Well, the reason is that about the time the Hilux Vigo/N70 came on the market back in 2005, the car industry came under pressure to reduce energy consumption to meet emissions and fuel economy targets. Why limit the ability of the charging system to charge your batteries? Why would I want to charge at 20 amps and drive say 5 hours to charge my batteries when I can get the job done with an isolator and a 100 amp alternator in just one hour's driving? Some even allow you to connect a solar panel to your charging system. DC-DC chargers that do all sorts of smart stuff when charging your batteries but are limited to a fairly low charging current (eg the popular Redarc BCDC1220 only puts out 20 amps).The factory alternator outputs 70 amps but my aftermarket Bosch alternator outputs 100 amps. Simple battery isolators such as our Matson battery Isolator that allow the maximum alternator current pass through to charge your dual battery system.Remember, when offroad, simple is good as it's easier to repair or find spare parts for. So battery charging systems fall into 2 broad groups and in my view, many of them have been designed with overkill in mind to empty your wallet much more than is really necessary. This usually happens fairly quickly but can take a bit of time if the battery has been run down a bit. At this point, the voltage rises as the alternator thinks it has done its job. When does the voltage fall below the threshold? Well, it is below that threshold when the engine is off and rises above that threshold when the engine is started AND the cranking battery is fully charged. The isolator does this by monitoring the input voltage and when the voltage falls below a specific voltage, it flicks a relay switch that isolates the cranking battery from your auxiliary electrical system. The most important feature any charging system must do is to isolate the cranking battery once the engine is turned off so it never gets run down while stationary and leave you stranded in the morning. We recommend you use a flooded wet cell cycle duty battery, something like a Delkor M27. The environment in the engine bay is not good for them due to heat (which they don't like) and also vibrations which can cause premature failure.I believe that Toyota modified the design somewhere to toughen up the mudguard Early 2005 or so Hiluxes had a problem with cracked mudguards that was often traced back to fitment of an AGM battery. They are simply too heavy to mount in a battery compartment regardless of the battery tray you choose.One thing that you can be sure, your battery will get a pretty hard life keeping your fridge cold. One type we don't recommend is the AGM deep cycle battery for a few reasons: What type depends on your individual needs. Well to start with you need an N70Z sized battery. We have used quite a bit of Outback Accessories gear over the years on our own Hilux and I have to say their gear has stood up to the test of time so that's why we sell their product. We live and breathe Hilux around here and we only list products on our online store that pass our stringent quality guidelines. Just grab one of the ones sold right here on VMN. There will be many that disagree with some of my advice here but let you make an informed decision that is based on real-world experience out there enjoying this marvellous country of ours. There are many tricks and traps when it comes to setting up a reliable auxiliary battery system in a Ute so I've put this article together to help guide you when setting up your system.
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