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

hey. so i figured i'd revisit this thread. so i'm finally ready to install my dual battery setup, as I just put in my warn zeon winch, and ill probably putting an inverter soon as well. my question is similar to one that has already been asked. has anyone attempted to relocate the washer bottle to accommodate a battery on the passenger side. I think that is more reasonable than relocating the abs module, which can be done, it just involves a lot of work and a lot more patience. Something I am personally not willing to tackle.

i am 100% not running the batteries in a side by side configuration. I'd sooner put them both in the bed. I'm just curious to know if anyone has put the an aux battery where the washer bottle is.

lastly, when I did actually consider putting the batteries in side by side, i purchased a tray w/ the ibs battery management from Columbia Overland. I will not be using the tray. So if anyone is interested feel free to PM me.

 

Will a 200amp isolator and a set of 150amp circuit breakers support self jumping or am I better off with a 500amp isolator and ???amp circuit breakers? Id love to do a Blue Sea ML-ACR but unfortunately it doesnt fit the budget at the moment.

Or someone convince me the ML-ACR is worth the 160$ price tag. From what Ive seen, some people dont run fuses/circuit breakers with the ML-ACR. If I can run an ML-ACR without having to purchase 2 circuit breakers, it all the sudden comes way closer to fitting my budget. An ML-ACR is roughly 165$ and a 500amp isolator and 2 circuit breakers is roughly 125$. Its super easy to justify the 40$ difference at this point if I dont have to add 2 circuit breakers - 50$ - to the cost of the ML-ACR. I guess I could always just run 2 fuses instead of 2 circuit breakers to cut down on costs if need be.

 

200 amp is not enough for self jumpstarting. Jump starting needs at least 500 amps.

 

I figured as much. Thanks.

 

In addition to an ML-ACR, I put a slow-burn 200 amp circuit breaker on the positive side near each battery. This for safety to prevent my truck from burning to the ground in the event the battery wiring gets compromised.

Here is what I used. As you can see from the graph, this CB can actually handle the 500 amps for a while before it trips.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/7149/187-Series_Circuit_Breaker_-_Surface_Mount_200A

 

Cool.

I made some progress in my set up today.

Sorted out the mounting for the tray -









Wirthco large battery tray mounted to the 3 OEM studs on the inner fender and bolt hole for the intake tube.

I choose to go with an Advance Auto marine deep cycle mostly because of the cost and ease of locating another one if it were to die.

I just ordered a Blue Sea ML-ACR. I found em on Ebay for 155$ shipped and after muddling over it I pulled the trigger. Figured if I did a 200amp isolator, Id probably end up just upgrading it down the road to a 500amp with a self jump switch... So buy once, cry once.

I need to sort out the wiring/fuse situation now. Im looking running 2 gauge welding wire between the batteries and probably a 200amp fuse. The run between the 2 batteries is about 11ft. Thoughts on this set up? Or should I go down to 0 gauge?

Im running out of room for shit in the engine bay now with the 2nd battery. I need to remount my compressor somewhere still. I plan on mounting the ML-ACR on top of the starting battery to keep the run between the battery and ML-ACR as short as possible. I keep reading if you can keep the connection under 7" a fuse isnt necessary. Thoughts on this? Im kickin around the idea of using the Blue Sea MRBF terminal fuseblocks vs a circuit breaker as well to save some room. Thoughts on the MRBFs?

 

I would suggest to cover, relocate or remove the bolt holding the air filter tube. Vibrations will wear a hole in the battery if the battery sits on top of, or against it.

 

The tray is about 2" longer than the battery, the battery does not come in contact with that bolt.

I was hesitant to use that as a mounting point at first but triple checked my clearances and it will not come in contact with the battery

 

Any benefit of mounting the ML-ACR closer to the starting battery or the house battery?

I'm working on my layout and I can either mount it right next to the oem battery or next to the house battery on the passenger side.

 

as long as you have decent wire to accommodate voltage drop you should be good. I have my accessory battery in the bed and with 1/0 I don't have voltage drop...
At the truck main battery
in the truck cap

Also consider if you need to disconnect it or connect it manually for what ever reasons you want it to be easily accessible

mines here

 

where is your air cleaner assy????

 

Gotcha. Thanks

I decided I'm going to mount it near the starter battery and try to remount my compressor near the house battery. I ordered some 1/0 welding wire to connect the two batteries so I should be fine.

 

Next thought....

Grounding the house battery.... 3 options. 1. chassis ground. 2. body ground. 3. piggyback the ground back to the house battery.

Id like to keep the ground run as short as possible so ideally Im looking at a solid ground point on the passenger side....

Thoughts?

 

I connected both batteries to each other with 1/0. And each battery is also grounded to the chassis and the frame.

 

Gotcha.

I feel like I keep asking stupid questions that all have been answered over and over. There is SO much info in here its hard to keep track of it all.

Can anyone verify the wire gauge coming off the ML-ACR? It appears to be 14 gauge I believe. I want to order a Deutsch connector for it but dont wanna order the wrong size.

 

Well I got my ML-ACR hooked up sans the remote switch today. I did hook the ground up though.

I can manually latch the 2 batteries together with the yellow switch on the ML-ACR and they will both charge at the voltage. Once I turn the truck off, itll disconnect (pop up).

The batteries will not automatic connect when the truck is on. The house battery is at 12ish volts and the starting battery sits at 13.7ish volts.

The ML-ACR instructions say :

Automatically combines battery banks when sensed voltage levels are:

Above 13.5V for 30 sec.
Above 13.0V for 90 sec

I put a multimeter on the starter battery and it sat above 13.5v for well over 90 seconds and the ML- ACR never latched the 2 batteries together, the house battery stayed at 12v.

Power runs via 1/0 cable from the starter battery to terminal A on the ML-ACR and terminal B runs to the house battery via 1/0 cable. The black ground off the ML-ACR runs directly to the starter battery.

The house battery is only grounded to a body ground on the passenger side inner fender via a 4 gauge cable. I plan on adding another ground strap from the house battery down to the chassis once the wiring shows up.

What am I missing here? From what Ive read/understand, you dont need to run the remote switch for the ML-ACR to work. Is it possible my body ground not sufficient and causing the issue?

 

With the yellow switch turned to the left and the inner portion depressed, you should be getting alternator voltage to both batteries. A poor ground will cause issues.

Also, 13.7 VDC seems a bit low. Is that at idle? Any loads going? Headlights, stereo, lightbar, etc.? Does the voltage come up when you raise the RPMs?

 

The 13.7 v would be normal without relocating the voltage sense wire

 

Interesting. An AGM type battery will never fully charge at that low of a voltage.

 

the 2nd gen alternators are considered a "smart alternator" that doesn't put out a constant 14+ volts. @Chuy has a great write up on how to relocate the VSW