Dual battery question: wiring inverter & accessories
- Thread starter bwood
- Start date
UncleJimmy
New member
Hey bwood.. Did you get your project completed? How is it working for you? Do you have enough amps to run your invertor? What type of battery are you running for house?
Yeah, everything's been working great since finishing the install. We used the inverter primarily for charging laptops and camera gear on the road, which worked great. The house battery is an X2 Power AGM (group 27) from batteries plus, mounted on its side in a modified Slee 2nd battery tray. Using the area meant for a compressor allowed us to use a much larger battery than normally fits, which definitely helps when you're camped somewhere for days on end running a fridge, lights, charging phones, etc.
UncleJimmy
New member
Nice!! I will have to check out the battery.
I am designing my dual battery system and will go similar with the Blue Sea ML-ACR and fuse boxes, fuses etc.
A couple questions I have (for anybody reading this thread) are:
1. The Blue Sea instructions say to run double lines of 4/0 to the batteries. For a "typical" dual battery setup where the house battery is located in the engine bay and the battery cable is routed behind the engine along the fire wall for an estimated 10' run, is this necessary? Can/should you use just one 4/o cable?
2. Fuses. The instructions say you do not need to fuse the battery circuit if you are cross-connecting the batteries per ABCY guidelines. However, it seems most people still fuse the line. My question is what size is appropriate? My understanding is that for my winch (which is 12K and max draw of up to just under 450A) if you were in a dead starter battery and engine not startable with no alternator charge (say a water crossing) and you had to winch solely off the house battery, would you not blow a lower rated fuse? But if you put in a 400A or larger fuse you still have the potential for short circuit/battery fire?? My thought was to put in a lower rated fuse (250-300A??) and then carry a larger spare fuse i can quickly change out for the above scenario.
Here are the (short) instructions for the ML-ACR:
http://assets.bluesea.com/files/resources/instructions/990180180.pdf
I am designing my dual battery system and will go similar with the Blue Sea ML-ACR and fuse boxes, fuses etc.
A couple questions I have (for anybody reading this thread) are:
1. The Blue Sea instructions say to run double lines of 4/0 to the batteries. For a "typical" dual battery setup where the house battery is located in the engine bay and the battery cable is routed behind the engine along the fire wall for an estimated 10' run, is this necessary? Can/should you use just one 4/o cable?
2. Fuses. The instructions say you do not need to fuse the battery circuit if you are cross-connecting the batteries per ABCY guidelines. However, it seems most people still fuse the line. My question is what size is appropriate? My understanding is that for my winch (which is 12K and max draw of up to just under 450A) if you were in a dead starter battery and engine not startable with no alternator charge (say a water crossing) and you had to winch solely off the house battery, would you not blow a lower rated fuse? But if you put in a 400A or larger fuse you still have the potential for short circuit/battery fire?? My thought was to put in a lower rated fuse (250-300A??) and then carry a larger spare fuse i can quickly change out for the above scenario.
Here are the (short) instructions for the ML-ACR:
http://assets.bluesea.com/files/resources/instructions/990180180.pdf
Do you
mind sharing a diagram or final setup of your wiring? I attempted to follow and sort of got lost. I’m looking to do this for similar use and would be super helpful.
Here is my diagram. I am essentially doing the exact same setup as discussed in this forum.
Old thread but will push it to the top for others.
Couple yrs back when l bought my superduty l wanted some toys & such on it so added a 2nd batt (gas 6.2lt) on the passenger front. Just enough room. Added a front winch & tied into the 2nd batt. Ain't having the start battery tied to this as other toys where added too. Using the Redarc bcdc1225 2nd batt is charged at 25 amps max & at the batts specs of 14.6vts (most new alternators charge less). Used 3/0 cable fused with a 400 amp near batt. Max amp draw on winch is 380 @ 10k. No blown fuses yet but have backups. Winch plug is an Anderson as it's removeable from my front receiver to mount my Meyer home plow
This are great plugs & l also made front jumper cables. No need to open hood to jump someone. Under rear passenger seat is my 3000 watt psw inverter. More toys for 2nd batt. It's mounted on plywood with a powerbar plugged in if needed. Main purpose though was to run 12/2 to rear of truck (inverter has hard wire posts & pushes up to 25amps ac power). So just inside tailgate is an gfci 20amp watertight outlet, even though l have a topper. I wanted this outlet to power my Engle fridge/freezer, coffee pot, ext when traveling. So far (1 1/2yrs) all is well. I realize a 3k inverter is large, just be smart & use 1/2 or less power. Things last longer this way.
Couple yrs back when l bought my superduty l wanted some toys & such on it so added a 2nd batt (gas 6.2lt) on the passenger front. Just enough room. Added a front winch & tied into the 2nd batt. Ain't having the start battery tied to this as other toys where added too. Using the Redarc bcdc1225 2nd batt is charged at 25 amps max & at the batts specs of 14.6vts (most new alternators charge less). Used 3/0 cable fused with a 400 amp near batt. Max amp draw on winch is 380 @ 10k. No blown fuses yet but have backups. Winch plug is an Anderson as it's removeable from my front receiver to mount my Meyer home plow
This are great plugs & l also made front jumper cables. No need to open hood to jump someone. Under rear passenger seat is my 3000 watt psw inverter. More toys for 2nd batt. It's mounted on plywood with a powerbar plugged in if needed. Main purpose though was to run 12/2 to rear of truck (inverter has hard wire posts & pushes up to 25amps ac power). So just inside tailgate is an gfci 20amp watertight outlet, even though l have a topper. I wanted this outlet to power my Engle fridge/freezer, coffee pot, ext when traveling. So far (1 1/2yrs) all is well. I realize a 3k inverter is large, just be smart & use 1/2 or less power. Things last longer this way.