Extra Battery

redwngr · January 11, 2015

Depends on engine/trim.

Battery, heavy-duty 720 cold-cranking amps/80 Amp-hr, maintenance-free with rundown protection and retained accessory power

1 - Included and only available with V8 engines.

Battery, heavy-duty 730 cold-cranking amps/70 Amp-hr, maintenance-free with rundown protection and retained accessory power

The 730cca/70amp-hr is standard on 2014 wt and lt with the 720CCA/80Amp-hr std on LTZ/HC optional with v8 on wt/LT.

Why do you want to do this? What did I miss?

Spurshot · January 12, 2015

You need to match your batteries at the same size(cca) so that they charge / discharge evenly. If you put different sizes in it can possibly cause problems.

If you have a battery isolator/charging circuit, you don't need to worry about matching the batteries. I had this system on the 2008.

http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcat/40120

You can add a heavy cable and solenoid to this system and use it to "jump start" if your main battery rolls T.U.

Edited January 12, 2015 by spurshot

Spurshot · January 12, 2015

Complete guess, but I think the engine compartment will be/is the same for the 2015 2500/3500 trucks and they have 2 batteries (diesel), cost savings. same engine bay, no extra battery on 1500's. As far as adding a second one, a waste, unless you are adding a ton of lights, subs, tv's and aftermarket accessories. and then you'd still need a bigger/extra alternator to charge it. Or, spare battery for worst case, battery dies in middle of nowhere. Not really any reason IMHO.

I like 2 batteries for trips. Sometimes, I get pretty far from civilization. A functioning battery is a critical piece to the function of the truck. Having redundancy of the battery is more than just peace of mind. It can save you life in some situations. My brother recently had to use the second battery I put in my 2008, after the main died. I don't think he was in a life threatening situation. But, it can happen pretty easily in the back country. At the very least, it's extremely inconvenient to not be able to start your vehicle 20 miles from the nearest person.

Edited January 12, 2015 by spurshot

SMiller · January 12, 2015

So carry a jump pack...

Spurshot · January 12, 2015

So carry a jump pack...

I'm not familiar with them. Are they lithium battery packs?

nards444 · January 12, 2015

I'm not familiar with them. Are they lithium battery packs?

http://store.starkpower.com/12V-StarkPower-iSparQ-600A-Lithium-Ion-Emergency-Battery-Jump-Starter_p_68.html

redwngr · January 12, 2015

There are other jump packs out there.

http://bestjumpstarterreview.com/

gSwift · January 12, 2015

I bought the Antigravity micro jump starter a couple months ago. Haven't had to use it yet to jump a vehicle, but I definitely love the compact size. Its only a bit larger than an external hard drive and fits nicely in my backpack. And since i'm always on a plane or tour bus, I always have a back up way to charge my phone or laptop

Edited January 13, 2015 by gSwift

richard10688 · January 13, 2015

Take a look at this article..

http://www.hardworkingtrucks.com/double-up/

I'm running the same setup without the disconnect switch and a 34/78 battery with 800cca..

It's been working flawlessly for about 5 months now..

henrypbui · January 13, 2015

what do you guys think of running this Power-Gate Dual Rectifier Isolator and using the 2nd battery to run other accessories with a relay/fuse box like OEM designs?

http://www.perfectswitch.com/isolators/dual-rectifier-isolator/

I plan on having a winch up front and rear, a 30"-40" light bar in the grill, dual 10" light bar in the rear, or J.W. Speaker model 61xx series lights in the rear to aid for extra lighting, probably will do an air compressor eventually, and not sure what else in the future.

Edited January 13, 2015 by henrypbui

Spurshot · January 13, 2015

Henry

I was thinking along those lines myself. Not so much the winch, but maybe. But power sockets in the bed for portable refrigerator, compressor, and any other stuff like that.

Painless has some fuse blocks I was looking at.

You might give some thought into the ground circuit, since the #2 battery would be isolated and not in parallel. I'm suspicious isolated batteries don't want to use a common (chassis) ground path. It might play badly with electronics.