Battery Monitoring - Prado 150

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Fitted up my Baintech volt / volt meter today. Postitioned it near the 4wd selector switch in the vacant blank. Bit of mucking around to dremel away the reinforcing plastic behind the fascia but not too hard if you take it slowly. The hole left after removing the blank is also a bit bigger diagonally than the diameter of the gauge so I made up an infill that covers those corner holes. Barely visible under natural light. I also wired the negative through a relay so the meter is dormant unless the engine is on.

[Mbc150 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mbc150]

Looks great well done, do you feel the baintech is worth the expensive outlay

[hulbyw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hulbyw]

Interesting that you only want your meter to work when the engine is on. I always check my batteries in the morning before I start the engine, as when the engine is running all you are seeing is the volts out of the alternator. Or am I missing something here, as I am no sparky

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

I should have said "ignition on" rather than engine on sorry about that.

I can check the batteries with the ignition on, engine off. Push Start twice no foot on brake. I use a DC DC charger so I see what the alternator is putting into the main battery and what the charger is putting into the AGM. With the engine off the volt meter gives state of charge for both batteries and with the engine running I can see what the batteries are doing.

If anyone else is planning the same install you need to follow Brain's instructions (http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...150-GXL/page13) to get the bottom trim out that has the 4wd selector switch. Unplug the connectors and remove the trim completely. There are 8 tabs that hold the switch fascia into the trim, pop these carefully and remove the fascia. The blank that remains also has 4 tabs so pop these and remove the blank. Then position the lock ring for the Baintech meter over the hole and draw around the inside with a marker pen. Then I used the 12mm barrel sanding bit for my dremel and carefully ground away the fascia to the edge of the lines. You will need to trim the inside of the fascia where the blank sits until it is flush. Be careful not to remove the tabs that hold the fascia into the surround. This will be obvious but if you work just from the inside looking at the outside of the fascia you can damage these tabs. You will need to grind about 2mm more than marked but this is best done on a test fit basis and remove material slowly and gently. Once the meter fits grind the inside flat and make enough room for the lock ring to sit up against the fascia. You will also have to remove some of the excess plastic on the surround where it fouls the gauge. Again test fit and make sure you don't damage the tabs. All this only takes 5 minutes so slowly is better. The gauge will fit into the fascia and lock in and then this will all clip into the surround.

The gauge has three screwed terminals which will only take a 3mm2 automotive wire, about 2mm diameter. There is minimal current draw so that sized wire is fine. Bare about 3 to 4mm of the wire and twist the conductor and thread this into the terminal and tighten the screw. Make sure the earth is in the centre and pick which of V1 and V2 you will use for each battery, V1 for me is the main battery. You will need to thread the wires through the console. Plug in the other connectors, test to make sure everything works before putting the trims back on though and then put it all back together.

When I ran my 6B&S for the DC DC charger I ran some twin 3mm wire beside it. This I ran all the way from the main battery to the auxiliary with a loop near the glovebox. I simply cut the loop and extended the wires across to the centre console area. I didn't pull the side trims off the console just pushed some 5mm wire under and through and pulled the battery wires across with that.

Pretty easy all up.

With the relay I mounted this adjacent to the main battery and looped the negative to terminals 30 and 86. Terminal 87 was connected to the cable running to the Baintech meter as the earth. Then I patched into the green wire from the windscreen wipers to provide ignition on signal to terminal 85. I found this easier than trying to mount a relay in the console and also find igniton on power there as well. It also helped that I had already taken a feed from the wipers to the air compressor that is sitting in the vacant battery location in front of the air filter. I simply removed the spade terminal that was on the ARB Switch and added the wire and a larger spade terminal and ran that around the front in some 6mm corrugated conduit.


And yes I think the Baintech is worth it, I couldn't work out a neat way to install a couple of EvilBay monitors and this one is just over $100 which is cheaper than some of the others. I have a monitor on the fridge so I know what it is doing. The monitor tells me highest instantaneous current draw, average current and AH consumed in any given period. It is a Doc Wattson monitor.

A bit of clarification. Yesterday I drove into town to get some bits and it took about 10 minutes for the main battery voltage to drop down, that is making up for what was taken out starting the engine. The voltage didn't vary much even though the DC DC charger bumped into boost on the way home and was throwing 14.4V at the auxiliary. I think if you are doing trips of less than 15 minutes or so and have a DC DC charger you could be affecting the overall state of charge in the main battery. I will keep an eye on this and see how it fares over time.

[Nebulous Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nebulous]

Peter from "Solidkit" has done a limited run of green (they match most of the dash lights) dual voltmeters that fit directly into the blank switch sockets on the 150s, I don't think you will find them on Solidkit's main website but here is the direct link.

http://www.solidkit.com.au/product/g...00-2016-hilux/