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Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
#750835 July 22nd 2019 4:25 pm
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Hi folks.

I have been a member here a while, but not active. My vanning days are numbered.

I nearly had my van sold to a friend, but its condition soured the sale. He did find another and is quite far along the way toward making it his show car hauler and traveling sleeper.

He asked to buy the parts from my van to install the auxiliary, frame-mounted deep-cycle battery. I didn't want to begin parting out my van to supply him with 13 year old parts. It just didn't make sense.

My question is...Is there a complete kit available to add a deep- cycle, RV style battery which would include battery box, cables, connections, and whatever else is needed?

If not, does anyone have such a list or a favorite supplier who would help with this?

(This friend is almost totally internet illiterate, the reason I'm involved. He will be hiring someone else to install these parts once I get them all corralled for him.)

Thanks.


'06 E350 w/ Quigley 4x4
Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
MuddyAxles #750842 July 22nd 2019 11:34 pm
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I know of no kit supplier, and if I did, I would likely skoff at the parts they include and the total price.

One should note that there are very few flooded/wet/sloshy true 12v deep cycle batteries. The ones seen in Autoparts stores and wally world are marine batteries. Dual purpose batteries, and internally they look much more like starting batteries than true deep cycle batteries.

BUT, if the only charging source it to be the alternator, then any secondary battery has pretty much Zero chance of returning to full charge, and as such itslifespan will be severly degraded, as lead acid batteries want to always be fully cagred, and when discharged by secondary, engine offf loads, really need to be brought upto full charge, which takes a considerable amount of time and time at higher voltages, which the vehicles voltage regulator is unlikely to allow.

Now if one can't properly recharge the battery, it just dies soone. This, if accepted, can often be simpler easier and cheaper than getting all the right equipment and knowledge to maximize battery life.

A parts list can also vary greatly in price. A simple 'dumb' solenoid, triggered by a live 12v source when engine is running and deactivated when off is the cheapest way to combine batteries with engine running.

Here is a quality solenoid I have bookmarked. if you go cheaper make sure it says continuous duty and more than 90 amps continuous.

https://www.amazon.com/Cole-Hersee-...sr=8-5&keywords=cole+hersee+solenoid

One of the easiest ways to combine batteries when the engine is on and separate them when off is the voltage sensing relay/solenoid. here is one of MANY many many, available.

https://www.amazon.com/Bussmann-RB-...563850825&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmr0

This one parallels the batteries when either battery sees charging voltages( dual sense) , the 1314 model combines them when only the engine battery sees charging voltages. If solar is going to be employed, then get a single sense relay/solenoid, in my opinion.

Wiring is very important, proper wire terminations require proper tools and skills to use them. Crimping using vice grips is not satisfactory. If one cant or wont get the proper tools and knowledge to do so, then this place makes up custom cables for a remarkable good price, considering the quality of the components.

http://www.genuinedealz.com/custom-cables

Use some rope to figure out the lengths needed tpo run from engine battery to isolator to location of house/Auxiliary battery.

note one can ground Aux battery to nearby frame, but then one should also upgrade the engine battery to engine ground. i say if one is running one wire to the Aux battery, run two and run the ground cable to an alternator mounting bolt. Do not go thiner than 8AWg wire ansd 6 or 4awg will allow the depleted Aux battery to feed upon higher alternator amperage, and reach ~80% charged faster than thinner cables. 80 to 100% takes no less than 3.5 hours at ideal voltages and thicker wire is unlikely to assist the alternator in this range anyway.

The Vehicles voltage regulator, ultimately decides how fast the battery charges. If it asks for 14.7v, then the battery will acept 1/2 to 2/3 more amperage than if it decides 13.7 is fine and dandy. most VR's will allow 14.7v only briefly and thendrop to 13.7 once things heat up. Do not assume the voltage you see when starting the engine cold is the voltage always allowed.

The lower voltages basically insure that the depleted house/Aux battery cannot ever really achieve a true full charge when driving, even if one drives for 8 hours. One should really plug in to recharge ti fully once home. Good plug in chargers is an entirely different thread. and just note than almost all 'smart' chargers sill stop at a 'safe' 92 to 95% charged, and this is like cock blocking the depleted house battery that is craving a true full recharge. 95% is uch much better than 80%, but only half as good as a true 100% recharge.

And speaking of these inherent lower voltages( electrical pressures) there is the Diode based battery 'Isolator'. these have large finned heat sinks and are a one way electrical valve, allowing the alternator to feed aux battery but Aux battery not able to feed upon engine startign battery. The Diode in these drops voltage no less than 0.4 volts. The Diode based isolators will keep the house battery from draining engine battery, but they absolutely suck donley balls at recharging the Aux battery. Avoid. if it has a fginned heat sink, it is a diode based isolatore. Run away screaming.

As for the RV/ DEEp cyel batteries, this is also a huge topic, but regarding flooded batteries, one of the only true 12v Deep cycle batteries is th GC-15 size group. These are not easy to find. Thr trojan T-1275 is one such battery, it weight about 78 Lbs and is bout 13.5 inches lon, 7 inches wide and 11.5 inches tall, whereas the biggest regular car jar sized battery, the group 31 or group 28 is 13 wide, 6.75 wide and 9.5 to the tops of the terminals. Interstate can get GC-15 sizes, they are made by USbattery, they are 50% more expensive than a marine group 31.

Do not let the words 'deep cycle' 'deep discharge' or trolling on marine batteries fool you, they are much closer to a starting battery than a true deep cycle battery. Marketers=liars.

Flooded batteries do need t obe watered when they are properly recharged, and once they gain some age they will need watering more often. An underbody flooded battery is a nightmare to water.

AGM batteries do not require watering, but in general they are 2x the price, and they are not 2x better batteries in deep cycle duty. They are not immune to being chronically undercharged. in fctthey are likely more susceptible to premature degradation when chronically undercharged. Their extra price is worth it if one absolutely can never ater the battery and can indeed regularly return it to full charge, in mt experienced opinion.

Frame mount battery trays, I have no links bookmarked.

the secndary/Aux/house battery cabling between alternator/engine battery and house battery, should have a fuse within a few inches of the + battery terminal. The rating of the fuse depends on the wire gauge used. ANL fuses are kind of the standard, but there are also high amperage circuit breakers available.

If the wiring to solenoid tp house battery is taken from engine battery, there needs to be a fuse near engine battery too. If the wiring is added to the back of the alternator, not oly is the circuit shorter, but there need not be an additional fuse here, as the wiOEM wire from alternator to engine battery is already fused. Generally taking power for house battery from alternator directly is much more effective than taing it from engine battery, as original engine battery to alternator cabling was made 'just thick enough' it was never intende to carry the extra current of an additional depleted house battery tacked onto the end of it.

getting a second cable attached to alternator (+) output stud is not always simple though.

Head spinning yet? ask for clarification, i'll try and clear it up.

Beware of regular mechanics regarding battery charging. They are often so overwhelmingly wrong as to what a regularly discharged battery requires to be happy. it is amazing. They will never admit this and will spout incorrect information instead. Very few know their s#it on this topic.

This subject is rather vast and can be taken to extremes. One does not need to seek ideal battery charging, but they should know what is absolute halfassery, and ineffective. Hopefully it is not also unsafe and the only downside is more regular battery replacement and running out of juice at inoppportune moments.

Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
MuddyAxles #750855 July 23rd 2019 9:05 am
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that was an awesome read!! I want to eventually put a second battery into my van for camping purposes (so I always know I have a starting battery, LOL). I will revisit this if I ever do it!

Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
MuddyAxles #750875 July 24th 2019 2:52 am
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Glad you like, sorry for all the typo's, I was too tired to proof read/edit and just clicked 'post.'

While I have room for 3 large 12v batteries total, and run a fridge laptop stereo and fans 27/7/365. I now only use one battery for house loads and engine starting. I have an amp hour counting battery monitor and lots of experience discharging the battery and know how much of it I am using and how low i can go/ how much energy i can use from it.

But much more importantly, I know how to get the battery back to full charge, as cycling a battery at partial states of charge is very hard on a battery. The more often the battery is returned to a true full charge and the less time it spends undercharged, the better it will perform and the longer it will last.

Far too many people think the battery is fine if it is 80% charged, or that if it can still start the engine it is fully charged. This is incredibly untrue. Many people also assume the alternator can defy physics and a short drive is all that is needed to fully charge it. Getting a battery from 80% to 100% charged takes no less than 3.5 hours, at ideal charging voltages (14.2 to 14.8 volts), with a still healthy battery. Lesser voltages and a less healthy battery, one should expect 80% to 100% to take 6 or more hours, not just a long drive around the block or 5 minutes of revving the engine.

I could drop in two more group 27 batteries in my van and have much much more battery storage capacity than I need, and carry around 130 Lbs of unneeded weight.

My battery is now getting old, and i just carry a small 35$ 18AH AGM battery, which by itself, can start my engine, and should have no issues whatso ever assisting my degrading single group 27 Northstar AGM battery when the day comes it is too weak or too discharged, or both, to start my engine.

I'm all set up for additional house batteries, i just don't need them.
I think a lot of people who want the safety of an extra battery for house/Aux loads, can get by with a large good dual purpose marine battery up front, flooded or AGM, and a jumper pack or just the battery from a jumper pack, and some jumper cables, and a decent plug in charger for when they return home. A really good extra battery set up can really be taken to extremesof expense and effort, and still likely requires the plug in charger once one gets home as it takes time, at charging voltages to truly top charge a battery, and the true top charge regularly achieved is how one gets a good lifespan from any lead acid battery, even in south Texas/Florida/Arizona with a wally world special starting battery.

Another myth is that cold kills batteries. Cold does not kill batteries but cold weather does reveal a weak/degraded battery that would have no issues starting the motor in warmer temperatures

. Cold can kill an undercharged battery if it freezes, but a fully charged lead acid battery will not freeze until it is less than -40F.
Heat does degrade batteries faster as every 10 degrees rise in the temperature of sulfuric acid, it eats the lead plates twice as fast. Heat also increases self discharge, and in general a flooded battery will discharge 15% a month at 75F AGMs can be as low as 2 or 3%. This does not include parasitic loads from the engine computer or stereo memory or door locks waiting on teh key fob

My 120 amp alternator is externally regulated, with a modified adjustable voltage regulator with an adjustment knob on my dashboard, for fast as possible safe battery charging almost anytime the engine is running, though rpms under 1000 might not keep up. My Northstar AGM battery also can safely accept huge charging currents, as can Odyssey and Lifeline AGMs, but almost all cheaper AGMS say no more than 30 amps carging current per 100Ah of capacity. AGM is the new battery buzzword and manufacturere and marketers are scrambling to offer cheaper AGMS. Do not assume an AGM is a super battery because of the price or marketing. but the three names mentioned above are top of the line, with a price to match.

I also have 200 watts of solar with 200 more watts of portable panel should I need it( veyr rarely), and a 40 amp adjustable voltage power supply to ensure the battery can get fully charged whenever I can plug in as most smart chargers are, in general, jokes that stop well short of true full charge on a regular deeply cycled battery.

"But but but the green light is on, it must be fully charged...look, its green!!!!!!!!!"

Chk Chk BOOM!!!!!!!.

Smart under'charger' guts everywhere!!

Bwahahahhahhahhhahaaaaaa!!

Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
MuddyAxles #750878 July 24th 2019 6:03 am
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Lots of good info from wrcsixeight. As far as a kit goes, it might be better to figure out exactly what you need. Camping purposes could mean a whole stretch of things. For me I only go weekending and run a decent stereo (~1000 watts RMS) and a small mini fridge along with charging my cellphone. I have (2) 100 amp hour sealed AGM batteries that are of the cheap Duralast marine variety and they are charged from my measly 60 amp alternator going through a battery isolator. Every once in a while I throw on a 12v battery charger and they are usually fully charged within a few minutes. As far as the batteries go I have never ran out of Juice, so it works good for me.

Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
DontComeKnocken #750905 July 24th 2019 4:50 pm
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Originally Posted by DontComeKnocken

Every once in a while I throw on a 12v battery charger and they are usually fully charged within a few minutes. As far as the batteries go I have never ran out of Juice, so it works good for me.


Not running out of juice is a good thing. How old are the batteries? If they did not have enough juice to power everything you want, the next time you use it, would their lifespan have been acceptable?

A 'smart' battery charger quickly shutting off and flashing the green light fully charged light is a bad sign, often. It means that very few amps were required to bring the battery(s) upto high voltage.

This happens when a battery is indeed near fully charged, or when it is badly sulfated/worn out, and the charger does not know the difference.

It can also occur when one shuts off the engine, and relatively quickly hooks up their 'smart' charger. The battery surface voltage, since the alternator was just charging it, will likely still be above 12.8v. When the smart charger sees 12.8v+ on initial hook up, it assumes thebattery is fully charged, flashes the green light and just seeks a 'float voltage of 13.2 volts or so, or 13.6v if it has an AGM setting. Since it takes quite a long time to get from 80% charged to 100% charged, a smart charger quitting at 80% charged is doing an extreme disservice to the 80% charged battery, pissing on the owner and saying tis raining.

One really needs to be smarter than their 'smart' charger.

I found it infuriating trying to actually achieve a true full charge using one on a flooded battery, determined by using a hydrometer. The dang thing just kept shutting off and flashing the green light and dropping to float voltage. Specific gravity when full should have been at 1.275, yet it was still in the 1.235 range and the dang charger would not hold higher voltages!!!. To get it to restart, I would hav to load the battery with something to drop the voltage to below 12.8v, then restart the charger, over and over and over again. This got old quick and I got an adjustable voltage power supply instead which holds the voltage I choose for as long as I choose to hold it, how long being determined by a hydrometer or an ammeter.

An AGM battery can only be determined to be fully charged when it can accept 0.5% of its capacity or less, at absorption voltage( 14.2 to 14.8v). In other words, when a group 27 or 31 AGM battery, which are right around 100 amp hours in capacity when new, when they can only accept 0.5 amps or less, at Absorption voltage, only then can they be considered to be fully charged.

Full charge of an AGM battery cannot be determined at lesser voltages!! This is simple fact, not open for debate.

Since No garage 'smart' charger asks for the capacity of the battery, they cannot actually sense when the battery is fully charged by the amount of amperage it is accepting at higher voltages. They just have a general 'good enough to not overcharge' algorithm, and lots of marketing claiming how great they are, written by people without a clue as to how a lead acid battery charges, or what it needs to reach full charge.

Any charging source is better than no charging source applied to a depleted lead acid battery, but ideally the lead acid battery always wants to be returned to a true full charge after ANY level of depletion, and the 'smart' products out there are very bad at bringing a deeply cycled battery to full charge, especially one with many cycles on it when it has been cycled from a partial state of charge.



The rating of the alternator, is also not what most people assume. If there were a 45 amp alternator, whose voltage regulator were always seeking and holding 14.8v, it would more quickly and effectively charge a 50% depleted battery than a 300 amp alternator that was seeking only 13.8v. Unless of course one was running 45 amps of loads when the engine was running.

An alternator only makes as much juice as is required to maintain the voltage its voltage regulator is asking for. The voltage regulator alters the field currrent to the alternator in order to change the amount of amperage required to maintain that voltage. The battery itself decides hom much amperage it wants to accept at the voltage reaching the battery terminals. If the alternator cannot make enough amperage to meet a certain system voltage becase the battery it gobbling up all of its capacity, then the voltage does not rise as high until the battery state of carge increases and it requires less amperage.

An alternators rating is only achieved when it is still cold, spinning quickly, whe nthere are loads capacble of asking for its full rating and cabling capable of passing it. Idle speed amperage is usually 1/3 or less of the actual alternator's rating, and at Idle speeed, a maxed out alternator gets very hot, very quickly. I have a temp sensor on mine and speeds below 25mph maxing ot the alternator the thing quickly approaches the 220f danger zone. At 65mph it will not be much more than half of that, maxed out, due to underhood airflow and 2000 engine rpm spinning the laternator fan faster, sucking cooler air through it.

A depleted healthy battery can accept a lot of amperage at high voltage. It accepts much less amperage at lower voltages(electrical pressure).

A nearly fully charged battery cannot accept much amperage at high or low voltages but wil acept 2 to 3 times more at higher voltages.

An unhealthy battery will accept slightly higher amperages when nearly fully charged, than a healthy battery at high or low voltages. The myth that a dying battery will take out an alternator should be shot and killed and buried in the old wives tale burial ground. The slight increase a dying battery requires over a healthy one is like saying 'unplug that smart phone, it is going to kill my alternator!!'' If a alternator fails soon after a battery dies, it was likely the failing alternator which hammered a nail into the unhealthy battery, not the other way around.

An unhealthy depleted battery will accept much much less amperage than a healthy depleted battery at high or low voltages.

So basically of one does not know the voltage at the battery terminals, and how much amperage is flowing at that voltage, they cannot know how charged the battery is, nor can they guestimate the battery's state of health.

When one can see the voltage at the battery terminals, and see how much amperage is flowing into the battery at charging voltages, and also see how much voltage the battery can maintain when powering loads/discharging of various amperages, then with time, noticing these trends and tendencies, they can develop a good idea of how charged, and how healthy and capable their battery is at that point in time.

If one cannot be bothered to do these things, well that is fine too. Their charging system might take Ok to good(enough) care of the batteries. They might last an acceptable amount of time, or they might not. Failed batteries can simply be replaced. The cost of doing this more regularly for some, is perfectly acceptable, to them.

But the person wanting to get the maximum possible lifespan from their batteries, or even somewhat close to the maximum possible, needs to only not overdischarge them, but insure the charging sources can return them to fully charged with minimal overcharge.

'Good enough' is subjective, opinion. working 'Just fine', often means has simply not yet failed.

If one is trying to ineed fully charge them, the alternator is a very poor tool for doing so, because of the voltage regulation, and The amount of time that actually required at higher battery charging voltages to achieve this ideal 100% state of charge. The same is true of 'smart' chargers, as they are basically designed to not overcharge and as such almost always stop well short of 100%.

To reach true full charge the battery needs to be held at higher voltages for as long as is requred to either maximize specific gravity on a flooded battery, checked with a hydrometer by a human with one and the temperment to employ it, or with an AGM battery one needs to hold it at absorption voltages and wait for amps to taper to the prescribed level for that battery. Amperage tapering is also an effective indicator on flooded batteries, but generally instead of 0.5% of capacity they might be full when amps taper to 1 to 3.5% of capacity, it depends on the battery itself, and its health.

One should also note that a unhealthy overdscharged battery, when hooked to a charging source will take very few amps at first, well under half an amp. Often a smart charger shuts down entirely. if one is able to keep charging currents available, then the not entirely sulfated battery will slowly wake up and start accepting current and the voltage will actually drop as the amperage increases to the maximum the charger allows. this amperage then remains steady until voltage then rises to the maximum allowed by the charger. once that voltage is reached then the amperage required to maintain that voltage begins to decline. When it declines to a certain level, it is fully charged. this process is not going to take less than 5.5 hours, and likely much much longer.

Draw a battery to 50% charged, and it CANNOT be truly fully charged in less than 5.5 hours, and that minimum possible time assumes a high amp charging source seeking then holding mid to high 14 volts, AND a still healthy battery.

Lesser voltage increases the time required to reach full charge, substantially, and the less healthy the battery is, the more time it needs at higher voltages as well. So an unhealthy battery fed mid 13 volts is guaranted to remain less than fully charged, even if one is driving cross country.

This is not debateable. Confidence in product choices, or the product's marketing mumbo jumbo does not negate facts. It does not matter if one has a 300 amp recently polished chrome alternator and 1/0 cable. If its voltage cannot be controlled to hold mid to high 14's, then charging a 50% charged lead acid battery to truly full in less than 6.5 hours is impossible.

The battery which never reaches 100% full charge degrades much faster.
The battery which does get to 100% full charge often can live an exceptional lifespan.

100% true full charge is not indicated by a charging source's green light.

Anybody wanting good battery life should do what they can with what they own, to get the battery to as high a state of charge as possible, and never let self discharge or parasitic drains slowly discharge the battery to the point it cannot start, or can just barely start the engine.

It does not actually requie much of a battery to start an modern fuel injected engine in mild or warm ambient temperatures. I have ad one 7 year old wally world group 27 marine battery easily start my engine if fully charged, but if I tried fully charging my old flip phone from it then starting the engine, it could not.

Many many starting batteries right now, could not fully charge a smart phone, and then still start the engine. Many of these owners still assume the battery 'is still going strong'.

if they had a voltmeter that sampled several ties a second, and watched it every time they started their motor, they would have noticed the voltage the battery could maintain starting the motor falling lower and lower as the battery ages. Once it starts falling into teh mid 8 volt range, it will still start, and start quite easily in most instances, but complete failure is not far off.

Wth a hghi sample rate voltmeter, each engine start can be considered a load test. No need to take it out to a auto parts store. Their load testers can be quite poor, and some other testers which measure battery resistance and deliver a CCA figure and % oif health remaining can also be inaccurtate and quite misleading. Also do not forget the many employees in AP stores using them are not exactly being held out of Mensa because they ran out of room.

They are trying to sell a battery, or deny warranty coverage.

Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
MuddyAxles #750914 July 24th 2019 11:08 pm
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I'm with Don't come knockin Lifes too short to worry about every speck of everything.

Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
MuddyAxles #750922 July 25th 2019 3:18 am
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I hated school more than anybody.

Whe. I started using a lot of 12v power.i got really irritated at how often the batteries lost capacity. And needed replacement.

So I learned what a lead acid battery needs to live a long life. I collect data. Experiment observe. And try to pass on this info to others.

Have not had to replace my battery in close to six years now. Certainly beats replacement every year and a half. And running out of juice at inopportune moments.

If I had money to throw at new batteries often. I likely would not have bothered to learn how to not have to.

Re: Adding Auxiliary Battery and necessary parts
MuddyAxles #750944 July 25th 2019 6:22 pm
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Got 6 years out of my last Auto Zone battery. Got an Optima now.

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