Znelbok's 120 1KZ-TE

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I figure I should join in on the fun of showing off my handy work as well.

I have just purchased (Easter 2014) a 2003 120 diesel Prado. Very basic with no options other than roof racks and a towbar (HR). This means I don't inherit someone elses bodgy modifications and get to build it up with the mods dont my bodgy way :-)

<pic goes here of car>

This is going to be used to tow our Jayco Hawk (2007 model) around as the ol' 2.8 diesel Hilux is not quite up to the task (no turbo and 300K on the clock).

Building up this car is not going to be hard as we know what we want from what I have done with the Hilux, so we know what we use and conceptually I know how I want everything to go together and function.

First mod is the brake controller and rear power. Not unusual, but what I have done has not been done here before and deserves to be shown and explained.

Tekonsha P3 Installation
I have a single P3 that I need to use between the Hilux and the Pado. I dont see the point of buying two of them for occasional use. The P3 mounts in the ash tray hole in the hilux. It is removable and the ash tray slides back in to fill the hole when not in use. Using the same concept, the P3 also fits inside the ash tray hole on the Prado. To mount it I have a small piece of steel that is screwed in at the back and the controller just sips in and is held in place by the steel (see photo's to better understand)


The wiring harness sits behind the ashtray on both vehicles and I just have to pull the cable out, plug it in and then slide it into the ash tray - works on either vehicle easily.

The wiring harness is where there is something different. The usual installation has a feed from the battery through a CB and then to the controller. Well, I was thinking about this and it dawned on me that Toyota have done a lot of the hard work for me. The plug at the rear for the trailer harness to connect to already has a 30A feed to it. I need to make up a new harness here anyway as the installed of the towbar just used scotch locks, so my harness is going to be better.

I have power, brake, ground and stop signal all coming from the trailer harness connector. Its 30A, just as if I was using a circuit breaker under the bonnet. Installation was a breeze, fed the cable down the passenger side of the car from back to front and no pushing cables through firewall was needed, not finding a spot for a circuit breaker and a very clean install (if I do say so myself).



My harness also has a plug additional reverse lights (i.e. work light above tyre will also be reverse light). More on that later

Anyway, here are the photos of the P3 installation.


Holes drilled in top of tray holder to mount the steel bracket. I also added a bit of flat steel on top for better strength


Trial fitting of P3 on the bench - fits well.



Trial fitting of the ash tray back with mount installed. The ash tray needed some mods at the back so it would slide in

I just had to file out the back a little to give it clearance for the metal holder and screws holding it in place. The steel flap also had to be removed, but it doe nothing really as the ash tray wont fall out anyway.


The P3 in the car after it was all put back together. Plenty of clearance between the gearstick and the controller


Ash tray back in place after the controller is removed. It closes properly and no one is the wiser that the car is fitted for a controller.

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Trailer Power Connector

So at the moment I have only one battery. The camper has a Redark BCDC battery charger and one of the features is that it will only charge from the battery when the ignition sense wire is connected to and detects power. Being int he camper, there is no ignition power, so it is connected tot he main feed to the charger. When I connect the camper to the car, the charger is always charging, regardless if the car is running or not. I have already flattened the battery once when I stopped.

So what I have in both the Hilux and the Prado is a 100A continuous rated relay installed in the feed. This relay is only turned on when the camper is connecter. A switch on the center console is feed by the ign circuit (fuel heater circuit re-purposed) so that I can turn it on at any time while the engine is running, bu turning the car off turns the power supply off to the van and thus protecting my battery. The reason I added the switch is because I don't want power there all the time. The relay does not need to switch on every time I start the car - doing so only wears it out.

<photo of relay to come>
Relay mounted on firewall


Rear cable exit next to tank

The cable runs down the inside of the frame on the passenger side and exits adjacent to the rear fuel tank. Its 8 B&S and terminates in an Anderson plug - nothing special about this, pretty standard stuff.






Camper Power switch in center console. It's not used much so I put it here instead of to the right of the steering wheel where more often used switches will be placed.

This switch is an LED switch that lights up the text when the lights are on and the logo lights up when on. This means I needed to get a dash light feed to it. The light from the ash tray was of no use any more from the P3 mod, so I cut the light globe off and soldered a new harness to it. This harness has four connectors on it, one for each of the switch locations on the center console so that future switches already have a feed available (three up in front of the gear stick and one behind the gearstick).


So now the harness plugs directly into the factory plug and lights up all current and future switches

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