I'm looking for some advice on what others have done for a dual battery setup. Yesterday I picked up an Optima yellow top battery to replace the crappy Everstart I had. (I've now replaced the Everstart twice in 2 years and I'm tired of the headache). I got back to school late last night so didn't put the battery in until this morning. I didn't realize how much smaller the Optima 34/78 battery is than the Everstart that came out (a Maxx-65n) and while I have always flirted with the idea of a dual battery setup, seeing how much smaller the Optima is, I think it's a no-brainer to go dual battery.

Right now, the battery is just sitting there since there's no good way to hold the battery down, and before I do anything, I want to plan for a second battery.

So can anybody post up pictures of their dual battery setups?

Edit: I've seen the Wranger NW dual battery tray, but there's no way I'm paying almost $400 for a battery tray and relay.

 

Not mine but this should help you out.



What are you running that will need dual batteries?

My Optima fits fine in my battery tray. It came with a spacer to hold it down.

 

Do you want to do this to help make starting your truck easier? My 92 F250 460 has room for 2 batteries and im using the Autozone Gold-Duralast/Battery that has more cranking amps than the optima and it didnt make a damn difference like i thought it would. But my accessories do go for alot longer than they did b4. Im curious to hear the method to your madness

Mario

 

I'm not running anything yet. I plan on putting in a pretty good sound system, some offroad lights & foglights, and possibly an air compressor (latter two in the next few years). The biggest issue right now is starting during the winter. I've drained the battery before just trying to get the truck to fire, and with my current housing at college, there are no exterior outlets on my trailer, so when the battery goes dead, I have to pull it, bring it inside, and let it charge on a trickle charger for a few hours; if that happens right now (like it did twice last week, just because the battery was going bad) that's OK since I can drive my car, but when the snow begins to fly, I will need to have the truck to get to work on some occasions.

Edit: it looks like you replied, Mario, while I was typing up my reply. While I'm not necessarily aiming for better starting, I already noticed it starting better even in the 75+ weather we're having today. I don't know if I've just gotten used to a battery that was giving poor performance, but it definitely started better today with the Optima in.

 

That all makes perfect sense to have a second battery especially after i did a lil googling and saw that many people run a dual setup especially during the winter like you want to do. Cool Beans

Mario

 

any of the diesel trucks have a factory dual set up.
prolly find all the crap you need in the 'yard for cheap on one of them.
Just beware that the cables tend to corrode over time and many of them need replacing. Even ones that still drive around on the road.

 

For the $400 you might've paid for a battery tray- if you're a decent welder and fabricator, you can purchase the material to make your own battery tray and still have enough left over to buy brand new battery cables to support your set up.

I'd do that just for the challenge of it.

 

Haven't done much welding before. I'd love to learn, but I don't have the time or place to do it right now. It'll have to be something that waits until I'm out of school and have a place where I can start collecting all of my own junk (tools?)

I'm not real familiar with the diesels, but if I'm not mistaken, isn't the second battery on the drivers side, mirroring the placement on the passenger side? What do the diesels do for their air cleaner and/or radiator reservoir/windshield fluid?

If they are both on the passenger side, I'll see if I can hit up the junkyard the next time I head home.

I do plan on doing all of the cables when I do the 3G 130A alternator upgrade. I've looked a few times at the junkyard, but I haven't found any that haven't already been taken yet. I think I need to find a better junkyard to visit since they seem to have a fairly slow turn-over rate of vehicles so I always end up looking at the same cars.

 

You didn't say what engine you had, but if you are having starting issues in this weather and have had problems for 2 years and 2 batteries it's possibly there is something else going on. Possibly bad cables, corrosion somewhere? Starter issues? Batteries not getting charged fully?

 

It's a 460. It's definitely the battery. I've checked charging current after I've jump started the truck and the alternator outputs good amperage and the running voltage is fine also. The battery just fails to hold a charge. If the symptoms arise with the Optima in place, I'll look into other causes again.

 

Several years ago I bought an oversize isolator from EBay, checked out okay and connected up a high amp relay. Primarily this was to run my 190/160 H4's the CB w/Bi linear, and all the audio equipment including two audio amps. May have been overkill but the system worked out fine.

All in all the setup cost me about 95 clams

 

For Droopy the Plow Truck I installed a deep cell batt in the Tool Box. The lil 5.0 just about jumps out of the motor mounts when it cranks over in the coldest mornings!



For the Diesels, here is a pic of my dual Optamas installed in my 89. I put them both on the drivers side so I could have the the air filter on the passenger side for the Cummins Conversion. You can also see where the rad overflow and windshield washer bottles are at. That is the stock location for the Diesels.





I would think it would pretty easy for you to fit both Optomas on the pass side with little fabrication. On thing that I had to do was change the headlight plug, it got in the way soI had do wire the headlight directly with 3 separate slide on clips. It was an easy mod.

 

its nice and all to have the dual Battery's. im thinking about as well, my biggest problem is the amps that the our alternators put out on my 97 250 the stock ford alternator puts out roughly 90 amps and there really isn't a good option unless u plan on spending like 300 dollars for a 200 amp alternator u have to be able to charge those battery's and for the most part out alternators supply the power to accessory's on the truck. currently im running 4 kc daylights on top, 2 kc Slim lights, A warn m12000 winch, a audio system and the regular stuff such as full MSD and other small things.....im probably gonna buy the 200amp alternator and do a dual battery set up of some sort.



PS Nice 12 valve swap above