LC 200 Aux Battery

Would be worth finding out what kind of battery they are.

Calcium hybrids may be fitted and I gather they may be able to function as deep cyclers too.

Well worth the exercise but i cant see them being much of an AH capacity 80 at best at a guess.

The battery in my Hilux is 600 and something CCA but only 80 AH in a N70 size case, still going strong at 3 years. Genuine Jap batteries are a far better quality than the same brand sold in oz.

Some of the 100 series owners opted to use one of theirs as an aux but soon upgraded it. Some used just one of them as a start battery, they seem to have lasted longer as a single start battery but i would not recommend doing that.

In the 100 ser the batteries were only about 400CCA each and were coupled together. What most did was buy a couple of 650CCA and split them with a Redarc isolator . The R/h one then became the Aux battery and seemed to work for years like that.

I removed the plastic/rubber inner guard panels to give increased airflow under the bonnet to cut the heat down. Seemed to work ok.

Split the batteries, get rid of the 2 smaller factory supplied ones.

The Passengers side will be the starting battery. A century N70ZZXHD or
Supercharge Goldplus MF95D31L-810CCA will do the job. Even an Optima D31 if you like. Lots of other options.
Get something with 750CCA plus.

As to the drivers side. It will fit a D31 size 100 or 110 AH ( 330mm long, and 20mm higher)) if you attack the battery holder with a hammer to allow the extra height. Other wise a normal NZ 70 fits as is. Then a redarc isolator or BCDC 1225 DC to DC to connect the 2 batteries.

IMHO DO NOT go the 3rd battery route.
-Toyota put out a bulletin specifically recommending against it.
-It gets very very hot there
-It only allows for a 70 or less AH battery size
-You have to move a lot of electronics and the fuel filter
-If Toyota or others need to get access behind there, it adds $200 or more to a service.

IMHO the only thing it helps is ARB or Piranha's bottom line.

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Oh Tony!!!!!!...... "attack the battery holder with a hammer" ???????
On a "brand new LC200"?????

Won't Toyota come and remove the Badges? LOL

Thanks for the great answers, if it weren't for u guys I do not know what I would do as I am in South America and in my country we do not have many options to work with. But what I have decided to do is to run a Third battery as my auxiliary battery ( I tow a Caravan with a 3 way fridge), plus also run a ARB compressor. There is plenty of room on the laterals of the rear bumper. On one side I plan to build a metal box to hold the battery on the other side I will place the air tank of the compressor. The aux battery will be charged by a BCDC 1225 Redarc. By doing this I will not touch any of the original setup of the LC 200 and I will have the aux next to the back of the truck where I will be running most of my aux. needs, like the fridge. Tks again

Juan

Join LCOOL

www.lcool.org. It can take some time for the mods to get back to you. There are 1000's of 200 owners on that forum. It is very busy with 10 - 20 posts a day just on the 200. There is even a guy who made brackets for dual ARB compressors between the trim and the outer panel in the rear which he has for sale. ( make sure they are the same for LDH)

Lots lots lots.

details?

According to optima they are the best battery ever produced, but then so is every other battery if you listen to their manufacturers.

An 8 year hands on observation holds more merit than all the bullshit that comes out of a salesmans mouth.

Only real experience i have had with them is in the pilbara where we were replacing the 6 N70zz's in the Busyrus haul trucks with them. The heat and vibration was killing the N70s in weeks, the optimas were lasting several months, their biggest killer was fitters putting too much tension on the hold down clamps and distorting the cases.

we used Optima years ago in Ambulances
an they failed in big numbers an guess what Optima said !!
its not the battery .its the vehicle at fault
well over 100 ambulances in the fleet then
cheers mechpete

Yes agreed. My experience is that they are over priced average batteries. Even the distributor told me they are no good for deep cycle applications.

After having a few, I won't be buying them again.

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Often wondered about the Optima's. After all, they are still basically a lead-acid battery but wrapped in a cylinder rather than flat. Of course, some swear by them....... but they have paid the premium price and may need to justify it.

Bought a blue top Optima in around 2004 to recharge RC battery packs for my son's RC car racing. Charged it using a variable voltage power supply. Later used it for many years as an extra battery in the canopy of the 79series for running fridges on desert trips, and 2 years ago it got put into my daughter's Prado as the aux battery. Tested the capacity of the thing and it was still very good and runs the fridge.

It may have been the last of the Optimas built in the USA. I think manufacturing went to Mexico after that and maybe the quality suffered.

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My mate put an Optima in his ute.
I wondered where the chilli smell was coming from!

I have had 3 D27 or over the past 8 years, no deep cycle just using them as crankers, for the first week or so they cranked much better than the original cranker after that slower.

Have a third in the car at the moment looks like it is going the way of the others, friend purchased a yellow top and a blue top he got two years out of them.

If you do some searching around different forums you'll find similar tales of wow.

Phil G's must have been the last of the good ones!

Agreed stay away from them, I've had no luck using them either. The MRV range is still my battery of choice. Regards Derek.

How about offering a sensible solution then, rather than just bagging a popular product without any facts to back up your spurious comment.

I bet you own a Jeep.