Featured 100: MOBI-ARC '98

[mobi-arc]

Let me get this straight....I'm supposed to follow Land Cruiser guru's solid-axle swapped 100-series with my timid-by-comparison '98 ????? This could be ugly.

When I graduated from high school, my folks bought me an'89 Toyota Celica which I drove all through college. Typical Toyota...reliable, good car...no complaints. After college, I wanted to take a long-ish trip before...you know....working for the next fifty years, so I did something completely out of character. I bought a truck, shipped it to Africa, and spent about seven months zigzagging my way from South Africa all the way to Kenya where I sold the truck and pretty much paid for my trip.

While in South Africa, I met the co-inventor of an alternator actuated welding product. We got on well and he asked if I would market this product in the US. Well, it's tough to weld from a Toyota Celica so I sold that and bought the family '91 80-series. It was sweet! No sunroof. No third row seats. Cloth seats. No power. Crappy gas mileage. Very cool. I drove that until 1999 and by then, it had 185,000 miles on it, and the new V8 was beckoning me.

I bought my '98 with 18,000 miles on the clock over the internet, and it's one hell of a good truck. I'm on my second Land Cruiser, and I can't see myself without an LC in the garage. I'm kind of bummed to see the LC go upmarket...I'm really much more fond of a more utilitarian version of the truck, however Toyota sells to the masses, and the masses want leather, sunroofs, and LCD screens that control every frick'n aspect of the truck.

This is the business end. I installed extra lights that are triggered when the truck is placed in reverse. They make a world of difference with the dark tinting, especially at night.







Tucked behind the towbar is an auxiliary fuel tank. I got in on a group buy with a handful of guys on mud and with a little extra container space (Seth's PV Cruisers), about 10 of us brought in Australian fuel tanks. I need an aux. fuel tank like a need a third nut, but it's pretty cool filling up at Costco once a month. Despite copious amounts of bitching, my mechanic installed this monster.




It's set up like a big jerry-can. When I want to transfer fuel from the aux. to the main tank, I press the "sub-tank" switch (thanks Christo).




It triggers a timer relay which activates the transfer pump for 10 minutes. As fuel is transferring, a red LED indicator light (installed on the gauge bezel) blinks to alert the drive of the transfer. If it gets activated accidentally, or I want to kill the transfer, I've installed a button that turns off the relay which turns off the transfer pump.




Dual filler butterfly actuator. If pulled out, fuel is sent to the aux. tank.




A couple years ago, I started exploring ham radio. I started with a handheld, then installed a mobile unit in the truck, ultimately followed by an HF setup at home. I installed the Kenwood dual band unit which is powered from the auxiliary battery (sits in a Slee dual battery tray [shameless plug]) which is electronically isolated from the primary battery by a POWER-GATE battery isolator. This allows me to leave the ham radio on for days on end without worrying about having to call AAA for a jump.




The ham is wires to a Radial Larson on-glass antenna which works nicely.




The GPS is a Garmin Streetpilot 2610. I started with a Garmin V, but the screen was so small, it was hard to use. I installed the Garmin on a long screw which anchors in the sunvisor mount. It's rigid and has held up nicely for a couple years now. It's hard-wired to the power in the overhead console where I also installed the Garmin speaker. The Valentine-One radar detector is also hard-wired to power overhead, however I'm not in danger of breaking any speed records in this brick.




I bought a Homelink Garage Door Opener module on ebay, took the guts out, and wired it to micro-buttons and LEDS. Then I stashed it in the remote control pocket in the overhead console and hardwired it.





I have a five year old and we try to get out to national parks, camping, etc.....so I installed the requisite DVD player. This, by the way, is the greatest single technological breakthrough since the diaper! Long trips are soooo much easier when the child can watch a movie or two.




I have a buddy at Hella who had a set of HID's. They're so big, they cut off airflow to his radiator so he sold them to me. I installed them on a TJM T16 which I'd actually like to replace with a T15, or perhaps a Slee unit when he gets off his lazy ass and finishes the front bumper. I painted the HID's the same color as the truck as the originals have a bright red bezel which screams "please steal me!"




I ran a cable from my auxiliary battery to the rear of the truck. This powers the aux. fuel tank transfer pump, the backup lights, and the aux. power circuit which I terminated with a 50 amp Anderson/SMH connector. My fridge, compressor, worklight, and any other power accessories are also terminated in mating connectors.




This is my paper towel holder. It comes in real handy when your sheepdog has explosive diarrhea in the back seat.




After a few conversations with Spressomon, I bought a Waeco fridge. It's a big sucker (80), but it's so nice to have on trips. It's powered by the POWER-GATE protected aux. battery so I can run it for days without fear of the truck not starting. As you can imagine, it's heavy and tough to access with lots of gear in the back, so I built a slide out of some aluminum rectangular tubing, brackets, etc.... With the heavy duty slides, it's pretty heavy, but I anchor it to the floor of the truck, then strap the fridge to the base. Smooth as silk! Shortly after I bought the truck, I installed a product called Rear Gear which completely covers the entire back end of the truck from scrapes and cuts. It's good stuff. I also installed GT Cover's rear seat covers to protect the rear leather from kid and dog...again, money well spent.




Of course, truck is naked without an on-board welder! It's tucked between the airbox (POWER-GATE on top) and aux. battery.




We're real happy with the truck and with only 144,000 miles, we hope to create many more vacation memories. I need to install a Slee rear bumper and tire carrier, as I lost my spare when the aux. fuel tank went in. The TJM T16 and front Tupperware bumper needs to be changed to a T15 or a Slee front, and I'd like to lose the Smitty bars, but with a short kid, short Wife, and 80 year old short Grandmother, I need the steps.....be kind!

[e9999]

nice truck and writeup, thanks!

do I detect a propensity for electrical work?

[Campfire]

I'm with E999, you have way too much wire on your hands.

Great setup, and nice install of all the goodies. I need to get into that HAM thing and get a radio.

[spressomon]

Wow Scott...I love all those electrical details! Plus the sub-tank, clever radio & garage opener mounts...lots of ingenuity there! And I liked reading your back ground...including the Africa tour (pics?). Where did you source your dual tank filler neck assembly? I have not seen one like this before....slick!



And yes Jeff...you really DO need to get your HAM license .

[pint]

Very slick rig! Lots of very cool and unique mods.

[ShottsUZJ100]

Everybody needs to know an electric guy. Valuable!

[Atticus]

Nice picture of the sheepdog. Good write-up.

[Travis351]

Nice Job man! The electric mods are my next up. Any more details on your dual battery setup? I am trying to decide whether to use the DIY National Luna Kit or just by the intelegent solenoid and source the rest locally. Is the controller necissary?

[TXLX470]

Nice truck and cool gadets...Is that bracket which hold the GPS strong enough?? And what did u use for the ham bracket??

[mobi-arc]

Originally Posted by spressomon

Wow Scott...I love all those electrical details! Plus the sub-tank, clever radio & garage opener mounts...lots of ingenuity there! And I liked reading your back ground...including the Africa tour (pics?). Where did you source your dual tank filler neck assembly? I have not seen one like this before....slick!

And yes Jeff...you really DO need to get your HAM license .

I got the dual filler neck (I think) through SOR. Kevin Speicher at Baja Overland (Baja Overland) was kind of the point-man on the group purchase and he pointed me in the right direction. Unfortunately, I don't have the Africa pics digitized. I drove a sh*t-brown Range Rover with what has to be some of the most retarded engineering I've ever seen. I don't want to go into painful detail, but I came out of the experience vowing never to own another Land Rover product. The saving grave being that British expats in Kenyna LOVE Range Rovers so it worked out financially for me.

[mobi-arc]

Originally Posted by Travis351

Nice Job man! The electric mods are my next up. Any more details on your dual battery setup? I am trying to decide whether to use the DIY National Luna Kit or just by the intelegent solenoid and source the rest locally. Is the controller necissary?

Travis, I use a POWER-GATE isolator which is a solid-state device ( I know a guy). The way it's set up is the alternator charges both the main batttery and the aux. battery all the time. When the aux. battery is used for accessories, the aux. battery can be discharged without the main battery being discharged as well. The company I work for manufactures the device, along with devices that can handle up to 700 amps with no moving parts, no heatsinks, and no airflow required.....it's an amazing piece of electrical hardware. That said, they aren't the cheapest devices out there. National Luna, smart solenoids, etc.....allow you to connect or disconnect batteries using a mechanical relay. Some would argue that mechanical relays are terrific because they're cheap and when they fail, they're easy to replace. Others would argue that using mechanical relays suck because the contacts pit with arc-ing, require a lot of current to drive the coil, and are guaranteed to yield increasingly degrading peformance over time until they ultimately fail....both arguments are valid and true IMHO. We believe in solid-state and our customers are engineers dealing in high-current DC applications where conventional relays and isolators just won't do. They're particularly attractive in high-vibration environments where mechanical contacts degrade rapidly.....and oh yeah...they work in Land Cruisers too.

[mobi-arc]

Originally Posted by TXLX470

Nice truck and cool gadets...Is that bracket which hold the GPS strong enough?? And what did u use for the ham bracket??

So far, the GPS has not come down so it appears to be strong enough.....only time will tell. I had a suction cup mount before this scheme but the suction cup degrades with sunlight so after going through two of them, I decided to come up with a different place to mount it. I dont know the brand of the stem and bracket for the ham mount....it was originally a cell phone holder thingie and when I went from a hard-mounted car phone to a pocket cell phone like the rest of the world, the post and bracket was left behind.....I just drilled and modified it to hold the ham stuff. I think it may be a RAM Mount post but don't hold me to that.

[farinvail]

Nice rig. Holly Gadgets Batman. We've resisted the DVD player so far and sing a lot of "wheels on the bus" Dual tank is cool. Dual batteries even cooler. Nice fridge slider too.

[jonah tapert]

nice job .

[calamaridog]

Scott,

Awesome write-up. TKS.

[Dandon]

Nice writeup. Since I'm also a gadget fan, I'm taking a lot of ideas from you (hope they aren't copyrighted ). Among other things, I have a Redarc solenoid waiting to be installed.
I never thought of the gauge bezel as a suitable place for installing switches and lights, but it has a lot of usable space.
What's that step/table/tray thingy in the rear?

BTW, get that rear tire carrier soon. I wouldn't feel confortable doing any amount of off-road driving without a spare tire. Many people have never had a a flat tire (I have a couple of times), but Murphy is always waiting for an opportunity.

Er... here is an emergency kit for your dog :

[moooooooo]

thanks for write up on the electrical goodies.
it's good to see professional electrical work that actually works.

My ARB dual battery kit has worked really well and i too have the Waeco 80L fridge....but Toyota - well...i had my 60,000 KM service recently and went camping on our recent Australia Day long weekend (Jan 26th) and the Waeco fridge has the error light showing.....

i tracked it down to the dual battery (which the fridge is hotwired to) ... the battery is extremely low on fluid in 2 cells. Multimeter confirms low voltage. And in fact i may have to replace the battery as i don't know how long it was "suffering". I added normal water to the cells (i dont have distilled water on hand) and will check with a multimeter to see if it's ok or not on the weekend.

Don't rely on Toyota to check your aftermarket accessories. I shall be asking them about that in two weeks on my 70,000 KM service.

But your engine bay is cleaner than mine!!!!! hehe....nice looking 'cruiser.

if i get anything from Toyota about my ARB dual battery install and Toyota not checking it, i'll open a new thread.
cheers
peter

[mobi-arc]

Originally Posted by Dandon

What's that step/table/tray thingy in the rear?

Not sure what you're talking about. Are you referring to the cargo net that hold my hats and emergency toilet paper?

[mobi-arc]

Originally Posted by moooooooo

thanks for write up on the electrical goodies.
it's good to see professional electrical work that actually works.

My ARB dual battery kit has worked really well and i too have the Waeco 80L fridge....but Toyota - well...i had my 60,000 KM service recently and went camping on our recent Australia Day long weekend (Jan 26th) and the Waeco fridge has the error light showing.....

i tracked it down to the dual battery (which the fridge is hotwired to) ... the battery is extremely low on fluid in 2 cells. Multimeter confirms low voltage. And in fact i may have to replace the battery as i don't know how long it was "suffering". I added normal water to the cells (i dont have distilled water on hand) and will check with a multimeter to see if it's ok or not on the weekend.

Don't rely on Toyota to check your aftermarket accessories. I shall be asking them about that in two weeks on my 70,000 KM service.

But your engine bay is cleaner than mine!!!!! hehe....nice looking 'cruiser.

if i get anything from Toyota about my ARB dual battery install and Toyota not checking it, i'll open a new thread.
cheers
peter

I think the way it works is that if wasn't installed in the factory, it's not their problem....however I think checking ALL fluids would be part of the check-list.

[Dandon]

Originally Posted by mobi-arc

Not sure what you're talking about. Are you referring to the cargo net that hold my hats and emergency toilet paper?

No, but I also like the paper holder

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I meant this:

[MidTex]

Looks like a bike rack to me.

[UltraFJ]

Wow, I need to spend a little more time in the 100 section. This original write up was done five dys ago and I just caught it.

That a super set up you've got going there. I too would like to know a little more about the filler neck and what aux tank (volume) you have.

Nice write up Mobi.

Thanks for sharing all the details.

[dclee]

Nice, well-thought-out mods!

Is that dual filler neck retrofitted from an 80 or 105? All the 100 necks I've seen are the two-tube variety, point and shoot. The only ones I've seen with the butterfly diverter have been 80s or 105s.

[mobi-arc]

Originally Posted by MidTex

Looks like a bike rack to me.

Yes, bike rack.

[mobi-arc]

Originally Posted by dclee

Nice, well-thought-out mods!

Is that dual filler neck retrofitted from an 80 or 105? All the 100 necks I've seen are the two-tube variety, point and shoot. The only ones I've seen with the butterfly diverter have been 80s or 105s.

Dual Filler neck from a 100 series (I'm told). Got it from SOR for $150 Talked to Paul at Spector (at the time)..here a picture of it...