My President

[PhilMorrison]

so we know what setup you are working in  Phil............
What do you do and where ?

I own a company called Driftworks Ltd. We're a mail order track parts company. We run two drift cars in competition, and have a full workshop to maintain them and develop products that I can occasionally free up to work on my own personal dumb projects

CCE switch box is fine. Direct would wortk as its a light part [postage] unless it could be added to Tony's US shipment

Cool, I'll get in contact with them.

Running at 24v would be the norm/min for a car that size. TBH I dont know much about the Rayvern pumps but I am pretty sure I recognise the make and source.
All "lowrider" solenoids and valves are rated at 12v. In practise we use them for such very short burs of time that they will cope with higher............ Full on US Hoppers still use the same sols at 60+volts.
You are stuck with the ones that come with your pumps rather than being abaale to choose what is best BUT I remember Colin Ware's car [name escapes me but it was the one that cought fire in the end] ran 6 pumps and high volts to start with, in the end I think it went down to 4 pupms but still ran 36 or 48v. Certainly "Sweet and Sour" ran Rayvern pumps and 36v.
So your should handle 24v easily enough.
You would run the pumps and switch circuit at 24v. To get the best out of your batteries you will connect them as four banks of two, so giving 24v per bank, then join the banks in parrallel  so everything is drawing 24 v from the same source. That equalises the draw form ALL 8 batteries so they all reach recharge point at the same time.

All of that is a hell of a lot less complicated than I thought it was going to be. Being able to link them as four banks, then join them together in parallel is perfect, as currently charging 4 batteries independently is a pain in the ass.

Freight will always be more than any bulk discount unless you are buying  24+

I'll get onto Eurocarparts then  I'm guessing just go for the highest amp.

If you go for 24v you just need a 24v charger [truck or tractor], the bigger the better as you want to charge 8 batts at the same time. I did a few with one of the Motorsport type disconnects so you had a plug in point. However you do it you MUST have a main earth disconnect that is easy to get at and is in the circuit so you can charge whith it disconnected.

 
I'll see what charger I can find.
We carry stock of battery cutoffs so I'll see if they are suitable.

just ask away 

we're mostly a bunch of slappers  who will go with anyone   

the rep we have for not welcoming peeps is down to me being completely unbending on flamers and for lo-rdz always saying that no one gets into the club unless all existing members agree to them.

lol, good to hear Thanks again for all your help

[fatdaddy]

tbh for the cut off you want something manual like a welding connector. Any switch runs the risk of sticking.

[PhilMorrison]

Okay, I'm just trying to draw out a wiring diagram. where's the best place to buy the disconnects? and where would you place them in a diagram?

[fatdaddy]

got a feeling I may have some left ..........   and some cable.
let you know tomorrow

[PhilMorrison]

Damn! I just had a quote on the CCE 16switch prewired box that's $169.95 on their site.
I deal with imports and exports for car parts on a regular basis, and I've never seen anything like it!
Why are they charging me tax and duty? I deal with that when the parcel lands in the UK.
I can deal with $70 shipping, but it seems a little extreme. I would guess the max weight of the box to be 2kg.
Why are they charging a transfer fee? when making an international bank transfer I pay all bank fee's, they don't have any credit card charges to pay on their side. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

1x- (920.016) 16 Switch Pre-wired Box - $169.95
Tax & Duty - $67.98
Shipping - $70.00
Transfer Fee - $25.00
________________________
GRAND TOTAL - $332.93

Anyway, I've asked them these questions, but I just thought I'd have a minirant haha

[fatdaddy]

i never came across that !

on that basis you'll have VAT and duty ontop on this side .....................

[PhilMorrison]

Just waiting for CCE to come back to me about it.

In other news. I blew a hose on the front left this morning just hitting a pothole. I sprayed oil all over the manifold which was nice. I've got to investigate what's at fault, but my thoughts are that the new braided hose has been left touching the manifold, and it's melted the rubber.

I've just priced up the batteries: £690+vat. Although I do already have four, so now that you've told me I can link them all together, I may just do that for now.

[fatdaddy]

make sure your braideds have the same spec as R2AT as a minimum, it is sometimes lower.

3/8 R2AT [which is what you should have had has a max working pressure of 4775psi but also a burst pressure of  19100psi. The burst pressure is very relevant to out use with high pressure spikes from the suspension. Its not just about what the pump/battery combination can produce but what is created within the system in use.

[PhilMorrison]

Okay thanks. It's a friend at Pirtek that made them, and I've read quite a bit from you saying that normal hydraulic suppliers don't understand the forces we're putting through these systems, so I'll see if that's what hose he has used.

[fatdaddy]

i didnt think to ask why you are going for a 16 switch box rather than a "normal" one ?

I always used to run pumps in on a test bed before sending them out. Partly as US pumps ordered as part of a batch usually come unassembled and partly doc even when they assemble them they often leave bit out or loose !.

Short run at 12v to bed the motor in, just pumping oil round in a circuit with no restriction.
Then at 24v for a few mins at no pressure. Then up the pressure slowly to 5000 and run at that for a minute. That is way over what a pump "should" produce [to a normal hydro person].

It is easy to check what a pump can actually produce without breaking.
My rig used a combined flow meter/temp gauge/pressure gauge [I used to manufacture hydro powered fruit harvesting machines so had all the kit]  so I could adjust what ever I wanted.
Still running at 24v and gradually closing the flow valve until the motor stalled [then switching off fast before I had a fire] I have seen 12000psi from a Pro Hopper Comp pump with a #8 head.......... that is a fairly run of the mill pump in US Lowrider terms.

[PhilMorrison]

i didnt think to ask why you are going for a 16 switch box rather than a "normal" one ?

What's a normals one? Reason I went for that one was, I have a crap home made 4 switch box. I wanted something that will allow easy switching of multiple pumps, front together, back together, side together, opposite corners, all of them together. The CCE 16 switch seemed to have all the tricks up it's sleeve.

[fatdaddy]

10 switch will do everything, one or two moves will need two switches at the same time. Either box will want a little bit of rewiring to suit your car and system.

Try Pro Hopper or Black Magic as well

[PhilMorrison]

Cool, I think it's sorted with CCE now. They've removed the tax and duty, and reduced the transfer fee to $13, so I'll be making the transfer on Monday. I tried Prohopper a few months ago and they never got back to any of my 3 e-mails.

[PhilMorrison]

I had another successful Saturday on the car.
Managed to complete the hydraulics (for now). I don't think that braid we used before was up to the job going off your specs Iain. I think because we'd done 90% of the run to the fronts in stainless hard pipe it meant the short runs of braid were taking all the back pressure when hitting potholes. So we did it in 4 wire 350bar hose with some heat shield on the front lines where they go past the manifolds.

Also fitted slightly smaller tyres to get clearance on that fitting on the back ram fitting and the arches. I fitted 185/45/15 Nankangs, and the car now bellys up properly, it also rides relatively comfortable about 20mm off the floor, and steers without hitting the front arch, so the gamble on tyre size has paid off.

I got a quote back on the batteries, and even at trade it's going to cost me £700+vat, so I'll hold off and keep an eye out for a bargain before commiting to that.

[PhilMorrison]

Right I've been a bit sidetracked with the race season, and deciding to stick an M5 V10 engine into my E46M3  , but I'm daily driving the President at the moment, and would like to get the electrics sorted asap.
I've got the switchbox from CCE. One of the wires it requires is a 24v supply. I'm not sure what this supply is for yet, but as my system is currently 12v, I think I need to get round to doing the batteries and changing to 24v. Sooo, some more dumbass questions if you don't mind 

Leisure batteries: Are they a good idea? I can potentially get some huge leisure batteries for a reasonable price.

What is the minimum requirement for the main battery cable I should use? Is there somewhere online I can order everything I need?

I'm going to get some of those welding disconnects mentioned above. If I have an 8 battery system running 24v where should I wire the disconnects?

I've had a quick search, but if anyone has any pictures that demonstrate how a system like this is wired, that would be awesome, as it's all a bit new to me.