BiggerBaloo Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Hi all, I have installed a second battery, by joining pos to pos, and neg on new battery to the chassis. It's working as I wanted it to - almost. I have primarily done it so I can put the lights on (work lights) without killing the battery so quick. I have been caught out a couple of times though. Can I just buy one of these? Should I isolate the pos or neg terminal? My thoughts were to put the isolator in between the pos to pos connection. Then the lights etc would kill the primary battery, and the power from the second battery would be used to start the engine? I'm just looking for confirmation. I don't really want to use a split charger for 2 reasons; 1 cost, 2 it means rewiring all auxiliary items direct to the second battery (which will be a long job, and I'm not very good with electrics). Cheers Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco-Ron Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Hi all,I have installed a second battery, by joining pos to pos, and neg on new battery to the chassis. It's working as I wanted it to - almost. I have primarily done it so I can put the lights on (work lights) without killing the battery so quick. I have been caught out a couple of times though. Can I just buy one of these? Should I isolate the pos or neg terminal? My thoughts were to put the isolator in between the pos to pos connection. Then the lights etc would kill the primary battery, and the power from the second battery would be used to start the engine? I'm just looking for confirmation. I don't really want to use a split charger for 2 reasons; 1 cost, 2 it means rewiring all auxiliary items direct to the second battery (which will be a long job, and I'm not very good with electrics). Cheers Martin yeh you could just fit one of them under the bonnet somewhere, but if you didn;t want the need to get out of the drivers seat to switch the second battery on, you could fit an electric solenoid switched simply by a small switch, which is how i've done the power on my winch..... http://www.devon4x4.com/component/option,c...howcaticons,yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Use a Cole-Hersee solenoid which can take the strain of being on for long periods and has a 90A capacity. Nearly all split charge systems use them. I have a National Luna split charge system and it always runs in 'winch override' mode. This means that as soon as the igniton is switched on, the batteries are connected together via the relay - you can hear it go clunk under the passenger seat. When the ignition is switched off, the relay deenergises so that the fridge will only flatten the aux battery and not the main starting battery. It also means that both batteries are used to start the engine, which really helps in the winter. I have no problem with battery life caused by connecting them together, my main battery is a 90Ah and I bought it in May 2001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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