William's 150 GXL D4D

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Until the image limit is lifted I will post a partial trip report here.

Some mud we drove through... looks worse than it really is.


A nice day for a shot.


Our camp site for 5 days.


To give you an idea of how big those trees are compared to the Prado.


Cheers

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

How did the dual batteries go William?

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

I used my 105ah battery box over the 5 days. I've found that with the remote switch, I can turn the light off when it's not in use - prolonging the battery power available. According to the battery meter, it still had heaps of juice in it after the trip was over. So the dual battery aux was completely unused during the trip.

Just wait till I get a fridge mate. I've put a winch and snorkel ahead of the fridge on the list of things to get since we're heading into winter now. I figure a winch and snorkel would be more useful than a fridge during this season.

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Bought a couple of these today:

They came with mounts too

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Safari snorkel on the way! It will be fitted in about 2 weeks... Thinking of getting them to do the front and rear diff breathers too. Pirana breather kit is $80 and they want $135 to fit it. Opinions anyone?

Cheers

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

looking good william getting there, and when you do you will be poor. cheers samo

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Thanks Sammow! Will definitely be out of pocket by $215 for a bit of tube and fittings. Contemplating whether it's essential and whether or not I'll do it myself using the tutorial and guidance of hookedon4wding (Sam).

Also got a quote for a Magnum winch while I was there. Sounds like a fair price to me so I'll be locking it in after some diligent research. Oh and I enquired about some rated front recovery points that are arb bar compatible and was told they may be available soon (or possibly are ready) from "All Terrain" - I'll know more come Monday.

Definitely be poorer after the mod list is finished, but it'll be worth it. At the end of the day I work to live, not live to work. I'm sure you can agree with your extensive mod list

Cheers

[Melbo Member Find all posts View Profile Close Melbo]

Safari snorkel on the way! It will be fitted in about 2 weeks... Thinking of getting them to do the front and rear diff breathers too. Pirana breather kit is $80 and they want $135 to fit it. Opinions anyone?

Cheers

I got the safari snorkel and diff breathers done on thursday. i called three competitors for the quote and the difference between them is around max $50 for the whole lot.

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Funny that! They said there was 1 snorkel in the system. They went to look for it out back but it wasn't there. Must have been you?!

Yeah they were the cheapest around for me too. They said they'd "look after me" since I've spent so much at their store.

I'm a happy camper

Cheers

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Called up and added the piranha diff breathers too lol

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Back from a weekend out in the bush. Weather was perfect and the fish were on the bite. Left the old battery box at home and gave the new dual battery setup a run for its money. Works as expected running a 35W hid camp light for two nights for about 6 hours a night. On the drive home I noticed the prado's trip comp increase by 1lt/100kms in the first two hours driving back on the same road (which was actually the flatter part of the journey). I'm assuming it's to do with the alternator having to recharge the battery?

[LargeInAPrado Member Find all posts View Profile Close LargeInAPrado]

Hi William great to hear the setup has been serving you well

As for your consumption The alternator wont increase drag while recharging, so your increased consumption must have been from some other reason although if your relying on the 'toyota' dash readout its not all that accurate.

By the way what HID camp light? Im guessing its back in this thread so ill go trawling ...

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Interesting.... Suppose it can't be explained then lol.

My HID camp light isn't on my buildup, though I have an LED camplight build tree somewhere. The HID is a simple DIY that has been serving me well for years though. Picture this....

- HID bulb/housing in a thick opaque plastic cup (helps for dispersion as it's blindingly bright)
- Mounted in a stripped out $10 bunnings floodlight mount
- Ballast in waterproof box
- Cig socket with 6m cable and clamps

Have used it in some really heavy rain and it's still working as well as the day it was built!

Oh yeah I got my bonnet protector. This weeks mini project is to get it painted and fitted!

Cheers

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

great to see the dual battery is working well, all ya need now is the fridge and wiring to go with it. cheers samo

[William Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close William]

Thanks Samo! Absolutely mate, but there's an order to what will get fitted. A fridge isn't high on the list as we're heading into winter now, hence recovery gear gets priority.

I'll have the bonnet protector (just because it happened to arrive last week), snorkel and diff breathers installed this week. I'm actually doing some research on a winch tonight, might get it done at the same time as the snorkel.

I'm also doing some research on a CF80... If feasible I'll be looking at a secondary power source (probably solar) as well as a new drawer system to suit... which would mean my current drawers will go on the market (Melbo would be happy about that ).

Cheers