Mark Szeliga Szolkowski's Blog

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I bought a Numax 85Ah leisure battery a few months ago, along with the power wiring kit from Chris at C5 Alive. At the time, I couldn't get the original battery strap around the new (larger) battery and asked Chris about it. I remember he said that it didn't fit, and that it wasn't normally a problem except under heavy braking.

Well - after the last trip to my Dad's, when I took a 90 degree right hand off a main road a little too quickly 'cos a car was coming the other way (hanging off the side like I was on my motorbike), I had to grab the brakes mid-corner. The battery shot forward and cut the back of my left Achilles. Worse than that, one of the spade connectors came off the back of the switch and left me in the middle of a busy junction without forward propulsion. Pedals don't really cut it when you're in a hurry, do they?

So, tonight I finally got around to having a closer look. Without the power wiring kit fitted, I could get the battery all the way back and the original battery strap secured with length to spare. I realised that the problem was that the black connector wouldn't be able to go all the way back under normal circumstances because the on/off switch was in the way. Thus, I took the following steps:

1. Unscrewed the on/off switch holder and moved it out of the way


2. Used some spare 32A (overkill maybe but better safe than sorry!) mains cable to act as a "spur/flying lead" from the black power connector for when the battery is locked in place and I want to charge it in-situ


3. Fitted the black connector, and slid the battery in place before fitting the battery strap holder


4. Screwed the on/off switch back in place


5. Left the red connector off, and connected my battery charger to the positive terminal on the battery, and the flying lead from the negative battery terminal