27F size battery

I like what you did in the back there with your outlets. Replacing the stock cig with meter and adding outlets. Would you say it was a b!tch to do(removing all the panels and such to install) or was is it much simpler than that? Nice work sir.

 

Hey thanks! The trays on top of the fender would be a bitch if you didn't want to break the tabs off. I broke mine, just grab the tray and yank it. The tabs will break on the side you were pulling from. Can now easily remove them to put things in there on both sides. They snap in an out with no problems.

Once the top tray is removed it is fairly easy to remove the other things. I ran 6 gauge wire to the passenger side back fender area and have a 6 pin Blue Sea fuse block under there and will add more interior accessories to that point as they come up.

As you can see the stock 12V plug was removed and replaced with a voltmeter. Then cut out the hole for the Blue Sea panel with a 12V plug, USB port, and switch. Wired it all in series with the voltmeter and hooked it up to the fuse block. Under the hood you can see the 100 A Blue Sea circuit breaker back by the firewall that is for the fuse block. It took a while but it's done right.

 

Wally,
Sorry for all the questions I'm about to drop....
Its's been about 3 weeks now, how is it all holding up? Any issues with the battery charging from your alternator? How long of a piece of #6 did you use from the front to the back? Was there enough room to run 2 #6 in the path you used?

That was a real clean install.

 

No worries, ask away...

It's holding up great. Maintains about 13.1 volts and no issues. Vehicle cranks up fast. I do plan on hooking it up to the CTEK charger about every 3 months or so. But I did this with the stock battery also. Probably why it lasted so long as there was nothing wrong with the stock battery when I pulled it. Got the 27F due to adding a fridge and could tell the stock battery could not handle that.

Used 20 ft of #6 and yes used dedicated ground and hot wires wrapped in braided sleeving. Routed it from the back passenger wheel well where the fuse block is based, down along the doors under the step plates to the front passenger kick plate, and then out to the engine bay on the passenger side through the rubber boot. Then along the fire wall to the battery. There were some challenges of course getting this fairly large wiring through (mainly between the two doors) but I took my time and it worked out great.

The wiring.

$58 6 Gauge 6 AWG 20 Feet Black + 20 Feet Red Welding Battery Pure Copper Flexible Cable Wire - Car, Inverter, RV, Solar

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MTALKID/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Braided sleeving

$10 25ft - 1/2" PET Expandable Braided Sleeving – BlackRed – Alex Tech Braided Cable Sleeve

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071WF5NTN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you have anymore questions just ask and I will help anyway I can. Also sorry I don't have a build thread to consolidate things in one thread but there are pics on the forum of what I did, somewhere.... If you need new pics let me know.

 

I know this is a old thread but I’m a old guy and I’m just getting around to doing this upgrade. I ordered the OEM tray and batteries plus still has a 10% off coupon unfortunately the 20 expired but sometimes you gotta pay for being slow.

 

So for a deep cycle battery on a trolling motor, for example, do you want to run the battery down almost all the way before re-charging to get the most cycles during the life of the battery?

And if you charge/top off the battery after each outing (instead of letting it go all the way down) you’ll end up getting way less life out of it?

Am I reading that correctly?

 

No, deep discharge of the battery is damaging and reduces its long term health.

 

I wanted to thank the original posts! I did exactly the same, bought the Tundra tray, and the 27F X2. Now $445 a battery. I upgraded both 4Runners and charged them up with a new NOCO 2AMP. They definitely spin the starter faster. I’m not modifying the alternator charge voltage however, I’ll keep an eye out and throw the charger on as I go. I have two 4R’s to test with.

 

See that wonderful little relay - that's a EV1 500 amp continuous duty relay for an electric vehicle (that's the magic in the system - draws very little power and can handle huge current loads.



The control panel below features (2)12v digital voltmeters - one for OEM battery and one for identical Aux battery. The OEM battery is for primary circuits (all the original stuff), the aux battery powers all the add-ons like 3K pure sinewave inverter, Refer, and a host of other things needing trickle current to keep em alive & well. The Aux battery is maintained by a 100 watt solar panel attached to the roof. Power from the solar panel goes directly to a inline charge controller then onto the auxiliary battery then distributed to all the non-essential circuit add-ons. The aux system is separated from the primary by the EV1 relay. A trip to TN an back never produced a situation where I needed to connect the two systems together but easily done by flipping a switch if I had to. It's been bulletproof so far. Out of curiosity I switched on the EV1 one morning prior to starting just to see the difference on cranking speed - starter definitely spun up faster, as expected.

 

I’m impressed! I use a big Stancor relay on my F-350 for the glow plugs, the Ford relay was anemic. The panel you have made up is first class. I wanted to upgrade now, parts are coming with very low quality, I wanted to get both of my trucks done with new batteries, I have Arb Zero Fridges I can run for days now.