P38A Ex Police vehicle

Can anyone help me ,I own an ex police Range Rover 4.0 litre County ,in the boot there is a second battery compartment (black box) inside are +/- leads,my question is ,does anyone know if the battery was used purely to power all the extra equipment,or did it run in tandem with the primary battery up front. Also how was this second battery charged.Is it worth me installing a backup battery to be used if I get a flat battery would this battery hold a full charge . Any help would be greatly appreciated .

dh-t said:

Can anyone help me ,I own an ex police Range Rover 4.0 litre County ,in the boot there is a second battery compartment (black box) inside are +/- leads,my question is ,does anyone know if the battery was used purely to power all the extra equipment,or did it run in tandem with the primary battery up front. Also how was this second battery charged.Is it worth me installing a backup battery to be used if I get a flat battery would this battery hold a full charge . Any help would be greatly appreciated .

Click to expand...

Have you put a meter on the leads to see if they are fed from an alternator ?

Could be a radio base unit box ...

Are there a set of jump leads with the second battery? If so it's for use when questioning suspects

We bought an ex-police riot van years back ... an old LDV hi-top ...cracking V8 in it ...

bullet-proof windows, riot shield on the front that was hinged over the w/screen ... bomb-proof floor ... still had the jam sandwich lines on ....

tomcat59alan said:

Are there a set of jump leads with the second battery? If so it's for use when questioning suspects

Click to expand...

Now Alan what have you been told about sharing the secrets with everyone. No more 'get in the van you've pulled', for you

gold rover said:

Now Alan what have you been told about sharing the secrets with everyone. No more 'get in the van you've pulled', for you

Click to expand...

gold rover said:

Now Alan what have you been told about sharing the secrets with everyone. No more 'get in the van you've pulled', for you

Click to expand...

Gutted, have you still got the scars? I have.

If it was a “traffic patrol” Range Rover then if I remember right the 2nd battery was brought into play when using the extendable roof mounted flood lights this was charged from the alternator, however to enable this a much upgraded alternator was fitted due to the amount of juice the floods used, good piece of kit though oh and prior to around 1996 the floodlights were 110v from a specially modified dual voltage alternator.

gold rover said:

Now Alan what have you been told about sharing the secrets with everyone. No more 'get in the van you've pulled', for you

Click to expand...

Reminds me of my old pick up lines....

Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue,
Your really sweet,
Now get in the van

Saint.V8 said:

Reminds me of my old pick up lines....

Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue,
Your really sweet,
Now get in the van

Click to expand...

Smooth talker.

One things for sure, if it's ex-plod it won't be on it's original engine

Saint.V8 said:

Reminds me of my old pick up lines....

Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue,
Your really sweet,
Now get in the van

Click to expand...

My dating classic was always "does this rag smell of chloroform to you?" 60% of the time, it worked, every time.

Bix said:

My dating classic was always "does this rag smell of chloroform to you?" 60% of the time, it worked, every time.

Click to expand...

That's 100%, least it was when I went to school.

tomcat59alan said:

That's 100%, least it was when I went to school.

Click to expand...

Yeah but your school was approved.

The car was used as the command vehicle for the chief constable of Dunfermline and Galloway constabulary,it had an easy life for 12 years before I acquired it with 90,000 miles on the clock ,original engine,.

wammers said:

Yeah but your school was approved.

Click to expand...

By the Government

Saint.V8 said:

Reminds me of my old pick up lines....

Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue,
Your really sweet,
Now get in the van

Click to expand...

dh-t said:

The car was used as the command vehicle for the chief constable of Dunfermline and Galloway constabulary,it had an easy life for 12 years before I acquired it with 90,000 miles on the clock ,original engine,.

Click to expand...

Use by the CC explains the original lump!
If it had been on traffic ...

I’ve no idea about your specific vehicle however my full time job is NHS Ambulance Service and our trucks now have 4, yes FOUR 12v batteries! One chassis, one coms, one tail lift and one for all auxiliary lighting/heating/inverter etc. They are all charged by the HD alternator as well as a mains ‘shoreline’ charger for use when parked on station. I would assume that on your older vehicle it would have a similar system, the chassis battery and the other one for the radio/blues etc and was most likely charged from the alternator. The way I’d test this is to put a multi-meter on the two wires and see what power is there then do again whilst the engine is running which should increase to 13.5-14v I’d charging from the alternator. It may well be possible that there is a fuse inline (I’d be amazed if not, very poor safety/design) that has blown as a result of the +ve touching the bodywork (-ve) which would prevent the circuit working. Hope that helps a bit. Good luck!

To be honest I'd expect a fuse and a voltage sensitive switch so that the main battery charges first before the supplemental battery starts taking its share.

Thanks for that ,I have no means of checking the flow to the battery ,next time it’s in for it’s MOT I will get the machanic to put a flow meter on the leads and see what he comes up with .If they are live I could get a battery and leave it in situ fully charged to use in an emergency,as I live in a remote location.