Dual Battery Install - Part One

[SandRunner Member Find all posts View Profile Close SandRunner]

Well, I started putting in a dual battery into my 150 but the floods have stopped me from finishing.

Anyway, here is where I got to.......

SSG AGM 55ah battery



ARB tray



Battery tray with non slip mat cut to fit



Then.........

[SandRunner Member Find all posts View Profile Close SandRunner]

The battery got dropped in



Clearance of the aircon pipe



Clearance of the body



I chose a smaller battery for a few reasons. The first being I normally only use it to power a 40L fridge and don't camp in the same sport for any more than three days so 55ah is enough. Secondly, I was not keen on moving any Toyota pipes/mounts/wiring etc as my Toyota dealer said I would run into warranty issues if anything was moved.....

Unfortunately, the only issue I have run into so far is this



I have a gap on each side of the clamp and when tightening the clamp I bent the bracket slightly as you can see in the pic.

Dont know how to overcome this?? Suggestions anyone??

Once this weather settles I am going to put in the redarc 1200 (need to fabricate up a bracket to mount it neatly), baintec 12v outlets and LCD monitor in the rear and anderson plug outlet on the towbar.

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

fit a bigger battery, just joking.
Maybe some black rubber mat that you can fit between battery and bracket. clark`s rubber have rolls of various thickness and size.

I used a Piranha tray and fitted a N70 sized battery.

[SandRunner Member Find all posts View Profile Close SandRunner]

Bracket finally made up out of polished stainless, BCDC bolted on and heat shield added.

Now, the time to run the wiring................

[D4DDave Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4DDave]

Maxjj,
Did you have any difficulty fitting the Pirahna tray? To what extent did you have to bend the AC pipe & was this easy? Was it the BTP150D part number that you fitted & was that strap to the radiator shown in your pics part of the kit? I'd also like to fit this tray and an N70 size battery (to achieve 100Ah), but am worried about damaging AC pipe via bending during installation or rubbing in service. Did you have to do anything else to get the N70 to fit or did it just drop in? A seller of the Pirahna trays also advised me that the N70 is too heavy for the mount in the vehicle so I'm not sure now. Has anyone fitted smaller form factor batteries which are still 100Ah?

Thanks,

David.

[ko762 Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close ko762]

I have a gap on each side of the clamp and when tightening the clamp I bent the bracket slightly as you can see in the pic.

Dont know how to overcome this?? Suggestions anyone??

You can buy smaller battery clamps from many auto stores...Repco, supercheap, Ashdowns etc. The smaller clamps should press on the edge of the battery to keep it secure.

Cheers,

Ken

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

Maxjj,
Did you have any difficulty fitting the Pirahna tray? To what extent did you have to bend the AC pipe & was this easy? Was it the BTP150D part number that you fitted & was that strap to the radiator shown in your pics part of the kit? I'd also like to fit this tray and an N70 size battery (to achieve 100Ah), but am worried about damaging AC pipe via bending during installation or rubbing in service. Did you have to do anything else to get the N70 to fit or did it just drop in? A seller of the Pirahna trays also advised me that the N70 is too heavy for the mount in the vehicle so I'm not sure now. Has anyone fitted smaller form factor batteries which are still 100Ah?

Thanks,

David.

sorry only just saw this, no no problems.
Pipe didn`t have to be bend, only pushed over a little. Not sure on part number, I just got the 150 Prado one.
I had the same set up for two years in the previous 150 Prado and no probs.

The battery is the same size as the factory one on the other side. So not sure what weight issues there would be. If anything being in the tray distributes the weight to more mounting points.

[SandRunner Member Find all posts View Profile Close SandRunner]

You can buy smaller battery clamps from many auto stores...Repco, supercheap, Ashdowns etc. The smaller clamps should press on the edge of the battery to keep it secure.

Cheers,

Ken

Hard to find a decent metal clamp so ended up making one myself.