GPS incorporation

The question I asked when I considered a dual battery system was “Why do it at all?” It seemed like a fun challenge, and somehow necessary but I didn't understand why. It comes from talking with other builders-of-vehicles who would ask, "You're going to put a dual battery in it, right?"

Here’s what I knew: I’d added a GPS, a shower pump, a CB radio, a dual band HAM radio, and planned to add a refrigerator, a pair of lights and a winch.

“Why not just set up an auxiliary battery for all that stuff?” My friend Andy suggested. “Wire in a deep cycle battery to which you’ll connect all those extras. It’s simple. Use an isolation relay that connects your deep cycle battery to the existing battery for charging, and separates the two for discharging. You can keep all of your add-ons separate.”

Since Andy is an engineer who works with electrical power transmission, I liked this idea and took his suggestion as his way of volunteering his time to help.

About The Wrangler NW Dual Battery Manager and Solenoid

www.wranglernw.com

In this solenoid/management switch set up, both the starting battery and the auxiliary battery receive a charge while the vehicle is running. The three-position switch basically gives me a redundant starting system. If the starting battery fails, I can jump start the vehicle with the auxiliary battery. Or, if the auxiliary battery fails, I can disconnect it from the system to protect the starting battery. The default position connects the second battery for charging and isolates it during discharge. Simple and effective.

The switch is small, and built with forethought. I've mounted it inside the center console.

Ratings:

Quality:
Ease of installation:
Expedition application
Value:

Notes: I can't give the Wrangler NW products any less than 5 stars; they've been building these units for many years, and it shows. However, I wonder about the expedition application of a double battery set up. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and it makes me curious about how much 35 lbs of prevention is worth. A secondary battery is fun to engineer, but I think you need to make certain that you are using appropriate cable, fuses, and other parts to make a system as near-perfect and simple as possible.

System is comprised of:

Unaltered OEM electrical system (alternator output is 110 amps)
OEM starting battery
A Yellow Top Optima battery (D34)
200 amp solenoid from Wrangler NW – combines both batteries for charging, isolates for discharge.
3-way management switch with wiring harness, also from Wrangler NW
Beefy battery tray from 4Wheelers Supply
Auxiliary fuse block (marine grade)

The major obstacle with installing the dual battery system on the Frontier was locating a good position for that second battery. Under the hood is virtually impossible; there is not enough space. We do have a narrow cross over toolbox in the bed - a Deflecta-Shield Challenger – and this is where we put that Optima. The tray from 4Wheelers afforded us rock-solid mounting in the box.

The battery sits on the middle ledge inside the box, with the solenoid and fuse block beneath. It’s compact and as tidy as a bunch of wires can be. We used 2 gauge welding cable to connect the starting and auxiliary batteries to the solenoid, and ground the auxiliary battery to the frame.

Why 2 gauge welding cable? The larger diameter wire decreases electrical resistance. Since I intend to connect a winch to the deep cylce battery, we needed to maximize the "travel capacity" between the batteries.

We also used wire looms to protect the welding cable as we snaked and secured it along the frame into the tool box. This is important. With all that juice running through those cables, it's prudent to have a secondary protection layer; if the sheath gets cut, we can expect a very violent fire. We don't want that.

When the Wrangler NW soleniod and manager kit arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found in the box. Both the manager switch and wiring harness were made with high-quality parts and craftsmanship. All of the connections were sealed with heat-shrink, and the connectors had protective boots; I saw that they had included a 1/4" grommet on the harness, too. With the wires color-coded and the ends crimped with ring lugs in place, all I had to do was start connecting the system.

I think we did quite well with this set up; each component to the system (battery, tray, fuse block, and manager) is virtually flawless. Only time will tell for the battery and the solenoid. While the build on the manager harness impressed me, my choice of fuse block impressed Andy so much that he even purchased once for himself when we were done. He pointed me in Wrangler NW's direction, and I owe him for it.

**Dual Battery Photos on the D40 Frontier/Navara**
*Click image for larger, opens in new window*

Optima Yellow D34 battery	HD battery tray	Blue Sea fuse block

Battery manager / solenoid	Connection at starting battery	Final system connected

Battery manager switch in console	Wiring "diagram"	About the manager switch

The current auxiliary loads include the water pump (as described in Part 2), a CB radio, and a dual band Yaesu FT-7800 HAM radio. I know, all kinds of necessary doo-dads. As I stated earlier, this system is going to power other devices in the future: external lighting, a winch, and possibly a refrigerator.

But I want to tell you about the Yaesu FT-7800, first. My foray into amateur radio began with Andy as well. He and I were roommates in my days as a responsibility-free bachelor, and we shared a house with three other guys. Since the house only had 3 bedrooms and a closet-like thing with a matress in it (AKA "The Garage"), the fifth guy lucked out with the back porch all to himself and slept on a cot, under which we had stacked old Jeep parts, a tool box, and empty beer bottles. This was bachelor living.

When he'd get tired of being in a house with four eclectic - perhaps smelly - guys, Andy would typically come to me and say, "Let's go get some food. I'll drive, you buy." He had a radio in his truck that made random squalls and beeps with intermittent human voices having plain conversations. My initial reaction went like this, "What is that thing, and does it have a power button?"

"It's a HAM radio. Sit back and listen, you'll like this." His microphone handset had far more buttons than I was used to seeing on a CB. He then dialed in a few numbers, and spoke into the mic, "Kay dee for ay bee bee." That puzzled me.

Then a voice came back. "Andy, how you been?" He, too, rattled off a set of numbers and letters. I learned later that these sets were FCC-granted call signs.

It turns out Andy was talking to an old friend in Atlanta, Georgia from the driveway our bachelor pad in Scottsdale, Arizona. I thought that was pretty slick. Over the years, Andy slowly talked me into getting my amateur radio license.

The connection between the FT-7800 and amateur radio is this: to transmit on a radio like the FT-7800, one needs an amatuer radio license as granted by the FCC.

The FT-7800 has a removable face for remote mounting; this is one of the reasons why I chose this radio. There was simply no decent place to install a communications radio on the dashboard without it looking hacked or obnoxious. This FT-7800 gave me the perfect compromise. The radio body is mounted under the seat, and the face under the dash in the tray of the center console. Since the body is under the seat, I found a small 1.5" cube speaker at Radio Shack that we mounted next to the radio face. Without this, the radio is too difficult to hear. Andy and I are quite pleased with how slick it looks and operates.

About the antenna . . . I chose to use a Larsen dual band antenna for two reasons:

Then, we have this antenna placed at the hood/fender junction with simple Larsen NMO mount bracket. In this position, the antenna clears our garage, and it's opposite from the AM/FM antenna for visual symmetry.

Incorporating my Garmin GPSMap 76s was simple, but I'd like to share a few things about it with you. A cool feature in the D40 Nissan Frontier/Navara is the three 12-volt sockets they've included in the cab area. One of these sockets has full-time power, and I use this with the GPS unit.

True story: I used to have a plastic Garmin swivel mount epoxied in the center tray on top of the dash. We were cruising down Mexico Highway 1 in June of 2006 when we approached a small town. Anyone who's traveled in Mexico is familiar with a tope (pronounced tow-pay), and this experience comes from running over one at full speed because you didn't know any better. A tope is a speed bump - poorly signed and unpainted, so you don't realize it's there until you're clobbering the thing at cruising speed. The very first tope we hit killed my GPS mount. WHAM! And the 76S plopped over without so much as a final breath or gasp at life - it just bent over and split into two pieces. A Mexican tope was too much for that plastic mount.

So I needed a superior solution, and I found it from RAM Mounts out of Washington. While they carry a huge assortment of GPS mounts for your own taste, I procured a double ball joint and cradle that bolts (yes, bolts) right into the dashboard. The bolts were my idea, but they also have other ways of holding the mounts securely in your vehicle. But the double ball joints allow me to face the GPS in any direction I want, and at nearly any angle. It's made of powdercoated aluminum and it maintains position over any terrain like it's a Royal English Guard in front of the palace. Taunt it all you want, but it won't move unless ordered to do so (through a heafty thumb-actuated set screw).

Since the GPS sits away from the windshield, I installed an external antenna on the roof. When I say install, I mean that the antenna attaches to the roof with a magnet and a small diameter cable fishes through the middle brakelight (on the back of the roof), into the headliner and through the cab all the way to the GPS.

With the external antenna, the GPS maintains good exposure to satellites; since the receiver unit doesn't sit directly under the windshield, this has turned out to be a slick addition.

After these additions, I had to escape for three days in Monument Valley simply to remind myself why we're doing this project, see what's working and what needs improvement, and get ideas on the next direction. A major area we need to research is the suspension - such as aftermarket coilovers and leaf packs.

In the shop, we have a bed cap/panel being made. This is going to improve the way we mount the tent. I'm also designing it to hold two bikes with the Eezi-Awn tent at the same time. The design stage isn't done yet, so I'll be making considerations for other features to include.

They are responsible for making The Nose Job successful, with a new winch bumper, Lightforce lights, and a winch. Read about it in Part 4 . . .