Dual Battery Setup (1 Viewer)

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THIS IS A WASTE OF MONEY

ARB FRIDGE FREEZER WIRING KIT & THREADED SOCKET (10900027)


I AM SORRY. I TRIED ARB, but your little bitty L-shaped lightweight connections are a major failure point. You got me to buy another accessory - so kudos to you, but . . . I will know better next time.



Now I am cutting your factory cords and installing these:

Powerwerx PanelPole, Panel Mount Housing for Two Powerpole Connectors with a Weather Resistant Cover | Powerwerx

or these:

45 Amp Permanently Bonded Red/Black Anderson Powerpole Connectors | Powerwerx

Because I already cut a giant hole in my power board and WTF - for real with these L shaped miniture "my f'ing hands are too big to f with these" clips?



Please stop me if the beer is talking and I am crazy.
 
^^ Another reason not to drink and do electric work on your vehicle. I am sorry.
 
Alright - today I cleaned up the main power supply wires to the breaker circuits. I will KEEP the ARB screw-in cord adapter thingy for now. . .

I moved the ARB line BEHIND the board to de-clutter things on the board.

Front:

20170421_171600.jpg


Back (hidden between board and truck bed:

20170421_171453.jpg
 
I hated that ARB style plug. Way too fiddly with the internal fuse thing. I shortened the cord installed power poles and never looked back.
 
weejub said:
^^ Another reason not to drink and do electric work on your vehicle. I am sorry.
Click to expand...
Don't drink and eBay either. I have a 75 gallon filtration system on 10 gallon fish tank (that I didn't have when purchased).
 
Hey @weejub --very important...When you install the power poles, make CERTAIN you get the polarity right. Because once you cut off that miserable ARB plug, you loose the wrong polarity protection. Make certain you know which side of the wire carries the (+) before your cut the plug off.

And after you get the polarity, follow the recommended power pole polarity convention, always. Then nothing ever gets screwed up. Using the pre-fused housing assures this assuming you do your part.

But I'm confused now. I thought you had it working. Where does the truck bed board you show, install? Gotta pic?
 
Andrew - The bed board installs on the passenger side of the truck bed. The 6 AWG comes from the front house battery, under the cab, up through a hole in the bed and then on back to the bed board. The bed board houses the breaker circuit board that the house battery line goes into.

I have too much slack in this main 6 AWG line right now. I am waiting for more 6 AWG PowerPole connection ends to come in and then will cut it down to fit better.

20170416_151530 (1).jpg
 
Got it. I thought you said something about the mounting board being on the floor and I didn't see how that would work. The vertical mount is good. The footman loops tie down the fridge. After some wire clean up, that's going to look nice.
 
Yes it will. Mine is backfeeding through the fuse panel right now and it works fine, though mine is a fuse not a breaker but it should not matter.

There are cheaper charge controller options. A MorningStar Sunsaver 10 is $50-$60 and works very well. What makes that Victron contoller nice is the Bluetooth control. So you can be sitting in your camp chair having a well deserved adult beverage, and check on your solar production and battery condition on your cell phone.
 
weejub said:
- - do you think I can just plug this into the circuit board in any neg/pos position?
Click to expand...

I'm redoing my board in my rear quarter for Hurricane Creek. I'm going to mount a charge controller on it and back feed through it to the house battery. When parked for extended periods, For keeping things topped off, Currently I use an existing 12v power outlet tied into the house battery. I then wired a male plug to a trickle charger, plug it into the power outlet, and back feed trickle charge to keep the fridge going. Never had any issues with this system and Ive done this for 10+ years.

Basically, I'm using something like this.
Amazon.com: Black & Decker BM3B 6V and 12V Battery Charger / Maintainer: Automotive

or this
Smith-Victor 401993 12V Battery Pack Trickle Charger
 
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I have three chargers like the above. I never considered putting them on the rear breaker. I wonder if my Blue Sea Relay would keep the starter battery topped off, too if it "saw" electricity filling up the house battery.

I was going to go direct to the batteries up front if I needed to, but it would be nice to run through the back end.
 
weejub said:
I wonder if my Blue Sea Relay would keep the starter battery topped off, too if it "saw" electricity filling up the house battery.
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Im curious about that to. I have plans to go to the Blue Sea Relay. I wonder if there is a minimum voltage or a internal diode.

Depending on which way I park my truck depends on how I hook it up because of where my 110v outlet is. Sometimes I go straight to the battery with the clips.

I've considered mounting this Journeyman-Pro 5278 15 Amp 125 Volt, Flanged Inlet, Black Commercial Grade, 2 Pole-3 Wire, Straight Blade, Nema 5-15 (With Cover/Cap) - - Amazon.com in the front bumper connected to a trickle charger. Then just run the extension cord.


Connect this
Amazon.com: NOCO Genius GEN2 20 Amp 2-Bank Waterproof Smart On-Board Battery Charger: NOCO: Automotive
... you could plug up when parked at a state park, etc. and run all your accessories keeping both batteries charged. I think I found my set up.
 
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THe BlueSea relay is bi-directional and built for continuous duty and so will do exactly that. It will sense the charge current on the house side, and once the house is above 13 volts, it will close the relay also charging the engine battery. It's seamless. My trucks are all sitting on Battery Minders, and both batteries are being maintained.

Incidentally, solar charging the house battery does the same thing.
 
Cleaning things up today. New look with the smaller fuse blocks. I took the battery top holder out, cut it to allow for the house battery to be flipped, then sanded it down good so it looks decent vs sloppy.

I also went back and did further clean up on some of the truck cables below that feed from the starter, fuse box and negative (not seen). Put more protection on basically everything. Used plenty of electrical tape, split loom and shrink wrap on stuff close to the engine.

On top of the batteries, I have the 150A on the left going to the upper left post. Have the 150A on the right, top fuse going to the right post of the switch. Ended up with a 75A (living dangerously) on the bottom right that will go back via a new longer line to the 80A fuse on the firewall.

This new set up should solve a couple issues:

1. Solve my rubbing problems with the house battery (right one) positive now on the left side. When it was flipped the negative was rubbing on the hood.
2. Get all my cables away from each other - none should be touching/rubbing.
3. Gives me a fuse at the battery for the house battery.
4. Looks a lot better.

Need to cut a couple new lines, but had a good time so far despite the heat :)

Before:

20170410_181808.jpg


After (partially done):


20170429_142354.jpg
 
Almost done. Need a ground wire from the Relay and a longer house battery to firewall fuse line. Gotta go watch Prom pictures being taken, though :) Will have to finish up rest later.

**Just noticed I am missing a screw on the switch, too**

20170429_171107.jpg
 
You don't have the ACR grounding wire hooked up either. I assume you know that?

Nice compact set up of 2 batteries.

Blue Sea recommends a fuse on the ground leg-that way if something fails inside the ACR and shorts to ground, the ground wire can't become the source of a fire. Normally it carries almost no load, and I fuse it with a 5 amp fuse. In fact, I just use one of those Bussman premade jumpers as the ground wire. Like this:


51LEdHEWp-L._SL1000_.jpg
 
Cruiserdrew said:
You don't have the ACR grounding wire hooked up either. I assume you know that?
. . .
Click to expand...

Yes - I called it a "Relay" above vs ACR :)

Cruiserdrew said:
Nice compact set up of 2 batteries . . . .
Click to expand...

Thanks! It would have NEVER happened without your help as well as everyone else on this thread! I really appreciate all the help!!!!

Cruiserdrew said:
Blue Sea recommends a fuse on the ground leg-that way if something fails inside the ACR and shorts to ground, the ground wire can't become the source of a fire. Normally it carries almost no load, and I fuse it with a 5 amp fuse. In fact, I just use one of those Bussman premade jumpers as the ground wire. . .
Click to expand...

Ugh always something I haven't done yet! :) I'll check into the jumper fuse - - I had to "customize" an 18G female flat connector on to a 10 gauge wire tonight with fancy/crappy needle nose and poor soldiering skills, so my shortest/smallest wire took me longer than any other today. Maybe best to replace the whole thing.



Got the house battery to firewall fuse put in too.

Next step is to fix up the bed of the truck with a better solution for power in.
 
Follow my advice... you are spending way too much money on a high tech system. Sell it all and use it for other parts.

This is the way to go on the cheap

18301667_10209235000127949_456598152125585914_n.jpg
 
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