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

This might be a long shot but…..

I think I remember seeing this in here, but I’m not positive and I didn’t feel like going through 200 pages.

Im gong to describe it to the best of my ability….

Looking to add a a set of terminal for a set of jumper cables.

The remote terminal was one half of an Anderson connector that was wired to the battery.

The Anderson connector itself was mounted in one of the cutout of the metal bumper.

The other end of the Anderson connector was a set of jumper cable ends.

I have a good idea on how I would do this, but was wondering if anyone had a picture of this.

Thanks .

 

https://powerwerx.com/anderson-sb-connectors-sb175-175amp

and your favorite set of jumper cables should do the trick. I don't recall the post you are looking for though.

 

Yep.

I have all the parts figured out short of how I’m going to mount the Anderson connector to the bumper itself.

Really just hoping to stare at the picture I recall seeing.

 

Maybe this? https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...batteries-thread.295653/page-58#post-12645180

 

Close but not quite.

 

Does this look good/do y’all have any improvements?

 

My dual battery setup consists of a renogy 50a mppt, a group 27 X2 starting battery (also powers the winch), and a group 24 100ah lithium house battery in the bed.


It is charged off a pair of 100w solar panels or the alternator when running.

Next I'll be installing a Noco genius gen5x2 AC/DC charger to keep the batteries topped via shore power when the truck is garaged.

 

It looks good.

I will suggest you put the fuses on the long wire between the starting battery and (DC/DC / 2nd battery) at the starting battery (or close to it). That way, if there is ever a short, the fuse will blow, and the entire wire will be dead.

Depending on the distance between the DC/DC and the 2nd battery, the fuse should be close to the DC/DC.

 

If that’s the only wire running out, where in the cab did you ground to?

 

Does anyone have any experience maintaining charge for a 100ah battery with a trickle charger connected to the Tacoma bed outlet? Charger will only be running while truck is on.

 

Just get a dc/dc charger that'll give you the proper voltage/amperage...on a 100ah battery you should look for a 30 to 50 amp charger. The inverter will be inefficient and a 10amp trickle charger will take 5 hours to charge from 50%.

 

Right, however I dont think charging at 30-50 amps is going to be good. I use a cheap Imax RC car battery charger at about 5 amps. Leave it connected most of the time and it will keep up. The RC battery chargers do require some level of knowledge to set up, but they do have some voltage cross check to make sure you don't burn anything up

 

I'm using a 50amp mppt. I get 10amp from solar and 25amp off the alternator. When my 100ah lithium is charged the mppt charge controller trickle charges the starting battery. The charge controller has programs for lead acid, gel, and lithium batteries.

 

There are plenty of bolts under the seats/behind the seats you can ground to.

 

@stickyTaco is correct. By the time you fart around with jerry rigging all sorts of nonsense, a dedicated dc/dc charger will be well worth it. They can be had for relatively cheap. Wiring a dc/dc charger will also be safer and look better than having a trickle charger hooked up to the battery. Youve gone through the trouble of having a second battery, why half ass it? I'm running all renogy stuff for the reliability vs price. I have a 100 aH LiFePO4 battery, solar panel, and a 50 amp dc/dc charger. Hook it up once the right way and get the peace of mind.



This is a small snippet of what I get as a readout (varies depending on usage etc)

 

What size wire are you using for 50amps @ 12v?

 

4 awg for everything connected to the LiFePO4 battery. 10 awg (seems small but thats per Renogy and their specs) for the solar panel (200w)

 

Here's a few pictures of my dual battery set up...It's a bit of a home brew style set up with an analog connector that bridges both battery's together when the ignition is in the "on" position. All accessories (Fridge, interior/exterior lighting, misc. power, GMRS radio..etc.) are all for the most part running on the axillary battery. My onboard air is rigged up to the starter battery to be closer to the alternator but is only able to be activated when the truck is on and running. All of my accessories are controlled by an AuxBeam controller mounted on the top of the fuse box on the drivers side and the MPPT controller (mainly for a quick disconnect solar panel I use) is mounted on top of that. The quick connects on the grill are for a trickle charger (bottom connections) and a remote solar panel (top connection) so I can have the truck in the shade and move the solar panel with the sun.

There are for sure much better systems out there like Redarc that provide an out of the box solution. I very much like to tinker and wanted to build a solution myself that is easily replaceable...etc. should parts fail (I was inspired by one of Overland Bound's YouTube video).

As is any build of mine...it's constantly evolving as this is probably build three for electrical so far!

 

What trickle charger are you using?

My truck has dual batteries + isolator + solar.

Truck also has a fridge that runs 24/7.

Usually, the solar is more than enough to keep the battery topped off.

However, living in Western PA, sometimes we can go a week without seeing the sun.

And my drive back and forth to work is only 10 minutes each way, so the isolator doesn’t always have the opportunity to fully charge the house battery.

I’ve been coming home from work and dragging out my battery charger to top the battery off when it needs it.

I’d like to add an onboard charger.

I’ve been eyeballing the

$70 NoCo Gen5x1 , 1-Bank, 5A (5A/Bank) Smart Marine Battery Charger, 12V Waterproof Onboard Boat Charger, Maintainer and Desulfator for AGM, Lithium (LiFePO4) and Deep-Cycle Batteries

NoCo Gen5x1’s and it seems to be the perfect fit for what I need.

A 5 amp charger should be more than effective at topping the battery off when needed.

Thoughts?

 

@steveo27, I'm using a dual bank noco genius gen5. I picked up the x2 to charge the house (lithium) and starting battery since it has the ability to charge both battery types at the same time.