Anyone Added A Second Battery?

[church]

2003 gmc 1500hd crew cab.

 

twice this week for some reason my lights did not automatically shut off... drained the battery and had to jump it.

id like to add another battery that my truck charges while driving but wont die if the lights stay on again. so if the lights stayed on and drained the first battery i could flip a switch or something and start my truck with the second good battery.

 

anyone done this?

i dont know what battery to buy(another sears battery? deep cell stereo battery?), or cable size or where to get a second battery tray or how to rig the switch.

know of a instructional video? web site?

 

thx in advance for any advice.

[HawkScot]

welcome to the forum, take a few minutes and try the search function out. I know there are some threads on adding a second battery, both "factory like" and aftermarket.

[beave84]

You can try one of these to get the functions you want to work automaticaly.

 

http://www.perfectswitch.com/power-gate/

 

As for a tray you could get an OEM from GM, I think they cam on GMT-800 2500's as an option.

[church]

i tried the search but nothing comes up.

[RyanbabZ71]

http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/index.php?...&hl=battery

[beave84]

i tried the search but nothing comes up.

 

Here try this one... http://www.perfectswitch.com/power-gate/ba...ifier-isolator/ . Sorry about the other link think I must have erased part of it.

[church]

perfict switch =200 to 400, then add batery and cables ouch, there top of the line, but just out of my price range. i was hoping for a more affordable way to self-jump my truck.

[HawkScot]

I am not sure what you used for search, but I just put in "second battery" (no quotes) and it brought at least a page.

[beave84]

Like in the post Ryan posted http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRF-40120/ this one is about 170 with cables and everything.

[HawkScot]

When you are counting up the cost, remember to include the second battery and hold down.

[markw8]

The oem dual battery setup didn't have cables big enough to start up off the second battery. You had to use a set of jumper cables if the main went dead.

 

Mark

[hoochi]

I added a second battery on my old HD it had a gas engine and there was an extra spot on opposite side of eng. comp. bought a 4 foot starter battery cable and a 2 foot battery ground cable I ran the starter cable to the old battery + across the fan shroud. I ran the neg. to a bolt on the block, worked fine alt. will charge both and you wont have dead battery unless u really are pulling some juice. the 2 cables cost a total of 20. bucks at wally world and the battery was 60. total cost 80 bucks battery included.

[Prokopchuk_9]

just make sure when you do it to start out with two new batteries, or else they wont last as long. i made that mistake once, used a new bat with an older one. hooked up in the same fashion as the last guy says ^^^^^^

and one died out pretty quick. i now use the same set-up but two optima bat's. and i went to waaay bigger power cable coming off the alternator to the one battery and a waaay bigger ground coming off of that battery now i have zero issues with low power. before when my compressor and 1500 watt amp were going, (like if i had tunes cranked and the tank filling goin down the highway) the battery gauge would be almost in the red LOL...now she doesnt even move a muscle.

[church]

why do both batteries have to be new?

[beave84]

why do both batteries have to be new?

 

 

The way they have them hooked up basically makes one large 12v battery beacuse of high power toys, so if one is weaker then it'll pull harder on the other one. What you wanted was to isolate one battery and only use it for charging, right? If so then with the second kit I posted you can run two different batteries since they are isolated from each other.