Dual battery setup

Here are pixs of my dual battery setup. Used factory tray part# 55174970, hold down bolts part# 55014375, crossbar part# 55011012.

Cool stuff but why 2 red tops? Shouldn't you have a yellow in there for winching and playing the stereo all day?

Where is the isolater mounted? Where did you get the isolator? How much was it?

Ghost said:

Where is the isolater mounted? Where did you get the isolator? How much was it?

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what's an isolater? and why would i have one?, set up like a diesel.

does it negatively affect your underhood air flow?

2offroad said:

what's an isolater? and why would i have one?, set up like a diesel.

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Isolator is the device that seperates the batteries. It alows them to be seperate and seperatly charged. How do you have them wired?

like a diesel + to +, - to -. will make some type of isolator later.
don't think it will change much in the air flow.

red x's

Is is considered HiJacking if I Ask a quesiton on this thread?

Oh well....
What about charging? do you expect your alternator to pick up the slack and charge those batteries?
so now it seems like you have One large capacity battery (diesel set up is 24v most of the time btw + to - chain on the big F9xx delivery trucks and freightliner and international... all 24v)
so what do people that have had this type of dual battery system use for alternator or charging system. and do you have anything that wouldmake them drain separately (does the isolator do that?) so that if you drian your battery you can flip a switch and start your engine... (run that radio all day or winchin out of a water hole)
what systems do you run and where do you get your components?
I hear of a place called alterstart from earlier threads hows that working out what prompted the upgrade failure or desire to upgrade?

ok i think that's it for my hijacking questoins.

please don't :hang: me

Here's mine(setup by JeepersandCreepers), it's got a switched isolator and instead of going with two big batteries I just added a smaller BatCap.

The Xstatic BatCap is a 14LB. 800 cold cranking amp dry cell battery.
I really have no need to run two big batteries, I just added the auxilary one so that I could put it on line if the other one gets drained or fails. Nice having a backup since I've been known to listen to the tunes and run the blender on ocasion.

2offroad said:

what's an isolater? and why would i have one?, set up like a diesel.

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Like Ghost said, an isolater allows each battery to be charged independently by the alternator and to drain independently. You want this (or a big honkin rotary dual battery switch like in a boat or RV, or a solenoid switcher) or something, so that your batteries remain independent of one another. Like another fella said on this post, what you have is one large capacity battery. Since you have effectively wired them parallel, if you leave your headlights on tonight, both batteries will be dead in the morning. With an isolator (or a battery management system like the ones these guys sell: http://www.wranglernw.com/ ) you can run your batteries independently and switch between them as needed. They will charge together when the alternator is running, but one can be isolated from the other so that in the event you leave your lights on overnight, you can switch over and start up with the other battery.
Buck :canada:

i was being :looney: i know what an isolater/isolator is, right now i have 1 big honking battery, i will set up some type of isolater later. most light duty diesels are 12v with 2 batteries in parallel, for the load the glow plug and high start load take. just wanted extra capacity. as for the reason for the upgrade, battery tray was available.

An isolator is expensive and actually uses several amps just to power itself. I chose a better solution, IMNSHO. I put a 200 amp relay between the two batteries and wired the relay off a three way switch. One goes to ignition, one goes to battery. I run it in standard form off the ignition. That way the batteries are disconnected when the ignition is off. If I drain the main battery for some reason, it won't drain the second. Then, in the morning, I can flip the switch to battery and it will reconnect them, basically using the charged one to "jump" the dead one.
I'm using a 165 amp alternator. You can get by with a stock one but it will be constantly charging, limiting it's life considerably.

Actualy they are not that expensive... I stumbled across on in JC Whitney RV section yesterday and it was only $60!

Ghost said:

Actualy they are not that expensive... I stumbled across on in JC Whitney RV section yesterday and it was only $60!

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Check the amp rating. I've never seen one that was rated over 165 amp(minimum you need for a high amp alternator) for under $100.