Ok. Finally I am getting around to adding a second battery. My truck consists of a modest amount of aftermarket and extra accessories. Compressor, several hid ballasts, audio amps, led lights, gauges, solenoids, blah blah blah. Anyway. Truck runs great and the one yellow top is probably more than enough but after a few careless nights of leaving radios or accessories on to long and embarrassing requests for a jump I've had enough. I'm planning adding a second battery isolated for a self jump or extra juice when needed/wanted.

I already have the second tray and second yellow top I just need to decide the wiring

I originally planned on just using an isolator with a switch on the dash or having them separated when the truck is off or something. But I've read on other forums that it is a no no to put a second solenoid(first being the starters solenoid) between the starting power of theses batteries and the starter. Again this is all overkill and backup power so I'm probably over thinking.


So anyone have any opinions on how to set this up. In my head I have a few options

Option one. First battery kept factory. Second battery. Tied in directly to the first battery. Negative of second to negative of first. Positive of second to positive of first with an isolator between for dual battery selective starting and powering

I have other options on my head maybe tying the second battery directly to the starter. Or Ive read about two starter solenoids. Idk


Anyone with ideas please comment. Unless your ideas are to keep the truck running or to learn how to turn my acc off. Lol. Thanks in advance

 

For your needs (keeping accessory power with the truck off) I'd say get a good isolator. Both positive battery terminals and the alternator output all wire to the isolator. When the truck is running both batteries are connected as one, when the truck is off one battery is isolated and has no current draw, and the other battery powers all your accessories. I think guys that do that use a deep cycle battery for the accessories (that battery is built better to constantly be fully discharged numerous times) There are some really nice high end isolators that actually keep the batteries separated after the truck is started and once the main battery is fully charged, it will then charge the secondary battery (the theory being to not over burden the alternator)

 

I bought a Stinger off Amazon.com for like $50, that's exactly how it hooks up, to both batteries and the pos off the alternator.
Stayed away from the yaller top though, since Johnson Controls bought them out and moved all production to Mexico, they've been for sh*t, LOTS of people having failures just after a year with them on the Jeep forums. My local Sam's club guy told me they stopped carrying Optima's because the failure/return rate was higher than all other brands they sell - combined...

 

Yes. A good isolator seems to be key. I've read others talking about isos that have "brains" and charge one at a time. Or the the lower voltage battery or whatever it does it chooses which to charge instead of letting the alt try to charge both. Only prob is those isos cost double what a decent regular one costs. I priced out normal isos at around 50. And the smart ones that regulate are a lil over a hundred.

 

Another reason why I thought of separating them. One would only see the occasionally drain or pull of starting then be left alone. Barley needing to recharge. Th pe other would be the daily normal use battery. So my alt wouldnt stress over charging two because the extra batt wouldnt be used very often. Just sit there incase.

 

Yeah I didn't know that. But I believe it. A few years back I had a yellow top and it was great. The current one seems to die easier whether my different batts fall on the different owner timeline idk but sounds possible. They are easy enough to swap out tho.

 

hey which stinger relay are you reffering to the 50 dollar one shows that it connects to each battery and an igition source
http://www.stingerelectronics.com/im...stallation.pdf