Dual battery question

[jdecoudres]

ok so im going to hook up a 2nd battery in my boat need to make sure i am doing it correctly. I have a 1,2,bott,off postion switch. I want the easy and cheapest way so this is what I am going to do. hook up the neg from battery one to battery 2 and ground it off the boat. the pos of battery 1 goes to the #1 on the switch. pos of battery 2 goes to the #2 on the switch. NOw what while goes to the common stud on the switch. Altnator wire or starter wire? And so does all my radio and amp and light wires connect to the pos of battery 2 since it is going to be my house battery and my battery 1 is going to be my start battery. Any help would be great. U can also email me at [email protected] I seen alot online of digrams but its hard to make out what wire goes where and excatley where it is coming from.

[cab13367]

ok so im going to hook up a 2nd battery in my boat need to make sure i am doing it correctly. I have a 1,2,bott,off postion switch. I want the easy and cheapest way so this is what I am going to do. hook up the neg from battery one to battery 2 and ground it off the boat. the pos of battery 1 goes to the #1 on the switch. pos of battery 2 goes to the #2 on the switch. NOw what while goes to the common stud on the switch. Altnator wire or starter wire? And so does all my radio and amp and light wires connect to the pos of battery 2 since it is going to be my house battery and my battery 1 is going to be my start battery. Any help would be great. U can also email me at [email protected] I seen alot online of digrams but its hard to make out what wire goes where and excatley where it is coming from.

You would wire everything to the common stud - starter, alternator, stereo, power distribution block under the dash, etc. - and nothing directly to the batteries.

[DOCDRS]

Both ways will work and are similar in the way the batteries are charged. I like the first way better as your not trying to connect 7 or so wires to the selector common

Run your starter/ alt wire to your common stud on the switch, then the rest as you described. This way separates the starting battery from the house battery. Then your switch will determine which battery will start your boat and conversely which battery will be charged. When its at 1 only this battery will be charged, but not the 2 battery. at 2 only this battery will be charged . at 1+2 both will be charged but the batteries are in parallel and both will be drained by the stereo.

Cabs way everything will run off the battery or (batteries) selected and only that one(s) will be charged, i guess its good if you know your back up battery is fully charged, but it won't be charged unless you have it set to that one. This way does not separate your starting system from your house system.

Both ways you have to manually switch to the change the battery/s to be charged. if you leave it at 1&2 both will be drained.

spend an extra 50 and get yourself a blue sea or a bep automatic charging regulator and you don't have to worry

[cab13367]

There's pluses and minuses to both approaches. If you wire everything to the common stud, then if you get to the boat ramp and your starter battery is dead for some reason (slow drain, bad cell, etc), you can flip the switch to 2 and start the boat off your house battery (assuming it's charged of course). If you wired the starter directly to batt 1, then it's not as convenient as flipping a switch. Or if you sit too long on the water and run your stereo battery completely dead, you won't have any tunes the rest of the day if you wired the stereo directly to the house battery. I think you have more flexibility wiring everything to the common post but you have to remember to switch it back and forth.

I agree with doc - spend a few extra bucks and install an ACR so you don't ever have to worry about the batteries.

Al

[DOCDRS]

you just wire the motor to the common stud, thus you can start off of battery 1,2 or both. If your stereo battery goes dead you switch it to 1+2 and you have tunes again. Just make sure you have enough juice to start.

Al, I think there is almost no difference wireing it either way..... they're both manual ......ACR all the way

[cab13367]

If your stereo battery goes dead you switch it to 1+2 and you have tunes again.

You're right - don't know why I didn't think of that!

[ausbill32]

I'm going to have to hook up a second battery. So would something like this work?

http://bluesea.com/files/images/prod...0_packaged.jpg

[gus 08 mobius lsv]

ok guys my dealer installed a second battery at my request and perko switch. he hooked it up his way cause i didn't know how i should do it really and didn't have the speaker system i do now it was just for the future. my stereo runs off of bat 1, 2, or both even if the engine isn't running so this means the stereo could kill both batteries and leave me stranded if i run it long enough right?
i told him i wanted to have the other battery as a back up in case playin music for a few hours drained it i'd still have another one to get me started then switch it to both and have the alternator charge them both back up while i'm running. is this what i want but obviously don't have that right now right?

[Razzman]

Gus you never want your stereo running off both batts. The preferred method is to have the stereo run off of bat 2 only. Given that he hooked it up this way you should be able to remove the Perko and swithch cables around or eliminate some to get the preferred method.

[gus 08 mobius lsv]

Gus you never want your stereo running off both batts. The preferred method is to have the stereo run off of bat 2 only. Given that he hooked it up this way you should be able to remove the Perko and swithch cables around or eliminate some to get the preferred method.

thanks razz i didn't think this was right i thought it kinda defeated the purpose of the perko switch and second battery. something i need to dig into and fix!