Secondary (house) battery location...

[thelanranger]

So, as I've been digging around in this car there's a decent amount of nooks and crannies. I was curious if anyone has ever tried to cram a house battery (something like a lifepo4 Group 22nf or something) into some place like the rear wheel well? The passenger side has a crap load of space once the factory "sub" is removed and it would be nice to not give up the cargo area for some monstrosity of an electrical charging station.
I have a little box that's about the size of one of those batteries (1/2" slimmer) and it tucks in there pretty well. Has anyone done anything creative to built that out and maybe 'flex' the factory plastic side out a bit or something to get the room or any kind of fun solutions I should see before I invent up something of my own?
Thanks!

 

[OffRoadScott]

So, as I've been digging around in this car there's a decent amount of nooks and crannies. I was curious if anyone has ever tried to cram a house battery (something like a lifepo4 Group 22nf or something) into some place like the rear wheel well? The passenger side has a crap load of space once the factory "sub" is removed and it would be nice to not give up the cargo area for some monstrosity of an electrical charging station.
I have a little box that's about the size of one of those batteries (1/2" slimmer) and it tucks in there pretty well. Has anyone done anything creative to built that out and maybe 'flex' the factory plastic side out a bit or something to get the room or any kind of fun solutions I should see before I invent up something of my own?
Thanks!

There are a lot of options for a dual battery setup in a LC. Not knowing the year of your 80 you could add a battery tray in the factory location either Driver/Passenger. You could also mount in the rear cargo area behind/in front of a drawer setup.

Before you get ahead of yourself and build something decide if you really want a lithium battery. Yes they are great as you can discharge it a lot more than a AGM/Flooded battery but the alternator in the 80 can only put out so much as far as charging. Yes there are options out there to run a upgraded alternator from newer Toyota rigs. You can also augment your charging with solar too. If you go that route I would recommend a DCDC charger from Redarc for a few reasons. You can set it up for mixed chemistry batteries, as well as charging from solar when not running.

My current setup is 2 Optima 31T batteries in the stock location. They are connected via a Blue Sea ML-ACR with 1 gauge wire. I have thought about lithium in my rig but I would have to re-wire the whole setup and add the a Red Arc DCDC charger as the Blue Sea ML-ACR can not charge mixed chemistry when it comes to batteries. With my current setup I can run the wire up the passenger side to the rear 1/4 panel to where my AUX power is setup along with a few Blue Sea fuse panels setup for constant and switched power.

The picture of my Blue Sea ML-ACR is an older one, that breaker has since moved to the cruise control cover for easier access.

 

[OffRoadScott]

Also you can in this picture I have added grounds or augmented the factory grounds with 1 gauge wire as well. You can see the new placement of the circuit breaker on the cruise control cover.

 

[thelanranger]

See...initially I was interested in a solar panel for trickle charge because I tend to not drive the vehicle a lot and would like to not have the whole "oh, the battery is dead, guess I have to do work...take the other car" syndrome set in and a panel is relatively inexpensive. Once I started down the whole second battery tray/washer relocate/overflow relocate nonsense I was deterred by the entire endeavor.
In the process of replacing stereo I was going to run power to the rear so I figured I would run oversize wire and a break out then I could add accessory ports. This brought me back to the solar. I talked to LiTime and got a DC/DC charger and was informed that I can add this pretty easily (entire system is only 50 amps) and then still have the ability to add a house battery later on. Once I started digging around to replace the sub in the back the massive space got me thinking.

My needs for accessories are minor (especially if it is solar backed) and it just seems as though it would be relatively easy to cram a U1 or Group 22NF battery into that little cubby hole with the controller. I like the ideal of this for a multitude of reasons. Mostly, it's inside the vehicle vs under hood but also because the entire house system itself can be in the rear off of relatively short lengths of wire and the only interconnect to the starter battery would be through the DC/DC charger which would limit things to 50amps (realistically it's more like 20a) and allow for that trickle charge (and perhaps the occasional recharge).
In the end it would be nice to be able to run a little mini fridge or an inverter or charge some phones, maybe a light at random without having to worry about the vehicle not starting. The location wouldn't cost cargo room or $500 in parts from Slee either! I'd rather spend that on beer (or more useful parts).

 

[ZackR]

I'd head over here and look around for ideas before committing and buying equipment. A lot has changed in the last few years with batteries, solar, etc.

Vehicle Mounted Systems - https://diysolarforum.com/forums/vehicle-mounted-systems.7/

If it were me I'd definitely go with a lithium battery for the house and keep it and everything that goes with it outside of the engine bay, other than the fused connection to the DC/DC charger.