any recommendations on how to fit an extra marine battery into my engine compartment, 92 bronco with 351 windsor, pics are in my gallery

 

also how should i wire it without spending too much money, painless sells a kit, but it is expensive.
could i wire one with just an isolator, and how would i run the wires

 

 

The diesels put their battery over where your overflow bottle and airfilter box are. If you could figure out how to relocate them, or go to a junkyard and find a diesel, you may be able to get the battery box out of a diesel.

You can also buy totally enclosed battery boxes if you wanted to install it in the rear compartment. The isolator comes with instructions, but bascially what you will be doing is cutting the output wire coming out of the alternator, and running it to the isolator. Coming out of the isolator, the other end of the wire you cut will continue on to the regular truck battery like it did before, and you will add another wire to a connection on the isolator and run it over to the new isolated battery.

Think of the isolator as a "Y" splice connection for the charge wire of the alternator. Only the isolator makes this a special y splice because the alternator sees both batteries to charge them, but each battery does not see the other battery, so they will not drain each other down.

 

Don't use those electronic control units they are crap!! Get a manual battery switch
You can choose off,#1batt,#2batt, or both for extra cranking power. Boat retailers
should carry them they are a big red switch with a dial. I don't trust those automatic units especially underhood!! If you mount the battery in your cab be sure to seal the battery box and vent it to the outside!!

 

thanks
i'll try finding a diesel battery box
do deisels use an isolator?

 

i'll post pictures of under my hood of my 95 F150, looks pretty much the same but i'll show you all the spots that you can easily make open for 1 or even 2 extra batteries

 

thanks, the pics will really help

 

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

Maybe he was talking about battery isolators ?

 

Diesels do not use an isolator. All the diesel needs is a large capacity battery for the glow plugs and to turn the high compression engine over. It just so happens the only way they could get a battery big enough to fit under the hood, was to hook two batteries together. So in a diesel, the two batteries are just paralled, essentially making them one large battery.

With the isolator, you can charge two different types of batteries, or the same type. And all the loads you hook on your aux battery, will not drain the starting battery. So you can hook you stereo to the aux battery, run it till it's completely dead, and still be able to start the engine on the other battery. On a diesel, if you run the battery down with the stereo, you are running both batteries down, so it's not going to start.

I have never heard of anyone having problems with an isolator. The only drawback they have is they drop the charging voltage about .7 volts. But most batteries can live with that. The isolator is mainly for charging purposes. Your switch is good for starting purposes, but it's no good for charging the batteries. You would have to have something else to charge the different batteries.

Some people use a large relay to isolate and charge two different batteries. This can work, but you have to be careful. If one battery is completely dead, and you flick the relay on, which connects it to the other battery which is good, then both batteries will try to equalize. This can burn up wiring if it's not limited somehow.

 

Mounting: 2 options are on the drivers side and under the frame with a frame mount kit.
I would use a battery switch or a new version of isolater to charge/maintain and use thh 2 nd battery.
As for wiring, I would spend the miney on a OEM styls 2 battery wiring harness. the more connections you have that are not cast in or solderd the more problems you will have.

Seen is, Done it, and paied the money to fix it right!

 

ok heres where my 2nd battery will be mounted in my truck. i did some relocating of minor stuff. (the mount is circled in green)



another spot is on the other side of the engine compartment where your air box is but you will then have to invert your air box and use a cusom ram air hood/intake system. but i bet you dont want that yet

 

Put some dielectric on those connections and put some split loom on that wire since
you don't have a battery hold down!! The switch I am talking about chrges the batt
just fine you select the battery you want to run and it connects to that battery just
like it was the only battery in the system, Or you can choose both if you run down both batteries and need the combined amperage of the two to start. I went through
two of those electronic isolators before getting a manual switch. They are fine for rv
or a vehicle that doesn't get rough use, I tried two different brands and they both
failed sure you have to turn the switch by hand with the manual one. Big trucks have a big altenator to handle charging two or three 1000 cca batteries, If you asked your stock alt to do that it will burn up.

 

Hey i have a question i want to put a five battery set up in my 83. stock spot plus four under the bed passenger side. How do i isolate those four and charge them? One 200 or 300amp alt?

 

The alternator does not necessarily need to be that large. If you are going to use these batteries, and then run on long trips before you use them again, then a smaller alternator will charge them, it will just take longer. A larger alternator with a larger isolator will just charge them quicker.

It depends on what you are going to use them for. If you are going to use them on the job, and then be at a place every night with 120v, you could mount a 120v charger in the truck and plug it in every night.