My First Gen Dual Battery Setup

Bought a 50 ah AGM battery awhile back because I didn't want to give Goal Zero twice as much, had a battery mount fabricated onto the passenger side engine compartment, and now to wire it all back to a fuse box/accessory outlets in the Wildernest, once I finish replacing the hinges and latches, and painting it.

My girlfriend and I take a decent number of trips for three or more days out in the middle of nowhere and needed a way to keep electronics charged, run a fan at night, have some lighting, etc. and this is what I've got so far.

https://youtu.be/ypT7Mepjzw0

Let me know what you think.

 

what's the control box called in your video ?

 

Not to be sarcastic, but you did own Ford before, didn't you?

Every time I open my Tacoma or 4Runner I am amazed how much thought Toyota engineers put into designing this track (not slapping all together like Ford does). Every time I see home or dealer made mods to electrical system (including crappy alarm job Toyota dealer did to my 4Runner) my heart is crying its ass out. When I do add electrical stuff to my truck, I want it to be like Toyota did it in its factory, and nobody would even notice that something was added.

I am not saying such added stuff don't work if you use Ford's way, it's just for my eyes they don't belong to Toyota. Not bashing, just saying. You asked

 

Ford? You've lost me. I'd argue putting the oil filter where they did on the V6 could be considered a slight miss. Any thoughts to the actual system, function, safety, or just aesthetics?

Tried to figure out how to mount bicycle gearing and pedals to charge my electronics, couldn't make it work...

 

That would be a Keyline chargers 12V 120 Amp smart battery isolator. No idea how legit it is, someone who knows feel free to chime in but so far so good!

$80 Dual Battery Isolator Kit 12V - 140 Amp Voltage Sensitive Relay (VSR) for Dual Battery Setup - Automatic Disconnect Switch for Car, Truck, RV, UTV, ATV, Marine

https://www.amazon.com/Dual-Battery...tery+isolator&qid=1561593188&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

Loose 12V high current cables rattling under the hood was my main concern. See how any original harness is mounted or routed for comparison. Aesthetic is not jus how it looks but how it is designed for functionality, durability and how it is integrated for maintenance.

Oil filter in V6 or fuel filter in I4 are some example of bad decision made for functionality over maintenance. I admit, but it is 100% safe and reliable.

I owned Merkury Sable (rebranded Ford) and it was not good experience. All pipes an cables under the hood were running across like some crazy spider wanted to catch a fly with them. I tried to replace spark plugs and it was easier and cheaper to just buy a new car.

I hope that explains my reaction.

 

Nice! I just put dual batteries in mine as well. Was a fun process, if a bit of a pain in the ass to gather everything together! hahahaha I ended up using a Blue Sea ML-ACR for load management.

MOAR Power, More Redundancy - Dual AGM Battery Install

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From a Ford owner from way back. How I came to terms with it is "There is a "right way" a "wrong way" and the "Ford way" to do things."

It's neither right or wrong, its just their way. LOL I think this is a great mod.

As a side note, the Chevy truck I learned to drive on had its battery under the floor on the passenger side. It was covered by a lid like the one in this picture.

 

I might end up changing the controller, we'll see. Nice cabinet build! I'd thought about stuffing it in one of the under seat cabinets somehow, but in the end, I figured the wiring might be easier if I kept everything in the engine compartment so I only had to run back to a fuse box in the back of the truck.

Hooray for dual batteries!

 

Lightingfast, looks great from here. I have the same system, not installed yet, was waiting closer to the time I visited Santa for myself with the purchase of an iceco fridge/freezer to be delivered on the 3rd. I’ m glad I found ur install, has already give me a direction for mine. Any chance on some pictures of the battery tray, gonna get started on that. I was a Chevy guy for most of my 60 years, had a couple-3 fords at times one being a current one 15 Edge, so far one of the best vehicles I’ve owned, smoothest one yet, very comfortable, about to hit the 100 thousand mark fore to long. 234,000 on my 02 Tacoma, xcab 4x4. Be charging the fridge, electronics,inside,possibly outside lighting, Viair compressor when needed and more stuff being careful not to overload it. Thank you for posting,hope it’s alright to shoot some questions to in future

 

I think it looks pretty good.
I would put the cables in conduit and get some flush cut plyers and trim your zip ties.

Are those fuses a standard item you can get anywhere? Maybe not a big deal being that if they blow and you can't replace them you only lose your aux battery charging capability....not the end of the world.

Another thing to consider is putting both batteries in the back of your truck. Even with the stock battery in the stock location there is the high probability of the sheet metal of either/both your fenders supports and core support cracking.

It's less of a risk than having both batteries on the driver side (I did that and it broke things).

 

Glad my feeble attempts are helpful! Always been a Japanese import guy but honestly, that's been as much by chance as intention. Love my Tacoma, hovering near 160k miles on my '01. Happy to help if I can with any questions.

Thanks man, it's a bit embarrassing looking back at that work; no heat shrink at the terminals, zip ties left all catawampus, my word! I have a few extra fuses on hand but good point, maybe I can find something more readily available. Hadn't thought about both batteries in the back.

Love your camper btw, my next version of mine will be some sort of ute tray camper hybrid thing, and your's provided proof-of-concept inspiration.

 

Lol...you should see my wiring...it's a mess.
I tried a circuit breaker for a while. It worked really well until it fell apart. At least when it fell apart if failed open. That could be due to a crappy circuit breaker.

I'm glad you like my camper. It's been a fun build. The only thing I'd caution against is the weight. It's light as hell for a camper but it's heavy for a 1st gen Tacoma.
I tore off most of the teeth on the ring gear on the rear diff a couple weeks ago. I'm thinking contributing factors are age, weight and supercharger. There was no excess skinny pedal or wheel hop.

 

Did you fab your own battery tray? Looks interesting , any chance of some pictures

 

Had it made, actually just removed it all and will be selling it after I clean it up. I’ll try and snap a few pics soon.

 

How much did you pay to have that battery tray fabricated? Did you send them plans?

 

I believe two hours of labor at the local fabricator was the cost, but I had already done the pondering on where and how to mount, they just made it real.

I might be selling the mount and battery if anyone is interested (PDX locals only for the battery, anyone can buy the mount though and I’ll ship). The battery is essentially new, I’ve only charged iPhones camping. It measures 13.something volts last time I checked.

 

Sent you a message

 

Got excited for that mount but then realized you probably don't have cruise control thus you can fit a battery over there

 

Are you replacing with a different setup?