Dual battery install in LC200

[brussum]

Hello all,

I'd like to install a secondary battery in my engine compartment to power accessories (HAM radio, fridge, etc) without depleting the starting battery. I'm good with the battery isolator and general concept, but I'm having difficulty finding a battery tray or kit to mount the battery. If I had a 70 series, then life would be grand, but nobody seems to make parts for the 200. Has anyone had any luck with a dual battery install or have any good sources for parts? FYI, mine is a 2008 200 series with a 5.7L gas engine.

Thanks for the help,
John

 

[Skrewball]

when i did a dual battery setup on a 200, i ended up putting the second battery behind the ARB bumper. I had to make a custom bracket and the location is not ideal(especially if you don't have a bumper).

the truck didn't have many miles on it and i didn't want the owner to have problems with getting work done, so i didn't relocate the P/S reservoir.

I'm sure someone has done it differently and you might find some more info on Ih8mud

 

[brussum]

At least I know it can be done. An ARB bumper would be a tough sell to the wife though (I need to sneak purchases like that into the garage). I was really hoping there'd be some way of using one of the many diesel battery trays in my gasoline engine compartment. There seems to be plenty of options in Australia for diesel 200 series rigs.

 

[sbly]

brussum,

I have the 200 series with the dual battery setup that screwball was talking about. This summer I will be up in your neck of the woods driving the Dalton Highway. I can stop by if you want to see the setup that he built.

sbly

 

[brussum]

I'm always up for checking out another LC, especially when I've only seen a handful of 200 series since owning mine. Shoot me a PM as spring approaches and we can work something out.

On the batty topic, I did find a battery tray made by an Australian company (of course) called Piranha. They're made for the 200 series with a 4.7L V8, but the setup looks the same as the 5.7L V8 engine compartment. I've found a few Aussie distributors, but the shipping for a A$185 tray is A$120. They mount on the passenger (right) side of the engine compartment and require a slight move for the power steering reservoir. It looks easy and I might give it a go...just not easy swallowing that A$120 charge. Ouch! Anybody want to order a tray with me to split the cost?

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

Have a look here.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Dual-Bat...ccessories&hash=item3a6b6034e6#ht_1408wt_1141

Freight to north America is expensive, we sent a small box weighing 600grams to northern Cal cost $30.00

Cheers
David

 

[sbly]

brussum,

You might ask the guys over at the 200 series forum on IH8MUD.

sbly

 

[brussum]

Thanks for link, David. I contact the company and they quoted me a much better shipping price. I think getting the tray is the easy (and cheap) part, but I should be able to get a good battery isolation setup here in the USA.

By the way, I spent the summer in beautiful Rockhampton hanging out with the Army and RAAF. I had a great time. I just wish I'd bought more gadgets for my LC while I was there.

Cheers,
John

 

[Equipt]

I saw a very nice install of a dual battery system in a 200 when visiting Safari Ltd. in Grand Junction. No photos, but you might get some insight on what the did. Contact Hugh Philips. They used the National Luna set up. I bet he might have a photo or two.

Cheers,

 

[brussum]

Let the install begin...

It's been awhile since I've posted anything to this thread, primarily because I had to collect all of the pieces and parts for the dual battery setup. I ended up ordering a Piranha battery tray from Australia and an IBS battery isolator setup from Adventure Trailers. The battery tray is made for the Aussie 200-series, which of course has a smaller V8 engine (adapting the unit to fit the 5.7 liter may prove to be an install challenge).

I started the install this evening simply by assessing what I have to start with: a battery tray, a battery isolator system, and a Land Cruiser.




I unbolted the electrical doohicky (not very technical, I know) and the power steering reservoir and will need to find these both a new home. The shortfall in the Piranha unti is that the install instructions stink...but then, it's not made for my exact vehicle. It states something akin to 'cut the power steering reservoir bracket to fit the battery tray and mount.' My problem is that I have several hoses running where Piranha proposes to mount the reservoir. This may be a problem, but I think I can overcome it with some creativity (maybe some longer power steering hoses and a modified bracket. I just don't look forward to disconnecting the reservoir. Other than a little spilled oil, is there anything else I should be concerned with when disconnecting and installing longer hoses? Anybody out there ever install one of these Piranha battery trays?




The electrical doohicky (which I assume is a power unit for the headlamps as it's marked "HOT") has enough slack in the wiring that I should be able to move it without issues.

Nothing like a little project to pass the winter hours...

 

[brussum]

I saw a very nice install of a dual battery system in a 200 when visiting Safari Ltd. in Grand Junction. No photos, but you might get some insight on what the did. Contact Hugh Philips. They used the National Luna set up. I bet he might have a photo or two.

Cheers,

Thanks, Paul. I'll have to give him a call and see if he can provide some wisdom.

 

[brussum]

Making progress on install

After much comtemplating and head scratching, I finally came up with my plan for installing the battery tray in my 200 series.

I took the plunge and cut the original power steering reservoir bracket, removing all three legs and basically shaping it to fit the metal tab protruding from the battery tray. The reservoir would've sat too low if I'd just bolted the bracket to the tab, which would've caused some rubbing on the various hoses and belts running through that area. Not good at all. So, I cut some aluminum shims to fit the metal tab and drilled holes through all of the pieces. I squared off the holes in the bracket so I could use lower profile carriage bolts. Then, I bolted the bracket, shims, and battery tray tab together with self-locking nuts. It seems like a solid base without any rubbing.





Next, I had to deal with that electrical doohickey. I bent a piece of aluminum scrap to form a large L-bracket. Then I drilled holes in the base leg to attached the bracket in conjunction with the battery tray. I also drilled two holes in the top end of the bracket and attached the component. I had to mount it at an angle to give it the maximum buffer space around (it's marked "Hot", so I wanted good air flow around it). I decided to zip tie some of the surrounding headlight cables out of the way as well, just to be safe.




Finally, I bolted everything into place and checked the clearances. It seems like a nice fit. The battery hold-down strap fits in nicely and bolts right into an existing hole in the front cross-member. All I need now is a battery and to install the isolater (more to follow on the thread).

 

[brussum]

Mission complete!

I finally wrapped up the install of my second battery. Not surprisingly, there's really not much room in that engine compartment. I had to get slightly creative to mount the battery isolator and a circuit breaker. Thankfully, those fine Toyota engineers decided to give me a few empty, threaded holes in the engine side of the wheel well. But, first things first...


The first step was to install the monitor unit. I pondered installing the unit on underside of the dash or on the console; however, my end goal is to install VHF/UHF radio, I wanted to leave myself some freespace for the head unit, speaker, and mic. So, I decided to install the unit at the base of the seat belt pillar. I removed all the trim pieces and then drilled four small screw holes and one large 3/4 inch hole for the cable plug. I attached the mounting bracket, passed the cable through the hole, and then snapped the monitor unit onto the mounting bracket. Too easy. I then ran the wiring harness along with all the other wiring harnesses under the door sill and up through the firewall.







On the other side of the firewall, I had to figure out a place to install the isolator relay and a high capacity circuit breaker. Space was pretty limited along the firewall or fenders...and I had to deal with 4ga battery cable. To fix my problem, I built two aluminum L-brackets and drilled holes to mount each component and to bolt them to the existing, threaded holes (thanks again Toyota engineers). From there, it's just a matter of running cables. The IBS instructions are really good and make the job simple. I spent more time just trying to make it look decent and to keep the positive leads away from anything metalic and shiny.





The batteries are connected directly with a black, negative cable. I ran a red cable from the starter battery to the circuit breaker, then to the relay terminal. From there, it's run along the top of the firewall with the negative lead (in black heat shrink) to the other side of the engine compartment. Then, it's just a matter of connecting the terminal clamps and hooking up the batteries.






The end result is a 200 series that still starts (phew!) and a battery monitor that lights up to show the charge level and connection status. This is probably one of the easiest installs I've ever done on a vehicle. If it weren't for fabricating the brackets and figuring out how to mount everything, this would've taken a few hours to complete.





And now, on to installing the radio and some auxiliary plugs in the back of my LC.

 

[Eagleeye11]

Brussum,
I'm new to the site, was just looking for options on setting up a dual-battery in my Land Cruiser 200 and I ran across your thread. I had to see your pics so I signed up, and boy am I glad I did! Your tenacity is most impressive and your creative vision was refreshing. I am sure it still works as advertised because you did such a fantastic job. Thanks for taking the time, effort, and energy to help guys like me out.

I plan on installing the same thing you have done and adding an ARB CKMTA12 air compressor with the ARB 171501 1 gallon air tank in addition to some Firestone Coil-Rite accesories so I can haul around some of my power chair equipment and such.

Thanks a bunch for inspiring me.:smiley_drive: