Charging a Second Battery
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Charging a Second Battery
2015 F250 CC LB 6.2
Planning on doing a "bed insert" made from plywood and 2x4s to form a camping outfit. Inside there will be a battery/power inverter setup. I'm going to wire in a marine deep cell battery with an isolator to the truck's battery. At night I'll separate the marine battery from the truck and on the road connect it back so the alternator can charge it.
Will this setup work ok? I won't damage anything with the alternator charging two batteries or running two different batteries (one truck, one marine) will I? I would just like to have the battery separation so I don't accidentally kill the truck battery.
Thanks.
Planning on doing a "bed insert" made from plywood and 2x4s to form a camping outfit. Inside there will be a battery/power inverter setup. I'm going to wire in a marine deep cell battery with an isolator to the truck's battery. At night I'll separate the marine battery from the truck and on the road connect it back so the alternator can charge it.
Will this setup work ok? I won't damage anything with the alternator charging two batteries or running two different batteries (one truck, one marine) will I? I would just like to have the battery separation so I don't accidentally kill the truck battery.
Thanks.
More Turbo
Joined: Jun 2008
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Charging a second battery will not do any harm at all to your alternator. It would be just the same as if you were towing a travel trailer and using the power from the 7-way plug to charge the batteries on the TT, which is how they are typically set up. You may even find that it is convenient to use a trailer plug or one of the many T-connectors available to tie into the trailer wiring as though you were wiring up an in-bed 7 way plug for a fifth wheel camper for your easy disconnect. That way you would be using wiring already on the truck for the intended purpose of charging a battery.
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The isolator is something I may use too. In my 4x4 rig I have a big cutoff switch that kills power to the whole machine. Could I just put one of those between the positive connection on the accessory battery and main battery? Flip the switch at night to separate the battery, then when packing in the morning connect it and let the truck idle for a little?
Hotshot
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you can mount the battery and isolator on the chasis at the passenger side. plenty of room there.
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More Turbo
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Are you talking about using one of the battery boxes off of an E-series van to permanently mount the secondary battery to the frame rail? That would of course provide a very clean installation, but also requires more permanently set up wiring and would definitely require the use of a battery isolator and possibly a disconnect switch like the OP suggested that he has on his 4x4 rig. I thought that the basic purpose of the battery isolator setup was to provide a one way path for current so that the alternator could charge the secondary battery, but the secondary battery cannot be killed by the truck's electrical system in the event of leaving the headlights on or some such thing. I would think that the isolator setup could be wired in such that the deep cycle battery can be charged by the alternator, but the secondary circuits cannot pull from the primary starting battery on the truck.
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More Turbo
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I would love to do a more permanent installation, but DJ is sort of right. At the moment the truck doesn't even have 5k miles yet. I could easily weld up a nice platform off the framerails to house a battery box with all the wiring. But at the moment, I'm going to start off with a more "removable" battery box right now. I just don't really want to be grinding down the frame and wiring in things when the truck still has a warranty. I may be able to sneak something behind the rear seat (crew cab) to open some room in the living space. But it wouldn't bother me with the battery box in the bed for the time being.
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I wasn't thinking that you would need to do any modifications to the frame at all by using the E-series battery box. As I recall from having worked on one about 8 years ago, it is a completely bolt on setup and I seem to remember reading elsewhere on here that the boxes bolt right up to the SD frames since they match each other (or did at the time). I most certainly would not have suggested cutting or welding on the frame of a brand new truck. I wouldn't do that to mine for sure and I only have 3500 miles on mine so far.
I'll look into one of those for sure then. Thanks.
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