Battery Brain Gold (Type IV) Disconnect Unit http://www.batterybrain.co.uk/productspage.php Somewhere in my van there's a leak. A leak that makes all my electricity go away after a few weeks of dormancy. Which funnily enough stops my van turning on when I need it to. Added to the idling problem the old girl was rather unusable at the start of the year. So a few months ago points and hoses were replaced, as well as some mix fiddling, and after some research my man at Westside Motors fitted a nifty bit of kit called a Battery Brain. Now I know the MOST sensible thing would be to find and eliminate the drain issue, but as a cheaper and quicker fix that I'm happy with, this has worked out really well. I went for a Type IV with a wired cut-off switch. The Brain can mounted either to the battery or the body work in a number of ways depending on the space available. In my case it went straight on the battery, as you can see below. The Brain is then manually activated by a switch under the yellow cap. However after that it is turned on and off by a button in the cab. I'm confident enough that I'm not going to have the bus nicked if I show that to you... So upon parking up, it's ignition off then a four-second press of the button. If it's sufficiently quiet you can hear a click from the engine bay to let you know the battery's been disconnected. It won't disconnect if the ignition's still on (quite handy) but if you press the button with the headlights or interior lights on then they'll switch off to let you know that it's disconnected. When you want to start off again, it's a shorter press to reconnect - and this is possible with the ignition on. So that's a kill switch. Fair enough. However if you choose not to disconnect manually the unit is set to disconnect automatically if the battery's voltage drops below a "starting level" of 11.8v i.e. there's always enough kick to start the van again. As well as the version I have, they also come with remote disconnection (on a key fob) or a basic model where you use the switch on the unit. I don't really consider it to be a security device, but for peace of mind that I can always start - even after a few weeks of standing - it's proved to be a great little device. The convenience of having an in-cab switch - rather than groping around in what you can see isn't the most pleasant engine bay - is a great feature for me. The unit can also be rigged to keep a trickle for radio memory and I believe - though I'm not 100% - there's an option to use a domestic battery for this, as well as keeping the remote sensor operational on the remote version. My radio's wired up to the leisure battery and I unplug the DIN every time I leave it anyway, so it's not been an issue. Anyway, highly recommended as an affordable solution to the drain issue many people have as well as a small security increment.
