Racing_Joe66

I was wondering how would I hook up a 2nd battery in my 91 d350?

I want to put a second battery in it to run accessories in the truck so they aren't drawing off my main battery. But I want to wire it so that with one of those on/off ***** I can use it in sync with my main battery or both battery's together or one batter or the other alone, in case of an emergancy so I don't have to switch batterys around. But now I want to wire it so while the truck is running it will charge that battery also.

Anyone know how I can do this?

Thanks

dzl_damon

Lots of similar topics have been brought up the last few weeks. Do a search and you should find a few results. I know Jim Lane has some similar set up using switches, and a few diodes, etc.

BearKiller

JIM's set-up is first-class; but, if you have to ask about the simplest parts of the process, then it is probably gonna be confusing to you.


To put it simply, there are two simple means of acheiving what you are wanting.

One is to use a plain old battery isolater, available from just about anywhere, even Harbor Freight has them.

The easiest and best way to wire an isolater is to leave your alternator and main starting battery as-is and simply route a HOT from the battery to the IN post of the isolater and the auxilliary battery HOT to the appropriate post of the isolater; wired thus will charge both batteries, yet prevent the auxilliary from draining the main.



The second method is to use a continuous-duty solenoid that connects the auxilliary to the main when the engine is running and dis-connects when the engine is off.


The solenoid can be wired much like I described for the isolater.


To connect both batteries together for emergency jump-starting, you can use either a marine switch purpose-built for the job; PERKO and COLE-HERSEE are the major manufacturers of such switches; or, any number of creative and free methods can be devised that will perform the job equally as well.

One method would be to simply relocate the HOT cable of the auxilliary battery from the isolater over to the main HOT.