A major issue with the factory Tacoma battery location is the thin sheet metal fender the heavy lead-acid battery lies on. When you do thousands of miles of washboard dirt roads, the inner fender and the radiator core support can start to crack. This problem is only exacerbated by the tendency of individuals to add heavy deep cycle AGM batteries to support aftermarket electrical accessories. The goal of this project was to relocate the battery to a sturdier location and upgrade all the battery cables.
The end goal: starter battery relocated to the passenger rear corner in the engine bay.
A factory Tacoma engine bay: notice the starter battery in the driver front corner.
To facilitate this upgrade, I would also have to relocate various other aftermarket components. These included an SPOD (a solid state MOSFET switching system), a NOCO battery maintainer, and a BlueSea Fuse block for constant-on loads. Because these components are relatively lightweight, the factory battery location seemed like a great location to place them. With some custom bracketry designed in CAD and manufactured by SendCutSend, the components packaged nicely in that spot. To dial in the fitment, I decided to create some rapid prototype templates in the Baylor Makerspace with the laser cutter.
Sometimes, you first have to take everything apart to make progress. Laid out here is all the old wiring, the airbox, air compressor, winch, batteries, and old electrical components.
All new 00, 0, 2awg, and 4awg for the project. The good stuff: American-made pure stranded copper cable.
The BlueSea fuse block with all the constant-on fused accessories wired up. The SPOD conveniently hinges out of the way on my custom mount.
The Warn Zeon winch controller relocated, wired, and mounted on a custom bracket.
All finished, the starter battery neatly wired up in the passenger rear location. There’s lots of big cables running to the 2 mil-spec battery terminals, but I think it turned out pretty clean. Most importantly, this reinforced location shouldn’t strain the core support and inner fender on rough roads.
