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

ML-ACR failed. Tried new switch, no change, replaced ML-ACR and all good

 

Finished mine this evening. I utilized the Slee tray which includes a pretty stout side bracket to reinforce under the factory mount. Hopefully that stops it from cracking — from what I understand these are the best trays for this setup.

Everything outside of the tray was fully custom. Thanks to @paranoid56 for working with me on some custom brackets. We designed an over-tie-down holder for some Bussmann modular fuse holders. These things are great and are rated up to 400A (they use a MIDI fuse). I crimped all of the battery cables with a hydraulic crimp tool and pure copper wire. There’s some 1/0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 in this setup


I had to relocate some of the factory wiring which was kind of a pain in the butt, but hey what can you do. The setup works off of a RedArc BCDC 1220. My batteries are small enough that the 20A charge rate should be more than enough.


I don’t know how long this project took, but hopefully it’ll be worth it. I’m just glad I didn’t blow my ass up!

 

Kinda figured based on the symptoms.

Glad you got it sorted.

 

which way did you have it mounted? when i had them mounted terminals up i had a lot more failures then once i had the terminals down

 

This was how it’d been mounted since 2016, everything worked without flaw until I was welding with just the negative terminals disconnected about a month ago. My suspicion I should have disconnected both negative and positive terminals from both batteries to make sure everything was isolated

 

I have this setup for a few years.

 

!!! Where you have your battery charger is where I want to put my secondary fuse box. Do you think your guy would be up for making such a tray???

 

I went through most of this thread and Google, anyone mount a battery tray/box up along a frame rail under the truck?

I’d like to double my house battery capacity without upgrading the whole system.

LiFePo4 would be ideal but out of the question at the moment due to budget.

What’s in my budget is just adding a second deep cycle battery to the current system to double the capacity.

No room under the hood or in the bed for one though.

Any thoughts?

 

not on the frame, but in the spare tire well. worked well for where it was at.

 

Been reading through the forums before jumping in and doing some serious mods to my truck.

Dual batteries is on the list.

Question for you guys. With something like the redarc setup from off grid engineering does disconnecting the main factory battery negative ground complicate things? Sometimes it's advised to remove the negative cable if your doing something like working around an airbag or the like. With the redarc setup would you first have to disconnect the redarc setup, then worry about the factory battery or is it ok to keep things intact and just disconnect the factory ground?

I'm still in the research phase and trying to wrap my head around it all.

Thanks!

 

Be safe - disconnect both negative battery terminals.

That way, there is no chance current could flow backwards through your Redarc.

 

Man, I could NOT get away with a battery in that orientation/location in the midwest. Jealous of you desert folks.

 

yea, its nice having zero rust issues lol

 

Thanks, that's a simple way to be sure. Started overthinking it thinking I'd have to disconnect the positive than the negative for the aux before doing anything to the main. Basically the opposite of an install

 

If I didn’t have my spare there still, I’d do that.

 

Which IGN fuse did you use? There are two that have IGN in the label.

 

I will check for you. This is the only picture i have right now. I think i used IGN. A multimeter would be helpful too

 

I've got a 3rd gen but may have the same fuse mapping. Thanks!

 

Quick question guys, I have a renogy 100ah deep cycle battery. I'm curious if this can be run to connect to my main agm battery and charge off of it? I only want to use this renogy to run my fridge.

 

You will probably need something between both