hey guys... i plan on lighting up the trail with my truck... i currently have a lgiht bar being built to hold my 2... maybe 4 lights on the ver front of my truck and want to put a roll bar in the bed with another four lights...

im not that stupid and knwo that if i run that many lgihts.. it won be logn before either i blow the battery sky high, the alternator with take a crap or just a plain out electrical fire... so i want to run this the right way and get a second battery and i already have the bigger alternator for the truck... so how could i run the second battery... where can i put it, and where would the wires run to keep my truck a 12 v setup?

how much would it cost for me to tkae my alternator in to a specialist and redo it to power everything the right way? can i use a ( for lack of better words, stereo terms) gigantic capacitor to help? also keep in mind guys this truck is going to have a winch on it here soon too... i know, turn off all unnessasary lgihts and accesories to run winch but still.... it would work better for the few seconds it runs at a time....

 

I dont know how you would wire it, but you could use a battery box from a Cummins. They had 2 batteries, one on each side.

Look to the left.

 

you'd need to run an isolator between the batteries and the alternator, allows both batteries to function together without changing the truck voltage, and if the rear battery is run to nothing it wont affect the starting of hte truck

wire like this


id recommend mounting the extra in the rear of hte truck, in a box behind the cab would be best, keeps it easy to access and you can jump start somebody from either side of the truck.

also look at a high output alternator, 2 batteries will fry a standard pretty quick


but you really dont need a second battery just for lights,
i have 2 40Amp compressors that run off the truck battery and my headlights dont even dim,
and the comps run a lot, i can make a 30 minute trip across town and if the weathers nice or if i see enough cute girls i wont have a problem running the compressors the entire trip

its in your setup, i have a 1000CA redtop mounted in my toolbox behind hte cab, a 120A alternator, 4G cable to the front, 4G grounded right to the frame, 10G to the compressors that are mounted in the bed, less than 3Ft from the battery