Dual Battery Setups! Let's see them! Multiple Batteries Thread!

Just ordered a

$96 Blue Sea Systems 7610 SI-ACR Automatc Charging Relay - 12/24V DC / 120A

Blue Sea SI-ACR to hookup my dual battery system (Northstar starting battery, AGM true deep cycle house battery). I.e. No jumpstarting capability, but the solar panel will keep the starting battery topped off.

 

Off Grid dual battery going on-

 

Keep the pics coming

 

Some pics of my setup. Also posted in another thread.

 

Yeah. Mine is home made too. With the Wirthco tray. See OP. I think there's a link to my setup.

 

Battery Mart is the cheapest place I found them

 

Subd for reference.

 

Should I ground 2nd battery in bed of truck to the frame or run a ground wire to the 1st battery? *note: system not designed to self-jump-start.

 

I did both, and to the engine block as well, but my system is designed to start the engine. I would still wire to all three points, just not be too concerned with wire gauge, maybe 4AWG.

 

Well that sounds redundant. I know the body and engine are grounded. The frame has to be grounded somewhere because I hookup all accessory (lights, etc) grounds to the frame.

 

If anyone is looking for a good deal on batteries Sam's is having a sale... at least the Sam's in my area is..

 

I ran a full ground cable (1/0) all the way back to the starting battery. The last thing I wanted was to create potential ground gremlins.

 

Subd.

 

I had a 31M in service, then installed a dual battery system, with a 35 as the start battery. Used this un-even combo (35/31M) about ten months. Last week i swapped out the 31M for a second 35. After about 5 days, I turned off the truck in the parking structure at work, and my winch began beeping. only way to stop the beep was to lock off the ML-ACR. With a hand-held voltmeter I get 12.9V on the start battery with engine off. With engine running the start battery reads 14.2V. The new 35 does not read any volts. I can get the winch to work with the ML-ACR in the ON position, but without the start battery connected the winch won't run...
The curious thing about the new 35 battery is the positive terminal rotates relative to the plastic case. I was thinking maybe the shiny brass color post is a thread-on cap over the real battery post and is just not threaded on properly. I do not think the battery post should be moving at all, but I don't know how these units are put together.
Any ideas about battery post movement?

 

They should NOT be moving

 

correct, get it warrantied

 

Took the battery out of truck. the Terminal is a cap and is threaded on, and was moving because it was not threaded on adequately. I have tightened it up. I do get 12.8V across the terminals outside of the truck. There must be some other issue in my winch wire-up, explore further.

 

Oh weird lol

 

I basically did the same but my batteries are under the hood.

@Sandman614 Look up Big 3 upgrade. I actually did a Big 4 upgrade.