Anyone have a wiring diagram on how to Wire up Dual Batteries? I need (more like want) Dual Optima Yellow Tops in my truck, in preperation for a sound system.

 

What parts do I need? I have the wiring, terminals, battery terminals already. Im getting the Optimas either today or tomorrow. What else would I need?

 

Isolater

 

That looks like a quality product. But reading around their site, it seems that it would not do what I want. I want to have my system wired to a seperate battery, that I can "isolate" from the main vehicle battery when the vehicle is off. On their site, they say to have the system wired to the same, main battery, and the second battery be souly for emergencies, when the main battery is dead.

Would this be accomplished with a different isolator, or is that just int he wiring?

 

http://www.drawhorn.org/dual_batteries.htm

 

Wait, you have the isolator there, but in this pic I see your batteries are directly connected to each other?

 

I have REAR dual batteries....w/ the third in the stock location.

You want dual batteries...the Painless kit is the way to go...I just modified it and got a dual battery cable kit and linked the rear dual batteries in parallel and then put them into the "dual" kit w/ the front battery. Does that make sense?

Nothing to it. Everything is on my link.

 

2 yellow tops will work, but it would probably be a better idea to get a red top for starting and a yellow for the aux.....

 

Nope, I disagree. I think you do need (2) alike batteries if you are going to have them in parallel w/ the Painless kit as when hooked up if they are not equal batteries one will drain the other and they won't work together. If you got to buy (2) anyway, get (2) alike....I got (3) alike!

 

he isnt going t orun 3 batteries liek you did... hes running 2... the yellows are made for being discharced and recharged a lot..... the starting batteries are not... they both have differnt purposes meant for differnt things and you should match the battery capability to what it isgoing to be doing.....

 

Read it again slowly.

 

actually while i was typing that, i was actually thinking to go with 2 red tops.... the redtops can handle the drain, you arent using it in a marine or long storage situation, bith will get used, and both still capable of starting routinely..... also the reserve capacity on the red tops is not much less than the reserve capacity on the yellows... and who actually draws full output amperage for as long as it takes to drain a battery without recharging or starting it?

 

sorry to hi-jack, but im thinking about getting a yellow top, and using it for my car, and then using my current battery (dunno what kind, all i know is its only 525 cca) for my stereo, would that work??

 

you could do that, but why? a lot of people jsut want he yellow top for a stereo and have no idea why otehr than its a cool mod that i can do...... are you planning on really running a dedicated isolator setup so both batteries will charge? or what?

a yellowtop will start a vehcile, but it will not start a vehcile better than a redtop would..... granted a yellow top will outperform a red top in a deep cycled environment with stuff that actually uses deep cycling.....

 

Drained my one dual last weekend listening to the radio in my truck all weekend long, just to drain the battery. I had to switch the system over to charging the rear duals from the alternator as the radio was clicking on and off and under 10Vs to get it going again.

Next time I go wheeling will be primitive and you can bet your I'll use all the power I have.

 

The question is NOT red/yellow/blue/orange top...the question is can your alt keep up with your accessories?


If you alternator is overloaded in EVEN THE TINYEST AMOUNT, go get a deep cycle and NOT a red top.

Even slightly deep cycling a Red will kill it in short order and I speak from experience on that one.

Currently I am running 2 ULTRA deep cycles (equivalent to the Blue Top) they perform flawlessly and I have left my dome light on for a straight 48hrs and they still had plenty of umph to turn over the engine....I then let the 190amp alt do it's thing!

If you have an alt like mine and no accessories, and want starting power when the temp is -40F or more, get the Red. The Red was specifically designed to start in extreme temperatures were other batteries fail.

 

ps - dont drop a huge sum of money on an isolator system....

Go buy a larger starter solenoid. A starter solenoid is basically a HUGE relay capable of passing LARGE amounts of current. Wire it up so that the batteries are kept electrically separate when the ignition is off, and so that they are paralleled when the ignition is turned to ACC.

 

Exactly what Ive been trying to do. Got a wiring diagram on how to do this?

 

That is what the painless wiring kit does... :pat:

If you don't know how to do it on your own, get a kit, it was EASY to install...less than an hour...and it does all that...have you read my website link as to the 3 modes of operation?????

 

ลลลล that wont help me, since I need to have the key to ACC to bump the system....argh..