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Last week I took my grandson for a week's camping in the bush - Newnes via Zig-Zag railway station near Lithgow and Blackfellows Hand trail.
I have a 2007 120 D4D Prado and an off-road Kimberley Karavan (KK) with 360 Ah lithium batteries.
Blackfellows was very rough and I spent all my concentration on the track and wheel placement. There was a diversion around a fallen tree with a very sharp bend at the end of the log and limited manoeuvring room due to surrounding trees. I stepped out of the car to assess some options and it was then that I heard the high-pitched squeal indicative of a failure of one of the belt-driven accessories or idler pulleys. Sure enough, when I got back in there was the alternator light shining bright red. I don't know how long it had been on, but for whatever time it was, the aircon and two Ranoxes had been powering away doing their jobs in the cabin and on the auxiliary and KK batteries and pulling the crank battery down in the process. The Scangauge said crank battery voltage was down to 11.2. We were a couple of hours from the civilisation we had left and a couple of hours from camp. The Prado engine needs about 12 amps to keep it alive. The auto trans is also electronically controlled. The KK brakes take up to 20 amps and we are or will be driving in mountainous country. Loss of 12V power is not an option.
As my auto sparky once so unkindly remarked I have most of the world's output of copper installed in my Prado, along with a few gadgets in a system designed to provide some redundancy should it ever be needed. Last Sunday was the day.
By reconfiguring some manually operated circuit breakers and switches I disabled all the smart stuff that charges the aux and KK batteries, switched the aux battery to parallel it with the crank battery and turned off the aircon. The charged aux battery bled into the discharged cranker and the volts on the Scangauge came up to about 11.8. We carried on for two more hours to our camp at Newnes, hoping all the while that the squealing noise was not a bearing failing, just the brushes or whatever. Luck was on our side - we arrived at Newnes with the Scangauge showing 11.1 volts and the noise all but gone, so apparently not a bearing failure. (A seized alternator would have meant on-site replacement or a flat-top extraction to Lithgow for repairs.)
Does anyone know at what voltage a Prado's engine management system and the electronic bits hanging off it would cease to work? AND, is there a short belt so you can bypass the alternator if it really stuffs itself and seizes up?
Called my son on the satphone. He did some Googling and phone work and came up with a few options that, with a lot of inconvenience, would have got us out of trouble, but my preferred option was to try to get home and fix it there.
On the solar regulator on the Karavan I have a permanently wired Anderson on the load terminals which have max 30 amp output. I normally run the car fridge as a freezer off that. I figured that by switching another manual CB in the Prado and using a double adapter Anderson I could run the car fridge AND, by day, feed power from the solar setup forward to charge the Prado batteries. The weather was kind, the sun shone, and for the whole week I was able to keep both car batteries and the KK lithiums fully or nearly fully charged.
Next problem was getting home - about a 4 hour journey on the blacktop. I thought the two vehicle batteries might be able to manage it, but both are old so it would have been very marginal. I figured that with the configuration I had set up with the vehicle batteries charging from the KK's solar, the KK batteries could be used to power the tug. And they would be supported by the KK's rooftop solar.
So that is what we did, drove home for 5 and a half hours in awful traffic running on battery power backfed from the KK to the Prado and supported by the KK's 200 watts of rooftop solar. The Scangauge showed a steady system voltage of 12.0 in the Prado and when we arrived home we had used just 8% of the KK's 360 lithium amp-hours.
I had also thought that if necessary I could open the front toolbox/battery compartment where the generator is stored and run the generator in there to charge the KK batteries as we drove, with the 240V cable to the rear 240V inlet securely tied up and the tailgate fastened only on the driver's side. As it turned out, that option was not necessary.
So I feel pretty pleased with that. The bad news is no auto sparkies here rebuild Denso alternators, no money in it they say - it takes too long. They all supply new genuine or aftermarket replacements, no recos. The better news is that I have sourced on eBay a genuine Denso 130 amp bolt-in replacement for my stuffed OEM 80 amp variety which I will install myself.
Cheers
Frank
I have a 2007 120 D4D Prado and an off-road Kimberley Karavan (KK) with 360 Ah lithium batteries.
Blackfellows was very rough and I spent all my concentration on the track and wheel placement. There was a diversion around a fallen tree with a very sharp bend at the end of the log and limited manoeuvring room due to surrounding trees. I stepped out of the car to assess some options and it was then that I heard the high-pitched squeal indicative of a failure of one of the belt-driven accessories or idler pulleys. Sure enough, when I got back in there was the alternator light shining bright red. I don't know how long it had been on, but for whatever time it was, the aircon and two Ranoxes had been powering away doing their jobs in the cabin and on the auxiliary and KK batteries and pulling the crank battery down in the process. The Scangauge said crank battery voltage was down to 11.2. We were a couple of hours from the civilisation we had left and a couple of hours from camp. The Prado engine needs about 12 amps to keep it alive. The auto trans is also electronically controlled. The KK brakes take up to 20 amps and we are or will be driving in mountainous country. Loss of 12V power is not an option.
As my auto sparky once so unkindly remarked I have most of the world's output of copper installed in my Prado, along with a few gadgets in a system designed to provide some redundancy should it ever be needed. Last Sunday was the day.
By reconfiguring some manually operated circuit breakers and switches I disabled all the smart stuff that charges the aux and KK batteries, switched the aux battery to parallel it with the crank battery and turned off the aircon. The charged aux battery bled into the discharged cranker and the volts on the Scangauge came up to about 11.8. We carried on for two more hours to our camp at Newnes, hoping all the while that the squealing noise was not a bearing failing, just the brushes or whatever. Luck was on our side - we arrived at Newnes with the Scangauge showing 11.1 volts and the noise all but gone, so apparently not a bearing failure. (A seized alternator would have meant on-site replacement or a flat-top extraction to Lithgow for repairs.)
Does anyone know at what voltage a Prado's engine management system and the electronic bits hanging off it would cease to work? AND, is there a short belt so you can bypass the alternator if it really stuffs itself and seizes up?
Called my son on the satphone. He did some Googling and phone work and came up with a few options that, with a lot of inconvenience, would have got us out of trouble, but my preferred option was to try to get home and fix it there.
On the solar regulator on the Karavan I have a permanently wired Anderson on the load terminals which have max 30 amp output. I normally run the car fridge as a freezer off that. I figured that by switching another manual CB in the Prado and using a double adapter Anderson I could run the car fridge AND, by day, feed power from the solar setup forward to charge the Prado batteries. The weather was kind, the sun shone, and for the whole week I was able to keep both car batteries and the KK lithiums fully or nearly fully charged.
Next problem was getting home - about a 4 hour journey on the blacktop. I thought the two vehicle batteries might be able to manage it, but both are old so it would have been very marginal. I figured that with the configuration I had set up with the vehicle batteries charging from the KK's solar, the KK batteries could be used to power the tug. And they would be supported by the KK's rooftop solar.
So that is what we did, drove home for 5 and a half hours in awful traffic running on battery power backfed from the KK to the Prado and supported by the KK's 200 watts of rooftop solar. The Scangauge showed a steady system voltage of 12.0 in the Prado and when we arrived home we had used just 8% of the KK's 360 lithium amp-hours.
I had also thought that if necessary I could open the front toolbox/battery compartment where the generator is stored and run the generator in there to charge the KK batteries as we drove, with the 240V cable to the rear 240V inlet securely tied up and the tailgate fastened only on the driver's side. As it turned out, that option was not necessary.
So I feel pretty pleased with that. The bad news is no auto sparkies here rebuild Denso alternators, no money in it they say - it takes too long. They all supply new genuine or aftermarket replacements, no recos. The better news is that I have sourced on eBay a genuine Denso 130 amp bolt-in replacement for my stuffed OEM 80 amp variety which I will install myself.
Cheers
Frank
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