Hi all,

I'm converting my 2016 Octavia Scout into an ambulance rapid response vehicle, for both NHS and private work. This involves an emergency lighting system, and although I can run it off the regular battery, I'm considering installing a secondary battery. 

If I do decide to go this route, does anyone have a good location for the secondary battery? Normal RRVs remove the spare wheel, however I'm not willing to do this, I'm considering perhaps under the passenger or driver's seat, does anyone have experience/advice when it comes to this? I'm fairly sure a standard leisure battery wouldn't fit under the seats.

 

(Any questions about the wiring for this project, I'm happy to help)

Thanks in advance

Do not fit a standard leisure battery then.

Maybe fit an Optima. 

 

 

 

Hi @SpaceWalrus

 

I'm working on the reverse problem right now. I bought a Skoda Octavia MK3 diesel NHS ambulance. Whoever did the conversion removed the spare wheel as you said, and I want to get rid of it so I can put back a spare wheel there again. I went ahead and unplugged all the cables and the extra battery. The issue is now the car doesn't start. All the lights work fine (internal and external) but the engine won't start. Any ideas of how I could tackle this problem?

 

Thank you

5 minutes ago, freakbryn said:

Hi @SpaceWalrus

 

I'm working on the reverse problem right now. I bought a Skoda Octavia MK3 diesel NHS ambulance. Whoever did the conversion removed the spare wheel as you said, and I want to get rid of it so I can put back a spare wheel there again. I went ahead and unplugged all the cables and the extra battery. The issue is now the car doesn't start. All the lights work fine (internal and external) but the engine won't start. Any ideas of how I could tackle this problem?

 

Thank you

Have you tried charging or jump starting the chassis battery (that’s the one in the engine bay) it might of died over the years. Check what voltage you get between the terminals

Emergency vehicles tend to have a split charger between the chassis and auxiliary batteries, this can connect to the batteries to start the car off of the auxiliary battery when the chassis battery has been depleted.

You might have to replace your chassis battery if it’s too degraded, as emergency vehicle wiring systems love to kill lead acid batteries with constant draining.

28 minutes ago, SpaceWalrus said:

Have you tried charging or jump starting the chassis battery (that’s the one in the engine bay) it might of died over the years. Check what voltage you get between the terminals

Emergency vehicles tend to have a split charger between the chassis and auxiliary batteries, this can connect to the batteries to start the car off of the auxiliary battery when the chassis battery has been depleted.

You might have to replace your chassis battery if it’s too degraded, as emergency vehicle wiring systems love to kill lead acid batteries with constant draining.

 

 

Sorry if that is too of a naïve question but if the battery in engine bay is dead, the internal lights wouldn't be working, no?

I'll check the voltage between the terminals, thank you!
 

Is there any rewiring that usually goes on on the ingnition?
 

14 minutes ago, freakbryn said:

 

 

Sorry if that is too of a naïve question but if the battery in engine bay is dead, the internal lights wouldn't be working, no?

I'll check the voltage between the terminals, thank you!
 

Is there any rewiring that usually goes on on the ingnition?
 

The battery may be too low to run the starter, but charged enough to run the lights.

There may be wiring with the ignition in regards to the run lock system (the ability to remove the key and lock the car with the engine still running) but that shouldn’t put a break in the ignition wiring, at least, it doesn’t on my setup

Do a scan for error codes.

Thank you. I'll give them a try.

Personally I’d be doing the spare wheel area, depending on how you are setting it up it gives you space for all your other equipment including radio, siren amp and any other controllers.

 

Wherever you put it, make sure you have a battery vent running outside the car and also a split charge system 

5 minutes ago, ApertureS said:

Personally I’d be doing the spare wheel area, depending on how you are setting it up it gives you space for all your other equipment including radio, siren amp and any other controllers.

 

Wherever you put it, make sure you have a battery vent running outside the car and also a split charge system 

I never actually ended up adding the spare battery, I just added a small switch that toggled two relays that fed the control unit, and set up the run lock so that any time I wasn’t driving and required the system to be on, I could engage the run lock. Whenever I wasn’t using the system, the switch remained off so it would draw any power

On 31/08/2023 at 13:56, SpaceWalrus said:

The battery may be too low to run the starter, but charged enough to run the lights.

There may be wiring with the ignition in regards to the run lock system (the ability to remove the key and lock the car with the engine still running) but that shouldn’t put a break in the ignition wiring, at least, it doesn’t on my setup

Tested the battery today and the front one is good. No luck trying to fix the issue so far. I'll post it in the general forum and see what comes back. Thank you so much for your help and tips.

28 minutes ago, freakbryn said:

Tested the battery today and the front one is good. No luck trying to fix the issue so far. I'll post it in the general forum and see what comes back. Thank you so much for your help and tips.

Perhaps it would be worth taking the steering column apart and checking that the wires from the ignition switch haven’t been messed with as part of the run lock system 

I'll try that. Thanks.

9 minutes ago, freakbryn said:

I'll try that. Thanks.

Just thinking, do you know who did the original conversion to an ambulance? Or at least the ambulance service it came from? Companies that do conversions sometimes put a little sticker under the bonnet or in the doorframe. If you can find the company then might be worth popping them an email or giving them a ring to ask if they’d know, otherwise if you only know the ambulance service, I can find out who did the conversion for them.

No stickers or anything unfortunately but from the plate I could gather that the vehicle was first registered in the Brighton area. I'll call their Health Board or NHS fleetsolution during the week and see if I can gather any information on who did the convertion.