Blue Sea Add a Battery Questions

[dereklschmidt]

Ok, I was in the process of preparing my boat for adding the Blue Sea Add a Battery System. More of a challenge than what I thought, I assumed I would have room in the back by the other battery, but I don't like it there and there is no where to mount the switch and acr. So after some thought, I decided to move both batteries to the front of the boat.

Hopefully you guys can help me out on these questions.

1. What gauge wire do I need to run from the Alternator to the ACR?
2. Where does the wire connect to the Alternator at? I see a small orange wire that goes to the starter, do I remove this? Also, it looks like the wires on the Alternator are in the form of a 2 or 3 wire plug?
3. What gauge wire do I need to run from the Starter to the Switch? Looks like 0 awg or 1 awg right now.
4. What size of wire do I need to run to the Ground post?
5. Is there anything I am missing? I have all amp/stereo cables ran to the front already...
6. For the battery, should I get something close to what I currently have or does it matter? I have a deep cycle now with only 650cca, is getting a more powerful starting battery better or worse?

All help is much appreciated!

[mmandley]

For the cables you want to keep the same size as the factory put in or go Bigger, never smaller.

For cables from the alternator to the switch system to change it you will always want to run 2 gauge or bigger.

Ground cables need to be the same size as power cables.

As for batteries the 650 is plenty big as a starting battery. If your going to a second battery it would be the bigger one for the stereo.

As i understand or have been told you want to stay with similar batteries in these setups, or maybe its same brands. You don't want to run a Wet cell Deep Cycle with a Gell Cell Deep Cycle.

Im no expert in batteries this is just how i understand from the other guys on here.

I do know that Power and Ground always need to be the same because those are your voltage pipelines and the return path needs to be the same as a supply path size.

[dereklschmidt]

Sounds good, I will use the same for Power & Ground, They are not the same now, they are definitely after market cables though. I'm not sure how I can tie in a 2 gauge wire into my alternator either, any suggestions? And what are the other wires coming from my alternator? Shouldn't I just need the positive at the switch?

As for the batteries, I have been told to stay the exact same, but I am thinking about just getting another Wet Cell Deep Cycle battery. That should be fine right?

thanks for your help

[mmandley]

Sounds good on your batteries.

As for the alternator generally there is a power line to the battery directly off the back will have a stud with a screw on it. It will have a Ground line also. Then a plug for the wires to the dash of the car, this would be ignition and a gauge for your charging.

Like i said i don't have the boat here at the moment its at Exile still i can look it over and send you some pics of how its wired if you like. PM me your email and when i get down there later today ill snap some shots and email you or just email me real fast at

[email protected]

[dereklschmidt]

I sent you an email quick.

Where are you getting all of your heavier guage wire at for your project?

[ausbill32]

When I did mine two weeks ago, I bout 2/0 from Home Depot, it was .79 a foot. Pretty cheap but this wire has 8 big strands, you have to be "HeMan" to bend that stuff...lol. and they only sell black.

Needless to say, I'm looking for some cheaper 2/0 more flexable wire so I can clean up my mess. I found some at a local boat store but they want $6 bucks a foot.

Someone mentioned using welding wire on another forum post but I wasn't able to find any.

Derek, don't forget you need to install fuses on the lines from the ASR to the batteries.