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

My winch is connected to the stock battery and the battery is in stock location. I am going to be adding another battery down the road for all my acc. All my acc. are connected to a blue sea fuse block. I wonder how the aussi guys are wiring their winches. guess ill just leave the winch connected to the main battery and all other acc. to the aux battery.

 

That is my plan as well.

 

As long as you have a good isolator you can drain the starter with a winch and still self jump off the aux. Then you'll only need to handle a 200ish amp load from the starter instead of 500ish amp load from the winch. If you're putting both under the hood then it probably doesn't matter.

 

I used 300A circuit breakers in between the batteries and the ML-ACR

 

Reding the recent conversation, this is the diagram I came up with for what I'm planning. Dual batteries, under the hood

Reading the recent conversation, this is the diagram I came up with for what I'm planning. Dual batteries, under the hood. I saw a different diagram that didn't require fuses like the quoted post. My first question is what gauge wire do I need to run being the batteries are so close? My second question, is do I need the fuses like above and at what rating? Thoughts?

 

Look at the stock set up, fusible link isn't on the factory cable but before the fuse panel. Sure fuses are necessary and more is better. Probably 4-5' of unprotected wire before my 300A fuse. More fuses = more resistance.

I do not have a starting battery under the hood, both of my batteries are in the bed. The weight of the battery on the inner fender was destroying the sheet metal.

 

The gauge of wiring you use will depend on the length of the wire you use. I'm going off the graph that @Digiratus posted early. Base off that I plan 4 gauge wire since my wiring should be less than 2 feet, meaning that 4 gauge should be plenty capable of containing the amperage.

As for fuses, I'm just going to start with 250 amp fuses and see if that is enough. If they blow quickly, then I'll try a couple 300 amp ones. They're only about $2 each so it won't be an expensive mistake to find out.

 

Can you share a pic of the fuses you're using?

 

Right now I'm planning to use just a couple regular ANL fuses and fuse holders.

 

http://circuitwizard.bluesea.com/

Check out this calculator for determining AWG requirements. Much more detailed

 

Yeah I tried using that and it kept telling me there wasn't wiring possible lol

 

You need to just mess with it, great tool for a baseline.

You also need to consider the quality of the wire used, oxygen free copper (OFC) compared to copper clad aluminum (CCA) is a great example. The CCA has much less max amperage yield for the same size OFC.

A lot of high end audio power cable is also oversize so it can handle more amps than generalized charts will specify.

 

Yeah, I've read up on the differences between the two.

I've still got quite a while before I finally start on this project, hopefully this year though. Just doing my research early.

 

Can anyone tell me what size thread these two screw holes are?

I just had this mount fabricated for my project. Little by little, it's coming along.

 

They're either m6 or m8 x 1.5. Can't remember exactly though.

 

I could be wrong but I believe that it was the M8. M6 is pretty small.

 

Follow up to my earlier post, this is what the fuse block mount looks like installed. Now to buy 2 batteries, the mounting plate for them, and battery cable supplies.

 

Looks clean!

 

M6

 

Actually, it ended up being M8. Thanks. Mounted it yesterday.