Where to install an extra Battery?

Blanco1,

Quote:

"Are you an electrician?

That has my head spinning with all you did

Sound great though."

No, not an electrical engineer. A mechanical engineer who owned a ran my automotive design and engineering business for many years working with Ford, GM, and Chrysler by invite mainly on their pickups, vans, and SUVs new product lines/vehicle's components. Self employed and never was employed directly within any automotive etc manufacturer. Now long retired. Never afraid to tackle about any project, solve issues, or using new innovative projects/approaches/proceedures, etc.

Many ways to skin a cat or accompolish goals and it begins with the need and desire to! Educating yourself about the factual knowns is your best friend and allows you to think and dig even deeper. Do not have to be a genius, just focused! Basically, about anyone can do the same thing over and over and then expect different results? Simply doesn't happen! At one point in human existance, there wasn't even those things known such as the simple "wheel" or the "abacus" etc.

You will need to match your old battery and if your old battery is over 6 months old you should buy a new set!!! Your old battery will suck the new one down to it's level and you lose a lot of amp hours.

I also added a 2nd battery but ahead of the left wheel well. I have to put it in and take it out each time but was inexpensive. I added an outboard charging post to charge batteries with a stand alone charger, much faster than using the convertor. Then I wired an Anderson clip to that to connect the 2nd battery.

travelnutz wrote:
I can't speak for enough room in a Dodge truck bed but there's plenty of room for adding 2 Group 31 deep cycles ahead of the driver's side wheel well in our GM 2500 CC LB 4X4 truck. Even had more than ecough room to make a pressure treated plywood cover that goes over and down all 4 sides of the batteries that sit on a raised pressure treated base with a 1" X 1" ledge on the camper side to keep the batteries from sliding around.

A padlocked heavy security chain goes over the top of the cover to resist thievery as the batteries are also used with our 5th wheel which does not cover/hide the batteries. Been on the truck since 2004 and always works perfect. One same battery is in the Lance battery compartment and 2 in the truck bed and provide all the 12V power we need to run the 1500 watt inverter mounted below the fridge inside the Lance 990 Legend TC. Make coffee, plug in the microwave and use, make toast in toaster, run laptops and recharge them, etc and totall silent as we don't have to start our 3400 watt built in propane generator in the Lance TC. The generator comes in handy for lots of needs also like A/C or recharging the batteries without running the truck engine etc. We are truely self contained anywhere anytime with the TC or the 5th wheel which has 5 same batteries in it also and also has cables to connect to the 2 in the truck bed. There's a 2500 watt inverter in the 5th wheel and we have lots of DC 12V amps to run it.

Bed batteries have + & - cables (#2 gauge fine strand welder wire) carrying current from the dual alternators to the batteries and is fused at each end with an 80 amp marine fuse in the marine application fuse holder. Also has an 80 amp slide switch under the truck hood to auto disconnect the truck batteries from the bed batteries. Also have a 100 amp slide switch under the hood to disable the system by turning off the current going back to the bed batteries or if need to do so or in an emergency etc. I never cheat but rather go the extra mile to insure there's no weak links. Remember that you are dealing with several hundred amps and if shorted out, lots of damage or a fire is likely.

I hooked the power to activate my solenoid from the truck ignition switch so only when the truck ignition is turned on so is current to my 2 added batteries. Therefore, they recharge very fast like the diesel truck's 2 starter batteries because the size the cables going to them is the same size as the battery cables going to the truck's engine batteries.

The bed batteries are SS wingnut on 5/16 brass isolated studs with brass wahsers on either side of the cable eye connected and have #2 same welder cable runs going about 3' to the inverter inside the TC. Simply Raise the TC enough to get at the wingnuts and remove the positive cable only and wrap red electricians tape around the mounting eye (cable end) so no accidental shorting can occur. Then do the same with the negative cable only wrapping black tape around the end. Now the TC is ready to drive out from under. Reverse to load the TC. Takes an extra 5 minutes max.

Had the same setup on our previous trucks since 1993 for our TC's, TT's, and 5th wheels. Cheap and so simple to do and gives 0ver 300 amps of 12V DC. available.

Where there's a will, there's a way! Just have to think and then do!

Are you an electrician?

That has my head spinning with all you did

Sound great though.

Gripnriprod wrote:
Install one of these and then you can choose!

Yeah thats what I was thinking about. & then maybe tie in the trucks batteries if need be for either power over night or to help jump it?

Would that work?

I've needed lots of jumps starts when camping in the very cold weather.

I can't speak for enough room in a Dodge truck bed but there's plenty of room for adding 2 Group 31 deep cycles ahead of the driver's side wheel well in our GM 2500 CC LB 4X4 truck. Even had more than ecough room to make a pressure treated plywood cover that goes over and down all 4 sides of the batteries that sit on a raised pressure treated base with a 1" X 1" ledge on the camper side to keep the batteries from sliding around.

A padlocked heavy security chain goes over the top of the cover to resist thievery as the batteries are also used with our 5th wheel which does not cover/hide the batteries. Been on the truck since 2004 and always works perfect. One same battery is in the Lance battery compartment and 2 in the truck bed and provide all the 12V power we need to run the 1500 watt inverter mounted below the fridge inside the Lance 990 Legend TC. Make coffee, plug in the microwave and use, make toast in toaster, run laptops and recharge them, etc and totall silent as we don't have to start our 3400 watt built in propane generator in the Lance TC. The generator comes in handy for lots of needs also like A/C or recharging the batteries without running the truck engine etc. We are truely self contained anywhere anytime with the TC or the 5th wheel which has 5 same batteries in it also and also has cables to connect to the 2 in the truck bed. There's a 2500 watt inverter in the 5th wheel and we have lots of DC 12V amps to run it.

Bed batteries have + & - cables (#2 gauge fine strand welder wire) carrying current from the dual alternators to the batteries and is fused at each end with an 80 amp marine fuse in the marine application fuse holder. Also has an 80 amp slide switch under the truck hood to auto disconnect the truck batteries from the bed batteries. Also have a 100 amp slide switch under the hood to disable the system by turning off the current going back to the bed batteries or if need to do so or in an emergency etc. I never cheat but rather go the extra mile to insure there's no weak links. Remember that you are dealing with several hundred amps and if shorted out, lots of damage or a fire is likely.

I hooked the power to activate my solenoid from the truck ignition switch so only when the truck ignition is turned on so is current to my 2 added batteries. Therefore, they recharge very fast like the diesel truck's 2 starter batteries because the size the cables going to them is the same size as the battery cables going to the truck's engine batteries.

The bed batteries are SS wingnut on 5/16 brass isolated studs with brass wahsers on either side of the cable eye connected and have #2 same welder cable runs going about 3' to the inverter inside the TC. Simply Raise the TC enough to get at the wingnuts and remove the positive cable only and wrap red electricians tape around the mounting eye (cable end) so no accidental shorting can occur. Then do the same with the negative cable only wrapping black tape around the end. Now the TC is ready to drive out from under. Reverse to load the TC. Takes an extra 5 minutes max.

Had the same setup on our previous trucks since 1993 for our TC's, TT's, and 5th wheels. Cheap and so simple to do and gives 0ver 300 amps of 12V DC. available.

Where there's a will, there's a way! Just have to think and then do!

Yes, thats what I did when I added our second battery, used a Perko switch thinking that holding one in reserve would be nice, have the ability to switch between or both. However I found using both batteries simultaneously gave me longer run times than the 2 used individually.
When I added solar I rewired to be in true parallel and gained more run time.
The Perko switch only functions now as an on/off switch. I have a new Hidden Power still in the box somewhere. I thought I was going to add 3rd reserve battery thru the Perko but on the 01 Ford requires install on the passenger frame rail. Right where my air tank is so 'customization' needed- haven't gotten around to using.
Its a nice setup.

Install one of these and then you can choose!