Dion replied:

Jonathon, I have had one of these batteries before, not in a 4WD, but in my old 253ci VB Commodore. The control unit failed fairly early in the piece, but was replaced free of charge. The second control unit lasted longer, but then failed as well. The end result was that I permanately wired both posative terminals together, to use the full service life of the battery. Also find out if the cranking half of the battery will happily crank over the 2.8 when cold. Good luck.

MARK replied:

I FITTED A DUEL BATTERY SYSTEM TO MY 4RUNNER DIESEL. I USED A MARINE SYSTEM THAT I AQUIRED THROUGH AN AUTO ELECTRICIAN. THE AIR CLEANER HAS TO BE TURNED AROUND AND MOVED BACK TOWARDS THE FUEL FILTER. THIS GIVES YOU PLENTY OF ROOM TO MOUNT THE BATTERY. BUT I HAVE JUST PURCHASED A PORTABLE POWER PACK AND JUMP STARTER AND RECKON THAT THESE DO THE JOB JUST AS WELL AS AN AUXILIARY BATTERY. I RUN MY AUTO FRIDGE AS I AM GOING OFF THE MAIN BATTERY AND ALTERNATOR AND USE THE POWER PACK WHEN CAMPING TO RUN ALL LIGHTS , SHOWER , ETC. IT WORKS OUT MORE CONVENIENT AND A WHOLE LOT CHEAPER

Jim Evans replied:

Jonathan, another option is to (securely) mount a battery, preferably a sealed one, in the rear of your vehicle adjacent to the fridge. The positive terminal would be connected to the existing vehicle battery by a reasonably heavy wire via an isolating solenoid. The negative side of the auxiliary battery would be connected directly to a suitable ground point on the vehicle body. The solenoid would be operated by the vehicle ignition so that the two batterys are in parallel when the ignition is on, and isolated when the ignition is off. Your fridge and any other required accessories could then be run from the auxiliary battery without fear of your main battery being flattened. I have run with this system for many years in a variety of vehicles and have had no problems. A flat auxiliary battery has no effect on the starting ability of your main battery even though they are in parallel when you are trying to start the vehicle as the discharge from the main to the aux is limited by the current carrying capacity of the connecting wire and is only for a very short period before the motor is started. Even on a diesel with preheating this has not been a problem.

Graham Comitti replied:

I see you have had a few replies and I go along with the purchase of seperate power pack being portable its lots more usefull for around the same $$$ outlay and easlilly transfered to new vehicle when necessary.