Dual Battery Setup – Part One

Disclaimer: this is how I put this together, it is not intended as a guide, and is based on my limited personal experience. I am not an electrician, nor do I accept any personal liability for any accidents that may occur after reading this post. Always speak to a professional and be aware that electricity kills.

I’m a bit of a tinkerer, especially when it comes to electronics and electrical systems. A fair amount of my teens and early twenties was spent running cables through cars and mounting speakers in cars, and then swapping them out and doing them again after reading magazines on how to do this in a more professional way. It kept me out of trouble for the most part, and eventually I grew out of it.

Until now.

I had a couple of estimates for running a dual battery setup, and my inner Scot told me I was being seen over. Unlike fitting a bullbar, with the move of crash sensors and cruise control, this is something I could do myself. Cue late nights on YouTube and Google to see what had changed, and discussions with friends on what I should get.

After a lot of research I stumbled across this video which takes you through everything you need to know – http://www.australiandirect.com.au/shop/battery-systems-solar/dual-battery-kits/1107

After this I went window shopping online at the three letter acronym stores and decided to use my favourite, DIY.  This also gave me an excuse to get a sausage-inna-bun.  #magic

The goal was simple, create a portable battery kit that could be in the truck the majority of the time to power my fridge, but that could also come out in the future to the sites of BBQ’s.

The parts I ordered:

• 200W flexible solar panel
• REDARC BCDC1240LV DUAL BATTERY ISOLATOR SYSTEM
• REDARC WIRING KIT TO SUIT BCDC1240LV
• 6 metres of 6B&S twin core cable
• Anderson plugs
• Battery Box
• Assorted auto fuses
• Assorted heat wrap
• Assorted terminals
• 3x car stereo style in line fuses
• 4x 50A stereo fuses
• Kings dual battery setup

Once everything arrived from eBay, car auto stores, and a storage locker that I keep random bits of perfectly useful stuff in, I loaded it into the truck and headed to the hobby farm, where I intended to build the system.  Unfortunately I ran out of time so I’ll be building this on the road.

The idea is simple enough, a second battery will power my fridge with electrical isolation from my cranking battery when the truck is off. This second battery needs to be charged from the vehicle when it is running, and from a solar panel or gen set when it isn’t. As my truck is fairly new it needs to have an electrical step up in voltage to charge the second battery, and control the solar panel flow. And from a space perspective this battery has to be in the tray of the ute.

Running the cable from the front to the rear of the vehicle is pretty straight forward. Getting it into the tub however is a bit more challenging.

The battery box has some of what I wanted on it, the rest I can add myself using a fuse block, a drill, and some off the shelf components.  Adding the new USB and 12V cig socket holes to the battery box with some Anderson plugs should be straightforward enough as well.  I’ll need some fuses to help protect everything as well.