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

I've only ever seen it on ebay. And it does come and go. I'm sure it will be back. You can also contact the seller kevin1002012 for an update.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F168UVO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

not the same item.

 

yeah I realized that after I posted..... my bad

 

http://peakdbi.co.za/shop/monitor/12v-double-monitor/

 

there ya go. That's his website I believe.

 

Thanks. After a little more research I think I'm going to go with the two digital ones.

I like this and I think I'll put them in the same location. What did you use to cut that piece? Dremel?

 

I just used a drill bit for the perimeter, hacksaw blade to cut straight lines and filed to size. The plastic is really soft.

Total cost for this setup is 6 bucks and about two hours of your time...

 

This is how I did mine.


I did tint the back side of the plastic lense so that the LED display wasn't so bright.

 

Awesome. Thanks guys!

 

battery mounted and switch panel and harness for the truck cap made

Just have to mount the blue sea ml acr, and wire everything.

 

nice!!! where's the panel going?

 

Thanks! It's going to be going in the tool box on the windoors on the cap.

Cleaning up this mess and making it a true dual battery setup. Not just a stand alone battery charged off solar. The switch box will be going in here though. Lots of room with the battery in the bed.

 

Sub'd

 

Core support is starting to crack so looks like I'm doing a battery relocate sooner than anticipated, while I'm moving the battery I might as well add another. Looking for some advice to fix my electrical stupidity.

This is the preliminary plan:



Now a couple of questions...

1. Concerning grounding....Is there any advantage to running a wire for the engine/frame/chassis separately? I ordered a shit load of 1/0 wire and I'm pretty sure I could run an individual wire for each major ground, or would it just be simpler and just as effective to ground everything to the frame and run a wire (or parallel wires) from the frame to the ground bus bar?

2. Concerning the Start battery/alternator/OEM Fuse box....I'm not looking to start cutting up the stock wiring harness and replacing its wiring at this time, would it be just as effective to place a power post where at the OEM battery location and connect the OEM harness and battery wire to it? Or should I just suck it up and cut up the stock harness and run separate wires for the OEM fuse box and alternator to/from the battery?

3. Concerning the Start battery/alternator/OEM fuse box....What kind of circuit protection are people running for this or are they running any at all? Somewhere in the thread its been stated that starting current can get as high as 700amps. How long does it stay at those elevated levels? For a fraction of a second or longer?

Any insight advice is appreciated. Even the "Hey dumbass you're completely fucked up and going to burn your truck to the ground" type.

 

I am not sure how the ML relay works, but do you want to have protection for that? If it fails, will it short between the two batteries?

 

1. Yes, shorter wires. The main battery is grounded to frame already, and grounding a second (or even a third or fourth) battery to the frame will not harm anything. However, running the ground (negative terminal) from battery #2 through the negative cable of battery #1 (potentially) doubles the load the ground cable for battery #1 needs to handle from terminal to frame.

2. Always try to maintain the factory wiring as factory as possible. If you need to have something that turns off with the key you can get a fuse tap that plugs into an existing fuse location to control a relay. The alternator "charge cable" really isn't all the heavy duty and (IMHO) adding a power post hear really won't serve much of a purpose, normally. However, since you are relocating the battery, the stock cable length may not be enough. So you could use a power post, or run a longer cable from the alternator. Either way would be just fine.

3. The 700amp draw is from the starter motor (and associated electronics) needed to start the engine. Once you let up on the ignition (from start to run) the power draw is back to "normal". It is because starter motors pull so much power (much like a winch motor) that the CCA (cold cranking amp) rating of a starter battery is important. In layman's terms, it is a measure of how fast it can push electricity out of the battery.

4. The "Protection device" you asked about in your diagram really isn't needed here. You can if helps you sleep at night, but your current diagram doesn't change the factory wiring, or current ratings for battery #1.

Honestly, your diagram looks good.

 

As I understand the ML-ACR connect/disconnects the 2 positive sides of the batteries, shorting out shouldn't be an issue in the event of a failure. If the ML-ACR fails I believe the auxiliary battery will drain down, hence the need for voltage monitoring if going dual battery. My ML-ACR will be located on top of the batteries and will have short lengths of wire with no room for protection (even if I wanted it).

 

Almost finished up my dual battery this afternoon! just need to run a couple wires through the firewall to hook up the ACR remote switch.

I used the Armor Tech Offroad dual battery tray from here: http://www.armortechoffroad.com/2005-2015-Tacoma-Dual-Battery-Tray_p_2.html SUPER beefy and solid. The piece here sits right on top of the fender:



Then a tray sits on top of that with tabs to help align the batteries:



And then a top plate that holds everything down:



Here's everything almost wired up before I got the ACR in place:



I used a Blue Sea distribution block found here:

$31 Blue Sea Systems 5026 ST Blade Fuse Block 12 Circuit with Ground and Cover, 100 Amps

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P6FTHC and two group 34 Optima batteries, the one on the left with both top and side posts—the cable to the alternator was too short to make it to the top post and I didn't feel like re-wiring it, so I got a battery with both and it fit just fine! Everything is wired with 4 gauge welding cable:

$55 EWCS 4 Gauge Premium Extra Flexible Welding Cable 600 Volt 10 Feet Each Black+Red

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D7Q1RAK

Finally here's the ACR in place:



I might play with the cables a bit in the future to tidy things up, but I'm loving it so far!

Finally, mounted the remote switch in the cab: