Dual Battery Setup.
What
Make room in the Rodeo engine bay to fit a second battery for powering camp lights, small between the seats travel fridge, stereo, uhf.
How
Figured the best place (and the same as used by Pirahna) was in the passenger side rear of the engine bay. This however is currently occupied by the charcoal canister used for emissions control. Scoped out where it may go and there was a nice space in front of the brake master cylinder, and behind the existing battery. The tubes fitted ok so it was a simple case of unbolting the bracket, unplugging the hoses and taking off the lower bracket of the canister holder, then a little bending of the base to match the angle of the wheel arch. I used an existing hole and drilled two more used the old bolts and a couple of nuts found in the garage. Plugged the hoses back on, and found I could do away with the metal pipe going across the back of the engine bay.
The last step was to move the wiring harness plugs, these were routed under the bracket of the power steering resevoir and bolted to the inner bolt of the radiator overflow bottle.
To complete i'll need to fabricate up a battery tray, as the $130 for a Piranah is a bit steep. Also will be getting a redarc smart solenoid. And finally a 55AH deep cycle battery. This is about the biggest AH for an 8" battery that fits in the space.
Cost
Nothing yet
Issues
The new location of the charcoal canister is a bit close to the dipstick, but I can still pull it out.
Still going to be a tight fit for the battery. But there is another idea of moving the recovery bottle, moving the airbox into the rear space I have created and extending the pipe to the throttle, then placing the recovery bottle back in front of the airbox. There should after this rejig be space identicle to the existing battery tray, just on the opposite side.[/url]
