Genesis Dual Battery????

Saw that fix on a video recently

 

So is the consensus here that a dual battery setup like the Genesis (dual batteries on driver's side) is too much weight for the most part? I want a dual setup but I want to really search out ideas before I go with something that might break.

 

Yeah, I recently removed mine because of the issues that were raised above..I have the setup for the 3rd gen I'd sell for cheap if you decide to test it out, or temporarily run it.

 

Hey guys, sorry to revive an old thread, but I just came across this and I wanted to address this topic.

We have seen a few cases like this over the past 3 years on the Tacoma. In those cases, we determined the cause came down to 2 factors. A couple guys were adamant that they used their truck heavily off-road, meaning jumping sand dunes, high speed desert driving, serious rock crawling, that sort of thing, so we think the big impacts led to the damage. The other one we determined was from improper installation of the nutserts. The nutserts were not fully compressed, which allowed the tray to vibrate while driving, and over time those small vibrations led to stress cracks in the sheet metal, and then the vibration transferred to the legs of the tray and eventually snapped off.

Regardless of the cause, we definitely do not want to have this happening, so after the first case, I redesigned the battery tray to dramatically spread out the weight of the batteries over a much wider area. I also added some stamped gussets into the bends of the legs to make those bends much stronger. I believe these improvements will eliminate this type of problem from happening again.

I’m always looking for ways to improve our products, so if any other unexpected problems come up in the future, I’ll address those and keep making it better. Your feedback helps me make better products. Please contact me anytime about any sort of concerns with our products so that I can address it quickly.

I do plan to shoot a new installation video for the 3rd Gen Tacoma real soon. In the meantime, if you would like to get an idea of how the new tray looks, you can see the new style tray with the much wider mounting legs in the new installation video for the 2nd Gen Tacoma that I just posted up today.

-Shane Smith
info@genesisoffroad.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKWqmvWDe6I

 

is there any way i could trade my old design battery tray for a new one? ive had some severe damage to my battery area and i was going to weld in some plates to hold the battery tray and help disperse weight, but if theres an option to replace it with a new better designed tray, i would rather do that.

 

I just installed my genesis battery, firstly I will say as far as installs go I would rather do this over installing the prinsu rack on my access cab 4 times before doing the rack again. The video, and the pdf file make it fairly dummy proof. That being said alot of what I've read regarding this particular install is with the shifting and added weight all cordinated in one spot the sheet metal will habe a tendency to start cracking, especially if you're going hard. Luckily for me, although i may love hitting a hard trail, and seeing how much sheet I can get into this Taco is also my daily driver, and will have to last me for the next 5 years because i promised my wife when I bought it that i'll keep it for a while. So I reinforced the area and gave the tray the batteries sir in with some 1/4 thick flex seal tape (I figured a little cusion, and not metal on metal contact may help secure it even if just for my own piece of mind). Now, I have no intentions to hit those rediculous rough trails and see how far i can push it, so i can't speak for you avid 4x4s but my hope (knock on wood) is that i wont have as serious of a cracking issue as some people have unfortunately had. As far as the oil neck I guess I was one of the lucky individuals who even though this is the first year for the 3rd gen installs my oil neck was secured with a bracket and screws and not just glued on. Just by switching the next 180° it gave me more than enough room for the tray and both batteries, with zero fear of having the battery break the oil neck off. So in reality all in all my only complaint is that it's difficult for me to remove my fuse box, and hopefully in time with the little precautions I took for padding and a little more stability I wont suffer from cracks in my battery compartment.

So in the end I would say for time convenience of the install, not to mention the price is cheaper than some of the other options, for those who aren't going to be putting a ton of force and riding hard and just looking for extra reassurance when taking the family on an overlanding adventure I would highly reccomend this sut up..... Also, get a rivet gun will make the process that much eaiser.

 

I have a question about this product. I have a 2021 TRD Pro which has the outlet in the bed. I am going to hook up a Dometic refrigerator to that outlet. When I read the description on the Genesis website, I see this information...

• When both your batteries are fully charged at 13.2 volts, they are automatically connected and are charged at the same time
• When you park and turn off the engine, but continue to use accessories such as lights or the stereo or a CB, both batteries begin to drain down

• When your main cranking battery reaches 12.7 volts, the smart isolator separates the batteries, so that your cranking battery will have enough power to start the engine. The second battery continues to power your accessories for as long as it will last

Based on these comments, especially regarding "use accessories such as lights or the stereo or a CB" I interpret this to mean that I do not need to wire the Dometic refrigerator to the accessory terminal on the Genesis, because the power from the refrigerator "accessory" will automatically use the accessory battery. Sounds perfect. No additional wires to run for the Dometic.

But then I see this information on the same website...

Question: "I left my headlights/radio/dome lights turned on, and now the engine won't crank. I thought the system would turn off the cranking battery to protect it from getting too low."

Answer: "The factory positive wire harness feeds power directly to your fuse box, which means all of the factory circuits are powered from your cranking battery. The isolator does not turn off power to the fuse box. It 'isolates' the 2 batteries from each other, to protect your cranking battery from being drained by your aftermarket accessories that you have wired up to the bus bars."

I guess I am not sure if "The second battery continues to power your accessories for as long as it will last" or "which means all of the factory circuits are powered from your cranking battery" is correct.

I am no expert on this stuff, but it seems like these two statements contradict each other.

Thanks for the help. I need a solution.

 

Do you mean the oil filler cap threaded on to the base without the filler neck?

 

I’m no expert either but I believe the secondary battery only provides power to the/secondary non-OEM mods you installed and connected to the secondary battery. All electrical items that are stock to the truck will continue to be supplied by the starter battery.

 

You 100% need to wire your fridge to the house battery. If you leave it on your crank battery you will drain the crank battery. All the description is telling you is that the isolator will disconnect both batteries when your crank gets below a certain voltage as to avoid the house battery draining the crank battery. That doesn't mean your headlights, radio, etc. all of the things still attached to your crank battery won't continue to drain it...

 

Okay thanks guys. Appreciate the clarification.

 

looking to do a dual battery to run a fridge 24/7, any updates on cracking issues/oil head issues?

 

Is this true for any dual battery setup? I'm looking into dual battery vs portable battery options and have been wondering how people power their equipment without draining their crank battery.

I suppose they connect everything to the house battery, but that seems rather inconvenient if I want to plug something in at the back of the truck.