yep, and it would prevent power surges and drops. if you plan on loading your electrical system decently, or if you plan on running that inverter for extended periods of time, its an excellent idea!

 

a second battery with an automatic charging relay would be an excellent idea. get a deep cycle to run the inverter, and have the starting battery charge first, then the deep cycle. With a deep cycle isolated from the rest of the system you wouldn't have to worry about having enough juice left in the main battery to start the truck

 

My only potential problems I see with that are:

Will there be any MPG drop?
If I mount the aux battery in the back, I will loose some cargo space.

Also, How the heck do I connect it to the rest of the power system?

Does it need to have a ground to the frame also?

 

yeah it gets way more complicated. If you wanna do that look for instructions on how they want the automatic charger hooked up to each battery and how it works for that particular model.

The more features you add the more complicated it gets...

mpg shouldnt really be affected

 

Ok, so I've got the 6 guage body ground for the battery. It turns out it was 6 guage already. I need a bump in the right direction where to go from here. I'm stuck and don't know what to do next.

I also have the inverter, so I guess you could call that progress. I'd really like to get going on this project. Suggestions on what to do next?

 

hook both the 6 gauges to the body. then install the inverter, if its a different size than below, I can figure out what wire you need for you again. I don't know anything about the dual battery banks though...

 

So, I'm supposed to use a 6 gauge on the inverter ground too?

I think I'm gonna keep things simple, and not do a dual battery setup.

 

so wait, you bought a 6 gauge ground to replace your factory battery ground? if so, just hook it up with the existing wire in the engine bay, then you'll have a high capacity ground, which never hurts and doesn't cost all that much.

as for the inverter, do at least a 6 gauge there too. I think you should be just fine with a 6 gauge wire from the inverter to the body as well as an additional 6 gauge wire from the battery to the body. thats the connection setup I would recommend and would install on my own vehicle.

cant wait for this one to be finished! Keep us posted!

 

Ok, so are you suggesting that I keep my existing factory 6 gauge ground, or add another one?
Do you recommend I upgrade the terminals also, or is that not necessary?

Thanks for the input!!!

 

keep the existing factory battery ground, and add the other wire as well just to be safe. this way, there is no way to overheat/damage your ground wire.

 

Yeah redundancy is a good thing when it comes to grounds.