Trying to get a dual battery set-up and have some questions.

So after reading through the entire dual battery thread, I am seeing some crazy price differences in people's set-ups because of their different needs. I'm looking to do a simple dual battery setup so i can run my winch and accessories without fear of draining my main battery. however, i also want to be able to draw from both batteries at the same time during a heavy winch pull. thing is i don't need any fancy monitoring or anything. any body have a link for just a simple isolator and 3 way switch so i can manually control when i want battery 1, battery 2, or both. Basically something like this.

http://www.starmarinedepot.com/blue...pzz1850.html?gclid=CKfthpKfxsMCFWdo7AodWgQA7g

Would that work?

If i use both batteries to power the winch, would that be enough to handle the draw off the main battery through the isolator and to the winch?

 

imo, all you need to do is

Big 3 wiring upgrade,
500A isolator
Same gauge wire as the big 3 to secondary battery.
There really is no need for that star marine switch. I do use it on my boat all the time but i only use that to kill all power

 

but with just an isolator will the winch be able to draw from both batteries?

 

Generally, if the truck is off it will only draw from the one battery

You can run a bypass wire with the said switch you had in the list but thats $100 for something only in the rarest cases you'd want to do ( truck is off due to inability to run ) then you have 2 batteries to pull from.

Or the other option, since most of my connections are Easily switchable, i just bypass the isolator with a short segment of 1/0 if i want both batteries on when truck is off

 

The purpose of an isolator is to keep the starting battery from discharging when you put a heavy load on the deep cycle battery. You can alway use a deep cycle battery that has more capacity for your electrical load. For longer battery service life, I would size it so the depth-of-discharge does not exceed 50%.

 

Check out my Stage Kits in my signature. I build pretty much exactly what you are looking for, and you can ask my customers, I give a fair price. You are essentially looking for a Stage 4 Kit. The option that I have on the Stage 4 Kit is for what I call "self-jumping" where at the flip of a switch both batteries are removed from isolation and connected in parallel to enable you to start your own truck in the event of a drained primary battery. This setup will allow you to sync the two batteries together for your winch if you desired to do so. However you should note that most winches draw in excess of 450A, which will still drain two batteries down and overload even the stoutest of 250A alternators.

Feel free to PM me with what you are looking for and we will design you a Kit to do just that!