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Originally Posted by Romer
Hellroaring:
1.If you flip the switch to start the vehicle, is the main still in the loop potentially drawing down the main?
2.If your alternator is bad (Cause of dead main battery) will the backup be able to do more than just start you, can it effectively run all your electronics.
3.Looks like wire from backup goes to starter. Is this the wire that takes the backup battery power and powers the loads via the main battery?
4.If you flip the switch to start the vehicle, is the main still in the loop potentially drawing down the main?
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I'm by no means an expert but I can answer some questions on the Hellroaring set-up.
1. When you "flip the switch" essentially this will combine both batteries. Basically you are jumping the dead main with your fresh and fully charged back-up. Keeping in mind that in regular mode both are charged but all loads are off the main.
2.According to the Hellroaring website if your alternator is bad you flip the switch and all will be powered the same. You have the juice in the battery to get you where you need to be. He estimated??? about 2 hours but I have no idea what the time on a fresh battery will be.
3. The back up is conected from the BIC (battery isolator/combiner) to the "starter" In reality, I hooked mine to the Positive terminal on the Main battery. Beowulf, I believe did the same thing. If you scan through the Hellroaring website and find the installation instructions you will see where he comments on "connecting to the starter" and states that doing it this way (to the pos) is not a big deal and can be desirable.
4. Not sure if this works for your question but here goes: I too was worried about a massive short in the main that when the switch is flipped would short the back-up leaving you screwed. I called Mike at Hellroaring (very helpful by the way) and he said it was possible but highly unlikely to have a short in the main that was big enough to cause that kind of problem. He was thinking to cause this kind of short you have to drop a wrench on both pos and neg and have it stay that way melting the whole system down. I did install a 150amp fuse between the main and the BIC to avoid a problem if one may occur. If this fuse is shot, my BIC and back-up are protected.
Overall, the system was pretty easy to install. Looks really clean. His remote switch has a LED and a on/off/on switch. OFF - charge both, run off main. ON 1 - charge both, run both together. ON 2 - Isolate the batteries from each other. There is an LED on the BIC if you want to check out his diagnostics. I haven't taken the time to learn this part yet. Check his site for more info.
I chose a simple on/off switch for OFF and the above ON 1. Because I have a 21 month old and another coming in July (switches and lights are very cool), I kept my switch on the back-up battery tray to keep little fingers from running both batteries down. I don't see myself doing a lot of switching except if I can't start so keeping it under the hood was fine by me. I also didn't want to do switches if is wasn't needed. At this point I drive around and do nothing unless there is no power. Then I pop the hood (probably wound anyway) and flip a switch. Drive off. When both are charged after a bit of driving (assuming intact alternator) I flip the switch back.
My main goal was a backup system for starting. Being in a stuck auto with the wife and two little ones would really suck. I can also run a fridge, radio, other plug ins, lights, and down the road a winch with a solid back-up in the wings.
TR