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

I can't find much on dual battery placement in 1st gens. I have a 96 2.7L I4, so there is room on the passenger side next to air intake above the wheel well. I think thats where I'm going to put mine, just trying to find a good option on a tray or how to secure the battery in that space. Any kits out there anyone knows of that would work for my engine compartment? If not, looks like i'll be trying my hand at welding here soon..

 

anyone running their second battery in the bed of the truck? I have no space for another battery in the engine bay and dont know where else to put it.

 

Mine will be in the bed once I get to it.

I much prefer less weight on the front suspension.

 

Yeah that was my thought as well. I was thinking about some type of vented box. Dont want to take up too much space tho.

 

A small vented box up against the front wall of the bed (mine will be on the passenger side) shouldn't take up much room. To me, the weight distribution is more important.

 

I used a Walmart (noco) battery box for mine in the bed

 

Same. Mounted it under my cross bed tool box. I cant put the lid on it, but the tool box acts as the lid.

 

I am. PM me if you have questions.

 

This is an awesome thread full of sweet setups and excellent information! Thanks everyone!

I’m going to be redoing the accessory system in my taco soon and am just trying to nail down a plan.

I was able to score three gel batteries of 52ah each for a good deal so I’ll be setting those up in a cabinet in the bed. Now, just debating how to keep a charge on them. I’m waffling between going with one of the ACRs from blue seas or getting a DC-DC charger. I plan to upgrade to a HO alternator that does around 200A. The A lot of the voltage regulated charging systems see to limit out around 150A.

The question I have is, if I start the vehicle with severely discharged aux batteries, could that HO alt send too much power down the line and trip the breaker or acr? Would my alt have to be smaller/equal to the ACR? Or would it be the safer route to get a DC-DC charger? How do the recharge times compare? Most of the DC-DC chargers do either 25A or 40A continuous which would mean 4-8hrs to fully recharge the aux batteries. How much faster would an ACR allow the system to recharge?

Edit: although I’m thinking the best way to get started would be getting an ACR and then later adding a DC-DC charger to keep protect the health of the batteries...

 

Think the ML-ACR is good up to 500amps so your good to go.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/category/35/91/Automatic_Charging_Relays/ML-ACRs

 

Yeah, I saw that one. Not sure if I'd really want to go with that item though. I know it's less of a problem with the vehicles before 2006, but still, the charging system wouldn't be dialed in to the specific battery type, and since gel batteries are kind of finicky, I'm trying to figure out how to do it in a way that prolongs battery life and utilizes maximum capacity. The ACR would be great to dump some power in real quickly, but then some other system like the dcdc to finish them up might be optimal.

 

I have a 2010. Because of the voltage sensing relay I have gotten this
https://www.hkbelect.com/

I get a constant 14.6 volts at idle. Boosted the charge so I can adequately charge my batteries. Using the relay I posted earlier.

This is on the stock alternator. Group 31 up front and a group 27 (iirc) in the rear
And not much voltage drop at the back

 

For those of you that run an ML-ACR 7622 with the remote/ in cab switch - do the LEDs stay on all the time? I got my OGE kit last night and was looking at the BlueSea wiring diagram for the switch. It looks like the LEDs are powered from the 7622 itself, which means that as long as the POS leads of the batteries are hooked up, and its latched the LEDs will be on.

Not that LEDs draw much current, but it seems like an odd way to do it..

 

When the batteries are tied together, and the battery the switch is tied to has a charge, the LED in the switch will be illuminated.

 

The switch for my ML-ACR is wired correctly but has never lit up.

 

I was kind of hoping there would be a way to have just the LEDs hooked to a keyed source. That way the LEDs shut off when the truck is off. But Ill have to go back and re-read everything tonight

 

What is the “big red button” for in the offgrid engineering dual battery set up?

And can it be wired to an OEM Toyota push style switch?

 

It allows manual control and override of the ML-ACR 7622. Its a 2 position switch, with indicator LED's, so probably a no-go on push button style switch.
https://www.bluesea.com/products/2146/SPDT_Remote_Control_Contura_Switch_-_ON-OFF-ON

Im still waiting for my Northstar batteries to get delivered, which means Im still waiting to install my OGE kit, which means Im still waiting to figure out exactly how the switch works haha

 

You could, but you would lose some functionality. The red switch is lighted to indicate the position of the solenoid. The switch also has three positions: closed, automatic, open. So you'd have to choose between holding it open, or holding it closed.

Honestly, there are few reasons to hold it open. You can always pop the hood and manually force the solenoid open. So using a Toyota push button to switch between forced closed and automatic operation would cover most situations. You can either live without the LED indicating state, or rig up your LED somewhere else.

The red switch itself is optional. You don't need any switch at all for fully automatic operation.

 

I new to the dual battery game so correct me if Im wrong, but both batteries are operational at all times one is usually designated to power accessories the other your normal vehicle functions ie dash/starting/head unit. so is the red button an added feature to force the solenoid to jump yourself off the secondary in the event you drain your main?