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

I dident realize it will send the error codes to the lights. O well.

Wouldent you want the batteries linked when winching? Lightening the amp pull on each battery

 

So where’d y’all mount yours?

 

I personally wouldn’t want to have the two. I don’t want both to drain, the alt would be pulling double duty. I have a warn Zeon 10 and at around 8k it pulls 350amps. I don’t want to pull that through the MLACR.

 

If you're talking about the Blue Sea ML-ACR 7622 I wouldn't worry. It's rated to do 10,000 cycles switching 300 amps and latched it will handle 500 A indefinitely, 700 A for 600 seconds and 1,450 A for 30 seconds. I've never had it disconnect during a winching or restart on an obstacle (I have a stick, so I'm talking about starting in gear), though. I'm running an XD9000 which has a similar stall current rating as your Zeon.

 

Sure the unit might but I’m not running 4/0 wire or larger for those loads. Even the 2/0 is a huge cable to be running under the hood to just charge the battery. Combine that with the added temperature under the hood and the wire becomes a setback.

 

I don't see any reason to follow the generic chassis wiring tables that suggest using 4/0 cable for 350 amps. First they usually are based on a pretty low temp insulation, PVC or XLPE something. If you use welding cable you'll get at least 105°C rating and maybe higher. Second, you're not going to be at the worst case sustained much or for very long. For example, my XD9000 has a max current draw of 478 amps at 9,000 lbs, which can only be reached on the first layer and that'll be pulling so, so slow as to be almost unusable. It'll be like 3 feet per minute. Most of the time you're in the lower half of the ratings, which for my XD9000 are 56 A for no load up to 332 amps for 6,000 lbs.

I figured 1/0 AWG would work, which I protect with 250 amp MRBF type fuses, and haven't melted the insulation or opened a fuse yet. My calculations are that I'd see 0.13 V drop at 332 amps (which is also a pretty slow 7.5 feet/min) and a temp rise of 88°C, but I don't know the thermal resistance of EPDM, so that's just the straight conductor heating and not really a fully developed thermal calculation.

Maybe assuming 35°C as ambient is unrealistic (meaning my final temp is 123°C, under the 125°C of my cable insulation), but I'm running from the stock location straight through the radiator bib to the winch, so it's never really inside the engine bay. Also, Warn included 2 AWG, 72" long conductors, so I'm already considerably more overbuilt than they thought was sufficient. My cables are around 48" long. I then used 1 AWG leads from the solenoid box to the motor, which replaced 4 AWG that Warn used. Those are only like 9 inches long.

 

I’m sure it could work with what you have. I just prefer to winch with a single battery with the truck running. It’s also important to watch the winch temp and battery voltage and stop to give everything time to rest and recharge.

 

I understand the logic and I dither between deciding on using both or isolating them for protection. I don't winch enough to really judge either way, but if pressed right now I would tend to agree. I'm using two smaller than factory batteries in the stock location, each being PC1400 group 25 and 35. So they are 65 A-hr, 900 CCA. So with my TRD OR 130 A alternator the duty cycle on a winch session is naturally going to be safer with one battery, since it will be difficult to keep the battery from going flat before overheating the winch or cables.

 

Not my photo, this is from the OGE thread.

I did not put mine where the switch is in the photo. I put mine in the blank switch spot to the right of the rear sliding window switch. Had to dremel out the back of the blank spot a bit. Looks OEM.

 

Agree with everything you said there except for the 1st layer thing. The max current draw is a function of the winch motor characteristics under maximum load (before stall). Whereas the maximum pulling power of the winch is a function of the drum diameter (aka the layers of rope) and the max torque produced by the motor. Kinda like a lever calculation thing going on here.. So basically the max current draw will always be the same, but the pulling capacity will slightly decrease with each layer

But like you said, you're never really under those conditions anyway. (sounds like a good time for a snatch block haha)

 

That is certainly a fuzzy understanding on my part about winch mechanicals. They are given in force but the drum is experiencing torque the motor generates, so distance relates the two. I thought the first layer being highest force, lowest advantage meant the motor was required to generate the highest torque. While on an outer layer the moment is larger so the torque required to generate the force was smaller. But I am not being picturing it correctly and your explanation I think sparked the a-ha, the same torque creates the full rating at layer 1 while generating less force at layer 4 due to the increased radius.

 

What’s better? Optima yellow tops or Odessey extreme series?

 

Odyssey.

Optima used to be great, but the company sold, the new owners moved production to Mexico, and lowered the quality of the battery. Supposedly, the quality has come up, but most people I know won't take the risk again.

I put in a Odyssey about 6 months ago. Soon to add a second one.

 

I've had Optimas in the past and have Odysseys now. I may have been lucky with Optimas (I've had ones made in Colorado and Mexico) and now unlucky with Odysseys but I haven't seen a significant improvement in longevity. I do take care of my batteries, they get periodic charge-conditioning for example.

My Odysseys are about 3 years old now and one is starting to show signs of aging. Settles to about 12.6V after a charge, for example. The other is still strong, settles between 12.8V and 12.9V. I had one Red Top that lasted almost 8 years, with 6 months of that sitting half dead in my garage while I rebuilt the engine in my truck.

I used to think it was worth spending a lot on AGM batteries but my experience is that I think you're better off financially with less maintenance worries buying a high quality name brand regular types and replace them often.

 

I have no toom in my engine conpartment for a second battery. So this is the second battery tray attached to the rear bumper.. i bought the bumper yesterday its a dual swingout, today i sanded it and tomorrow paint, not bad for 210 dollars i think it is an arb but im not sure. I got the front bumper out of a pile of scrap for 300 dollars. ..here it is after sanding and painting.

 

Consider Northstar Batteries too. On par with Odysseys.

 

Yummy

 

whats the chrome pipe on the driver side?
this is a sweet rig man