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Second "House" battery in truck bed questions

Discussion in 'Technical Chat' started by pos3idon, May 15, 2011.

  1. Apr 8, 2012 at 8:22 AM
    #21
    pos3idon

    pos3idon [OP] Active Member

    Joined:
    May 4, 2011
    Member:
    #56056
    Messages:
    44
    Gender:
    Male
    New York
    Vehicle:
    2011 Tacoma 4x4
    12 Volt outlet in bed, Leer Topper, UltraGauge, second battery
    Heres the install I ended up doing:

    (Pictures can be seen here on my website:)

    I installed an Optima yellow top battery in the bed of the truck, bolted down. I connected it to the engine compartment with 4 gauge wire (I ended up purchasing all copper jumper cables from same club and cutting off the ends because it was much cheaper than buying 4 gauge wire). I zip tied the wire on top of / inside the vehicle frame to protect it.

    I calculated that the wire had a max load of ~150 amps so I fused it with mechanical Buss Fuses rated at 100 amps at both ends.

    I connected all this to a Blue Sea marine battery isolator located under the hood. The isolator removes the stress on the alternator by not allowing the second battery to charge until the primary battery is at 13 Volts, additionally if the secondary battery drops below 9.5 volts it will keep them isolated until I use a battery charger to bring it back up.

    I then installed a small electrical panel with two 12 volt outlets from a marine supply store in the rear bed storage pocket to act as a house battery panel so I could run lights and inverters at night. I left enough excess cable behind the panel that it could be easily removed and pulled out so I could work on it.

    So far I've put roughly 20,000 miles on this setup and it has worked great.
     
    bfaris1 likes this.

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