OK here goes, So I already have sawed off the trumpet on the front of the air cleaner and installed the Mantec Snorkel. Notice the Power steering Reservoir is right in the way of where the battery would go. Solution, Get yourself a Disco 2 Reservoir bracket, simple to install, I mean really simple!
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Here is a view from a little above to get a better view of what your up against. There is a bit of lifting that has to be done to the air cleaner assembly in order to clear the top of the battery. I decided to go with an Optima Yellow Top because of reputation and I also used a Dual Battery Isolator Kit (9040) and Battery Manager System (9041) from Atlantic British. Total about $279.95 plus shipping and includes all the heavy duty cables you'll need. Very straight forward instructions. I was fairly new at the time so I had the folks at Roversland do the install for me.
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Here we've removed the reservoir bracket, the snorkel hose, and moved the cruise control unit from the battery compartment to UNDER the bottom tray. After this, Drop in the battery.
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So the Battery is in, now you can see the cleaner will have to move up about 2 inches in order to clear.
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Battery is in, Disco 1 reservoir bracket is in, and the hose is re installed. You can see the Red covers on the battery cables that go to the solenoid that switches the alternators charging power from one battery to 2 batteries.
This is controlled by the Battery manager switch inside the cabin.
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Here is a closer look at the solenoid. The instructions are very clear. Notice the coil has been moved as has the black plastic vacuum ball both closer together and towards the firewall to make room for the solenoid.
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A little bit wider shot. The long positive cable that connects from one battery to the other can be run in a perfect space atop the radiator between the front brace and the radiator under the rubber strip. Same strip that would hold a rad muff in place.
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Another view. It's quite a maintenance free system once it's in.
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Here is the battery manager, I installed it here for ease of access. I wired the Winch, GPS, and Top lights to the Optima Yellow Top, I have plans to wire the Cig lighters to the optima also So accesories don't need to get turned off when the car is turned off yet not risking draining the main start battery.
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