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

Okay you're right. Let me re-phrase my statement on soldering. Since I don't have enough experience with soldering I will not say whether or not it is better or worse than crimping a connection, but I always have and will continue to crimp all wiring, regardless of amperage or voltage. I do solder on my quadcopters for 1 reason only, to save weight. A small dap of solder weighs a fraction of what a butt splice lug does. It's more of a PITA to crimp connections than solder too, you have to find the right lugs and a proper crimp tool then crimp it the right way rather than take a few seconds to drop some nickel or tin on 2 wire ends.

Regarding air gaps in a crimped connection, you can have air between 2 wires up to a certain voltage and be okay. For 12VDC, you won't have any issues. With anything higher though the lugs usually come with an anti oxidant inside the lug itself so when you crimp, it takes up all the excess space and removes the air. I forget the technical name for it though.

 

See, That was always my concern for a crimped connection. I don't like air gap at all, and with some of my cables pulling 400+amps of current, I wanted to be SURE there were no air gaps. But I do like some of those crimp tools. I will investigate to see if the cost of buying the different dies and such for the different terminal cable ends is something I can absorb over time. I really don't want to charge anything extra for my Kits. You make a valid point in crimping that I had not seen, as far as a FULL crimp. Much of the crimping tools I have seen for battery terminals in the automotive world have been single-point pinch crimps, which I think is a terrible idea for large-current applications. The type of crimp tools I see some of you guys using are a much better system for sure, than what I have seen for crimping.

What do you all think I would be looking at for a good crimp tool kit that will do 8 gauge all the way up to 00 gauge?

 

I posted the one I personally use a few posts ago, it has not let me down. I do not like to use short barrel lugs since you can only get 1 crimp on them, I go with the longer type lug to get 3 crimps. Crimp once, rotate lug 180 degrees, crimp again, rotate 180 degrees, crimp again, and again 180 degrees. You also start from the top (closest to the lug hole or center of the crimps) and work your way down. Sometimes if you start the other way the air pocket can remove the lug from the cable when you start the 2nd or 3rd crimp. I don't want you to change whatever you are doing since it's worked so well for you the past 25 years, I am just offering some insight from my personal experience on crimping a connection. Solder vs crimp, there is no right choice since they both work well, I just crimp since it's what I've always done.

 

I bought one very similar to this one on fleabay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-Ton-Hydr...074?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5401464442

It came with replacement seals and like I said, I've only used it a limited amount of times, but for $50 it was worth it for me rather than pay someone to crimp the wires. It crimps in an hexagon type of shape, and I get what you are saying about the air gaps which is why I also filled with solder. I just used map gas and kester 44 rosin core solder. Held up great in the 3+ years I've had it in my truck and I've winched plenty of times.

 

I've used a table like this to go from the metric dies to AWG. The metric dies crimped the AWG just fine.

http://www.muellergroup.net/tech-mm2-awg.html

 

A few nice tools for sure. I would need to find one that for sure could handle production use. Something that wouldn't balk at an average of 100 crimps a month. I only build so many of these kits, but with the changes in my kits to include dual battery systems, and solar charging add-ons, I will be doing a lot more. I will build a couple of crimps on some spare cable and terminals, then cross-cut and length-cut them to see if I like what is underneath. For a lot of people things work great for their own use, but since I build these things commercially, and my business rep is on the line, I like to investigate. I am always open to learning different things as I go, and production can always benefit from changes in the system! I am never one to be totally closed minded.

 

Hey man which program did you used to make this diagram?

 

made a diagram for the bed relocation battery



Am I missing or need to change something?

 

normally you would use either a fuse or a circuit breaker, not both.


i finally installed my dual battery monitor. funny though, when i took the pic, the lights were all lit, betting it uses a pwm to dim the lights and my camera caught that.

 

The breaker cuts power to the panel. Nothing wrong with that.

 

I like the gauge. I am setting up mine with two digital voltage gauges that show the voltage as a number. Hopefully It won't be too bright. Maybe I will set it up to only display when I press a momentary switch? That is a thought.

 

correct, but its also a "fuse" so hes basically putting a fuse in front of a fuse. so the normal way would be to lose the fuse and run just a breaker.

thats not a bad idea to run just a momentary switch. i kept looking for battery monitors but they all seemed way too huge. hopefully this one will work fine.

 

ok redid the diagram



Can the breakers be inside the engine bay or dio they need to be next to the battery?

 

Circuit breakers and fuses are supposed to be close to the power source, something like within 12".

 

If you run a 100A breaker in front of an 80A fuse panel, you are protecting the panel from a short in the wire connecting the panel to the battery. Each of the fuses protects the device connected to it. If you lost the fuses, there is no way any single device would trip that breaker until it was toast. It's also true that if you lost the fuses, there's a risk of damaging devices connected to the battery it if you have a short in the battery connection.

 

Actually that can be a bit of a slippery slope when you are talking about technically having TWO power sources. On one hand, the battery is a constant power source, so it would be a good idea to have a CB/fuse close to the battery, but then with the engine running, the alternator is ALSO a power source. So you would want THAT to have a CB/fuse. Not really an issue when the battery is under the hood, but when you remote-locate the battery to the bed, you should have BOTH ends of the same cable protected! So if we are talking about a bed-mounted battery, I agree with CB/fuse on both the alternator output (within 24" max) and the battery in the bed. (within 24" max)

 

No harm in running more than 1 fuse. We periodically run dual element fuses and dual fuses on certain applications. I wouldn't put a 100A breaker on an 80A panel though, kind of redundant. If you think you are going to run the full 80 amps you should upgrade to 100 amps. You should only run 80% of your max load but I'm no expert in DC circuits.

 

In the same way you run 80% for the breaker, you also wouldn't run 80A on the panel either.

Ultimately, it's your choice how you choose to wire your truck.

 

Added a CB next to the alternator, is 180 amps ok for the alternator? Also how much amps CB should I run for the fuse boxes?

 

Sub'd.