(another) Dual Battery Install With Painless Wiring Kit

[GaryN]

Was reading the original thread from 2006, and wanted to add my own install. My thread is an install of the Painless Dual Battery kit #40102 in a 1994 Landcruiser with existing dual batteries and a diesel engine.

Instructions from Painless are available here.
Full sized images are available on Flickr here.
An excellent explanation on battery grounding is here.

Its my first install of the kit, but second time working with it. My newer 1997 Landcruiser has the kit, and I spent quality time cleaning up the wiring and replacing the bulbs with LEDs.

Similar to the original thread, I swapped LEDs for the install. Also sent an email to Painless asking why they use bulbs, no reply yet. The bulbs get hot, and don't have threading so they stick out.

The kit arrives as seen below

 

[GaryN]

Location of the solenoid unit can be tricky in a stock landcruiser, given its pretty packed. Luckily the vehicle has plenty of room on the passenger side. I temporarily removed the radiator overflow, and have this space

Wanted a solid mount, with the option of adding stuff later. Used a piece of cardboard to mock it out, then cut/bent/ground some 16 ga steel.

....

 

[GaryN]

Solenoid mounted - with connections to aux/main batteries. Using 0/1 gauge wire throughout, including battery negative lines to frame and engine. With both landcruisers, previous owners used much too narrow gauge wire, resulting in melting insulation.

 

[GaryN]

Next is installing the toggle. Possible locations were limited, with the lack of standard rectangular slots in the dash. I choose the throttle set cable, below right of the steering wheel. Here is a picture, mid install. Instead of vampire tapping into an IGN line, which is ugly and hard to find and fix, I choose to use a labeled fuse tap. A future owner can replace the tap later with a proper AUX fuse box relayed off the IGN line.