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what accessories to run on 2nd batt?

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 8:18 pm
by shakes
I searched but I suck at it so new thread time ;)

So over the next couple of weekends I'll be rewiring my headlights and fitting a few accessories to a bog stock sierra...UHF, cd player, spots and a couple of other things. Winch in the near future, the car will be used mostly as a weekend warrior for medium local trips.

I cant decide wether I should be grabbing the power for all or some of that from the second battery and just keep the primary battery as essentially a starter only?

Re: what accessories to run on 2nd batt?

Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:57 am
by drivesafe
These a simple rule of thumb shakes, anything that is only going to be used while the motor is running, is wired to the cranking battery and anything that is going to be used with the motor off, is wired to the Auxiliary battery(s).

Cheers.

Re: what accessories to run on 2nd batt?

Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:23 pm
by shakes
Thanks mate, kinda the line's I was thinking along.

The bit that is getting me confused it how to switch it all so I'm not turning everything off manually when I get out of my car..?

I was thinking running the main power feed to the fuse box through a relay and have that on a small switch on the dash? Keeping in mind I only understand electrickery enough to get myself into trouble. :oops:

Re: what accessories to run on 2nd batt?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:49 am
by Zookrider
I don't entirely agree with drivesafe, I have run almost everything from the aux battery in my sierra. I put a huge cable trough the firewall to the biggest fuse panel I could find. My aux batt is bigger than my main, and it means that you can winch off both batteries and altinator for "FULL POWER", then switch off the aux and give the motor batt sole charge for a while to ensure you have juice for restart (even with a bigger altinator in my suzy charging t wo depleated batts can take quite some time). In the bush, the first priority should be to have a usable vehicle to get out. I will try to find a pic of my setup, it is super neat and cheap to have this setup.