Piranha dual battery tray (1 Viewer)

[brussum]

I've been lurking in the shadows and reading all the great posts on here for some time now. I'm in the process of adding a secondary battery to my '08 Cruiser and I need some sage advice. I purchased a Piranha battery tray from Australia and it's a near perfect fit. Unfortunately, it's made for the Aussie spec vehicle with the smaller V8 gas engine. I have a few extra hoses that make moving the power steering reservoir somewhat challenging. Has anyone ever installed one of these Pirahna units in a US spec 200-series?


The instructions state to cut the OEM power steering reservoir mounting bracket and to bolt it to the approx. 1.5" x 3" tab that extends out towards the radiator. You can see in the photo below that I have a couple of hoses that run to a cooling element next to the radiator. I'm thinking I can bolt a piece of rectangular tubing onto the tab and then bolt the reservoir to that tubing. This would require me to disconnect the reservoir and install longer lines to it (along with some 90 deg elbows). How big of a PITA is it going to be to do so? Are there any issues with adding length or some brass elbows to the lines? Would I be better off just trying to reroute the reservoir to somewhere else in the engine compartment (perhaps back towards the firewall)? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks,
John

 

[brussum]

For anyone that might be interested, I completed the install and posted the details at:

Dual battery install in LC200

Cheers,
John

 

[TroutRunner]

Sounds cool, but I can't see the pics unless I log in.

 

[beretta]

Which Batteries did you end up using?

 

[brussum]

I added an Optima red top as the secondary battery. I thought about a deep cycle AGM battery, but my radio won't draw that much power over time (between recharges). If I decide to add a fridge or some other power drain, I figured I'll just change the battery out later. Unfortunately, my battery options were a little limited by geography and shipping costs.

 

[brussum]

I originally posted this install on the Expo forum (expeditionportal.com). There's been some recent interest in the topic, so I'm reposting it on IH8MUD.


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.



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]

After much contemplating 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.

 

[brussum]

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.

 

[brussum]

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]

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.

 

[brussum]

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 metallic 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.

 

[dtt255]

I did basically the same thing for my dual battery install. I but the power steering bracket in almost the same place, but I welded mine to the side of the new battery tray. No need to extend any hoses or anything. At least not for me.

I also did not relocated the ballast. I just made risers for my battery tray. Everything still clears the hood shield fine.

I installed an Odyssey 1400 battery for the second battery to my main Odyssey 1500 battery.

I will take pics in a few days when I can.

 

[pdxlc200]

Would love to see those pics dtt255!

 

[maujkar]

For anyone that might be interested, I completed the install and posted the details at:

Dual battery install in LC200

Cheers,
John

Great post John,
Your step-by-step pictures were really good for me to follow and put in my tray. My only concern was that one of the power steering pipe was a bit close to the fan belt, so had to knot it back to the other pipe. Rest was straight forward.

 

[brussum]

Great install! I'm glad my pics were helpful. Having that second battery is great for powering my radios, fridge, and for the occasional jump start.

I had the same problem with the PS hoses. That's one reason I added all this shims between the trimmed factory bracket and the Pirahna tray. Increasing the height of the factory bracket and the PS reservoir seemed to take some of the kink out of the hose, which helped give me some room between it and the drive belt. All in all, it seemed easier than installing new hoses and rerouting them completely.

 

[pdxlc200]

Where did you guys get the trays from in the US? I ordered one from TJM but I think it may be the incorrect one, as it is designed to fit near the windshield on the passenger side. Yours fits on the front near the bumper on the passenger side. Thanks!

 

[brussum]

Sorry, but I don't recall the name of the company. I would contact piranha and ask them to recommend a distributor (sales@piranhaoffroad.com.au). They might sell direct and ship it to you for cheap.

 

[pdxlc200]

Thanks!