Genesis Offroad Review and Questions

Yeah it's quite disappointing. I'm ok with the fuse box relocation and tight install, it's a LOT of battery to squeeze in a small space, and under hood component layouts change from model to model. But I don't understand why the battery tray was designed with four feet, instead of just sitting flat.

I've already invested a bunch of cash in this solution, so I'm going to try to take the legs off the tray and re-mount it flat.

 

Plenty of real estate for a battery on the passenger side towards the firewall but there isn’t anyone who can put together a kit at a reasonable cost. The SHDQ kit is nice but costs a fortune after you add in all the options. I have been putting off Adding a second battery for a while now.

 

Unfortunately, that real estate has been sold! https://www.tundras.com/threads/arb...ll-in-2018-tundra-limited.47410/#post-1227625

Dual battery is a must for me, as I do a lot of camping in the middle of nowhere, such that a dead starting battery would turn into a survival situation. A single battery, even with solar and a back-up battery booster pack, wouldn't give me peace of mind.

I'm hoping a fabrication shop can reinforce the stock battery area to support this system a bit better.

 

Has anyone considered placing a side mount battery on the top of the of the fuse box? Of course a mount would have to be made.I was stability testing one of my compressor mounts.

 

I went DIY and copied SDHQ idea though. Used SDHQ washer relocation kit. PC1200 battery fits perfectly without moving the power steering resi. Gets weight on the other side of the truck and used large fender washers to reinforce the mounts. Blue Sea ACR to control the system. The whole setup hasn't budged daily driving and with 4 days in Death Valley, 4 days in Mojave, and 5 days in Shasta-Trinity NF trips. Run my Dometic CFX 65 and HAM radio.

 

Looks real good. How much did this project cost you?

 

Running 1 battery with a fridge isn't going to work well if you do more than 1 day trips unless you supplement with solar.

 

$770 all in. This includes the battery, SDHQ washer relocation kit, extra spare fuses, and hydraulic crimper for making the cables.

Parts break down in my build starting here https://www.tundras.com/threads/dans-2014-mid-travel-tundra-build.24083/page-20#post-1557374

edit: price might be a bit more or less depending on your local hardware store for 12in threaded rods and misc washer, nuts, and bolts.

 

Thank you.

 

Thats not good that it happened at normal use. I figured it was because I like to drive really fast in rough sh*t. Mine has held since my "upgrades" so hopefully yours will too

 

Yep. Shane @ Genesis Offroad said they're working on a new tray bottom design that is a couple months out, that uses two continuous rails in place of four individual legs. I ended up getting the tray (which had one broken-off leg and three bent legs) welded up with a support bar:







... and a piece of 1/8" sheet welded on top of the (heavily damaged) sheet metal under the stock battery location. To retain the original positioning of the battery tray, which was a real bitch to get right in the first place so that the fuse box could still be opened while still allowing access to the front-most mounting bolts that keep the top plate attached to the battery tray, we used two of the original, least-damaged nutsert holes as a guide, and then welded on two threaded studs. One of the nutserts (bottom left in pic) had to be replaced with a welded nut, and the other one is still in place. It's pretty damned solid now. When the one remaining nutsert inevitably fails, I'm going to run a bolt up from underneath and tack-weld it in place.

Not super stoked to be going to all this trouble.

AFTER:



BEFORE:

 

Wow, well done. I just said "F" it drilled all the way thru the fenderwell.. welded up the repairs I had to make and called it good

 

Yeah, I would definitely not rely on the nutserts again, and would instead drill all the way through so I could get a proper bolt, washer, and nylock nut holding that tray in place. Simple, maintainable, and effective.

On a perfectly flat piece of sheet metal, that you can drill plumb into, those nutserts would be reliable, but a big gotcha here is that you end up drilling through TWO layers of stock sheet metal (surprise!), about 1 cm apart, the bottom layer being all wavy and contoured... so this unseen second contoured layer of sheet deflects the drill bit, thereby fucking the hole up and out of plumb, and can cause the nutsert not to seat perfectly flat, which is not good. Also, those things are impossible to get out if you mess something up. Don't like em.

 

I've had real good luck with thease for sheetmetal, very easy to install. https://www.baysupply.com/124136/Category/Pre-Bulbed-Shank-Body

 

I was thinking about getting this kit, but my application is for an audio system, which this isn't really designed for.

 

If anybody is looking for a kit I have mine for sale in San Diego, not willing to ship die to weight obviously.

 

Is the idea to hook the amps etc up to the second battery, to avoid the possibility of draining the starting battery when you're playing the system with the ignition off? If so, I would keep a single battery and just use a low-voltage disconnect (such as the BlueSea m-LVD) to shut off power to the audio system's fuse block(s) when the voltage hits 12.1 volts.

The only reason I didn't go with this much simpler and less expensive setup was for the rare chance that the low-voltage disconnect failed to work as intended. Like, it's really cold outside and the battery is degraded and old and turns out that 12.1 volt cut-off doesn't provide enough juice to turn the engine over because it's -40F; or, maybe I set the voltage cutoff to 11.8v because I installed it with an old battery technology where that was enough juice to turn over the engine, but have since changed to a different battery technology (like an Odyssey) where 11.8 volts isn't enough juice to turn over the engine but I forgot to change the low-voltage cutoff, and now I can't start the truck ... I dunno, just dumb shit like that, which can result in a heap of trouble. Mine is a camping rig, which goes waaay out into remote areas that can be extremely hot or cold, where the inability to start the vehicle can easily turn into a survival situation. I sleep well at night camping, knowing I have two isolated batteries and a jump-starter pack.

 

The reason why I decided against it was the solenoid is only rated at 200 amps continuous. It s inadequacy for the job I have in mind.

 

FYI - I emailed Genesis today asking them about this. I just bought a dual batt kit yesterday & asked it if will be the old 4-leg design or new rail design.

Their reply:
"Thank you for the inquiry and the order. Beginning August 20th, all Tundra and 4Runner orders have shipped with the newly redesigned tray. Production of the old style has ceased, so yours will certainly be the new style. Not only have they been reinforced on the mounting points, but they've also been reworked to fit any Group 25 battery not just the Odyssey. The four individual legs have also been eliminated in favor of two solid platforms."

Maybe they'll do some sort of exchange for folks with the older style? Dunno, but definitely worth asking about.

 

We modified the bottom of mine before installing. Also used bolts/nuts through the fender for the front two mounts.

 

I just sent them an email about purchasing the new and updated tray.

This is from the website:
For our customers who purchased a dual battery kit AFTER July 1, 2020 (when the Odyssey Extreme 25 was discontinued) AND have not been able to find batteries to fit the tray, we will swap your tray for free. You will need to ship your tray back to us, then we will immediately send the new tray out to you. Please contact us at info@genesisoffroad.com to request to have your tray swapped.

For our customers who purchased a dual battery kit BEFORE July 1, 2020 and would like to have the new tray design to be able to use other brands of batteries besides Odyssey at some point in the future, we are offering a significant discount on the new tray. The tray itself normally sells for $179, but current kit owners can upgrade to the new tray for $109. Please note this offer is ONLY available to our current dual battery tray customers who purchased prior to July 1, 2020.

 

Thanks for this. I knew they had changed the tray but wasn’t worried about it since mine hasn’t broken yet. I didn’t know about the other batteries not fitting though. I just emailed them and they got right back and asked for an order number. Sent a pic of my Amazon order of the tray and they sent a link a few min later to order the new tray. It was $79 plus $17 shipping.

 

Just got mine in the mail. What the new feet look like:

 

Got mine installed yesterday with the updated feet. Here’s to praying those will distribute the weight for a long long time. I used Fullriver batteries instead of the Odyssey’s they recommend.