Connecting a 12V Battery to a Battery Box

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Jay Elliott

Chief Camping Officer

Connecting a 12V Battery to a Battery Box

This short post will go through the steps required to connect a 12v battery to a portable battery box. The products used here include an Adventure Kings Battery Box and Adventure Kings 138Ah Deep Cycle battery.

Steps in Connecting a 12v Battery to a Battery Box

  1. Start by removing the lid of your battery box. If you have a larger box like the one pictured, you will also need to remove the divider.
Connecting a 12V Battery to a Battery Box

2. Place the battery inside the box. Be careful when lifting as these can be very heavy. If your battery does not fill up the majority of the space, input the divider so it cannot move around too much.

3.This battery had plastic protectors inside the terminals, so if your’s is the same, remove these in preparation for attaching the battery box cables.

4. Before you attach anything to the terminals, ensure that the ON/OFF switch of your battery box is set to OFF (all units should have one).

Find the small terminal bolts and add the washers before screwing the battery box cables tentatively into the battery terminals.

Ensure you are following the instructions and the positive cable is attached to the positive terminal, and likewise for the negative cable and battery terminal.

Take care to have the cables attached in a position that when the lid is pressed down, the cables fold in a way that won’t kink or damage the wires.


Once both terminals are tentatively screwed in, and the wires are in a good position, tighten the terminal bolts firmly (but be wary of overtightening and stripping the terminal thread.

5. Once that is done, place the lid down, and you can now switch the unit on, test it, and plug in your 12v gadgets.

Depending on your unit, you might also have some USB outputs as well so you can rial charging your smartphones and tablets as well.

If your unit comes with a safety strap, to hold it all together, make sure you get that done as well.

This picture shows an Adventure Kings LED Strip Light plugged in the 12v outlet of the battery box.

Charging Your 12v Battery Without a Solar Panel

If you don’t yet have a solar panel, or the weather is not suitable, and you are wanting to charge your battery for the first time, or before you head out on a trip, then you can use a standard car battery charger.

Ensure you hook up the appropriate clamp to the appropriate terminal, then leave it overnight, and you should have a fully charged battery the next morning, ready to go.