dual battery for 2002 PRADO GXL

Hi Kelpie Petrol or Diesel ??
Diesel has room standard for battery tray, but petrol needs a few things moved around to fit the battery & tray.

Check the archives will be plenty of info in there.

Cheers

I had a Dual Battery kit installed by TJM in my Prado TD GXL. I also had the rear and front accessory socket rewired to the second battery with 6mm wire. All up it cost $750 with battery (exide N70EX), Piranha DBE150S Mk2 isolator, and Battery tray, installation and rewiring.

It might have been a bit pricy, but I havn't had a problem with it and haven't had to worry about the starter battery going flat while keeping the fridge nice and cold. So I am happy with what I paid.

I got a dual system installed in a 98 model 90 series Prado prior to a trip from kalgoorlie thru the Pilbara & Kimberley in July which cost about $800 so your $560 seems awfully cheap. I'd be finding out precisely what it is you're getting for your dough.

Autosparkies generally seem to prefer to fit a system in which all your current draw is from the pre-existing battery with the second being in case the first goes flat, in which case you press a button on the dash and it sort of jump starts the first. the idea is that you don't finish up with 2 flat batteries which can happen with boat switches if you mix up the 'both' setting when it should be one battery or the other at a time. I also heard & saw lots about the unreliability of auto switching types that are supposed to protect the starting battery by switching to the other when the voltage gets below a preset limit (usually ~13.5V). I've personally jump started about 3 or 4 of these so I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

The only problem we had was that the sparkie stuffed up the wiring by wiring the solenoid switching the batteries to the pre-existing battery, which meant the system doesn't work if that battery goes flat because there isn't any power to operate the solenoid! We had to revert to the old fashioned jumper leads from one battery to the other until we had it rewired after which has worked really well. Most of our current draw was a 60 litre Engel and 2x 40W 240V lights through an inverter and the car tape player and dome lights etc.