Has anyone gone with dual batteries under the hood of your F150?

What alternator comes with the 2007 F150 Screw 5.4 (tow package) 4x4?

Where did you put the 2nd battery?

I am an amateur radio operator and will be installing several VHF and HF radios. Would like to operate radios and communication accessories from second battery (without draining truck battery).

Any suggestions?

 

both my 76 and 85 came from the factory with duals, they used a solenoid to automatically hook them into charging system when engine ran. There may be a camper special package available for your truck, and then the tray package will just bolt in instead of fighting a home built system into some nook or cranny under the hood. Of course theres no reason you can't place the bugger somewhere else.
Regulation on the factory unit was non existent, if battery was dead, it would charge at watever was max for your alternator, at highway speeds, which burned up the 14 gage wire the factory put in. (I used it for electric outboard and ran it dead fishing all day) Either make some changes or charge it at idle.

 

I've run dual batts. in most of my trucks over the past 30 years. I'm not sure what you have to start with but there are 2 basic ways to do it.
#1 buy and install a HEAVY DUTY batt. isolator hooking it between the alt. and both batts. I emphasized HD because the light duty ones are usually toast within a few months.
#2 the second way is to run a solenoid to the second batt. with a switch and remember to switch it on to charge the batt.

The isolator costs about 90$ up here but has the advantage of letting you not worry about turning it on or off. The solenoid would cost about 7$ up here but you should turn it off to disconnect the 2nd batt. when the truck isn't running.
I currently have a 95 PSD with dual batts. and the 2nd batt. is on the drivers side opposite the primary batt. I'll be installing 2 more to run my winch in the box and will be using a solenoid with 2 voltguages on them to monitor them.

 

Option number two is a much better then option one. Isolators suck because they have a .7 volt drop across them. Option two will not have this drop.

 

An isolator with 1 deep cycle marine type battery would be your best bet to to run your ham equipment, and not affect your starting battery.

 

This page will help you sort it all out exactly the way you want your system to be.

http://www.hellroaring.com/rv.htm

 

Using an Isolator and a deep cycle battery like Dave says above is best.

Using relays (solenoids) to connect the batteries will eventually destroy them due to cell chemistry differences. Especially with a regular battery and a deep cycle battery. A deep cycle battery is what you want to run a radio or equipment where the battery is substantially discharged during use. A regular automotive battery is designed for float service with only minor discharge during starting.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torque1st

Using an Isolator and a deep cycle battery like Dave says above is best.

Using relays (solenoids) to connect the batteries will eventually destroy them due to cell chemistry differences. Especially with a regular battery and a deep cycle battery. A deep cycle battery is what you want to run a radio or equipment where the battery is substantially discharged during use. A regular automotive battery is designed for float service with only minor discharge during starting.

If he keeps the relay active for extended periods of time with the vehicle off, then yes the batteries will damage each other over time. If he is going to keep his truck running well he uses his equipment then this statement is not true. However I guess if he kept the truck running he would not really have much use for a second battery.

So yes the isolator would be the best inexpensive option for your needs if you want to run your equipment with the vehicle off.

Also keep in mind if you run a marine wet cell deep cycle battery off your alternator, it will leek. I have 10 of these batteries with 4 years experience running them off alternators and I can tell you there is no way around this problem. This is because wet cell deep cycle batteries are not designed to be ran off of alternators. There are ways to reduce the amount of acid they leek though. You can reduce it to the point where you never have to refill the battery with acid and you only need to add distilled water about 3 - 4 times per year.

 

The ford factory system had the relay wired into the igniton system, always disengaged with ignition off>
Except for when I ran the deep cycle dead or near dead, charging never got over 15 amps. Dead battery- ammeter moved in sync with tach, needs a current regulator if your gonna drive with a dead battery.

 

Here is a link to a dual battery hook up that I found extremely helpful...the only problem is the price of the system that they use. I am thinking of simply doing a custom setup built off of this model.

Patrick Stefan

 

Sorry....forgot to add the link:



http://www.fourwheeler.com/projectbuild/129_0401_1992_ford_f150_electrical_upgrade/

 

I see nothing that would make the system in the link stand out as better except for the battery manager device. That is the key to the whole setup they used. Other than that they just installed a big alternator, and two batteries.

I didn't find the price of the battery manager, but if you are going to copy their system, there is no way around not buying that piece. If you want the same system, but not have the disconnect feature or the emergency feature, then a standard battery isolator would do the same thing.

 

OFF or ON, the dual batteries will be destroyed even with the vehicle running with a solenoid/relay setup due to differences in cell chemistry even with a matched pair of batteries. The old Ford solution of running the batteries in parallel with a solenoid/relay never worked well but it was cheap. Many of the trucks I serviced had this setup and it worked ~OK when the batteries were new but after about a year the problems started. This cheap solution was good enuf to get around warranty work. There is a lot of information available on battery cell chemistry changes etc written by Chemists and Engineers that have studied these problems. The solid state battery isolator is the only real solution to dual battery setups.

That link is just the old solenoid/relay setup with a switch to deactivate or activate the relay at times, -totally bogus and still will cause failure. The stuff in magazines like that are advertisements meant to sell a product.

 

Exactly, high priced expensive solutions to a simple, possibly low cost problem. Depending on how you're going to use the system determines whether you should buy the solid state isolator or go with a relay.The isolator in most cases is the best solution (you can add cheap switchs for the extra features) I just happen to be very cheap and use relays to save the $$.

 

If he wants to use the batteries with the vehicle off then an isolator is the best way. If he only wants to use the batteries with the vehicle on then a high current relay will work.