Dual Battery Opinions

[bwell]

looking for opinions on my situation. I have a optima red top battery. After repeated winch pulls with relatively light weight on the line, maybe 500 to 2000lbs tree limbs/trunks. The battery reserve is depleted to the point where the radio will cut out if I happen to have it on, and you will be able to tell the strain being put on the electrical system. Since I do not currently plan on adding a bunch of wired accessories inside the vehicle, I don't see much need for any of the expensive battery management systems available given my usage.
That said, does anyone see any issues with just adding an additional battery wired parallel off of my main battery to increase available reserve?

Considering replacing main battery with a group 31m of some brand and then using my current optima battery over the passenger wheel well in the engine bay.

 

[ihadmail]

Why not forgo the dual setup and use a group 31 AGM of your choice and upgrade to the 150A sequoia alternator?

The extra output from the larger alternator will pick up the slack while you're doing a winch pull. In reality the larger battery wouldn't be necessary since the truck should be running when making a pull.

This thread has most of the pertinent info on the larger alternator: Upgrading stock alternator to 130/150 amp

Cliffs notes are you need the 150A alternator and Toyota part number 90980-11964 which is the new style connector if you don't already have the square alternator connection.

 

[bwell]

Thank you for the insight.
Yes, truck is definitely running

 

[badlander]

You probably already know this but for anyone reading who does not, having the truck running alone is not enough. Rev's must be well above idle speed to keep up with a winching load on the electrical system. At idle with the headlights on, the voltage is barely being maintained by the alternator. Add something like a winch running and the engine may as well not even be running at all. With my winch I wouldn't even be able to wind up a full length of loose cable without a little added rev. And, if you get down much below 10 V. the engine will quit.

 

[Dave 2000]

Looking at your usage, I would buy two new (decent quality) identical batteries , and fit a fast idle facility so you can up the revs whilst winching, run heavy cables between them in parallel, job done.

regards

Dave

 

[bwell]

I was actually thinking I might pursue a cable mechanism to facilitate the higher rev such as on a h1 hummv where you can lock it at your desired engine speed. Then work up to a matching battery if needed.

Thank you for everyone's suggestions.

 

[jLB]

You may want to search this forum for "hand throttle"


Example thread:
The Not Quite 100% OEM Manual Hand Throttle Modification