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Help with wiring an auxiliary battery in 2014 Sierra for camper.


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Hey guys, hoping someone has done this and can provide some insight, pictures, install help etc.

 

I have a 2014 Sierra 1500 with the extra battery tray. I just picked up an old wilderness camper with a 6 prong harness. There is no wiring on the camper for additional deep cycle batteries, so it uses the truck electric for power through the hitch wiring. I would like to add another deep cycle battery into the extra battery tray, and have it recharge off the alternator while not draining the starting battery.

 

I know that I need an isolator, and am curious if anyone has done a setup like this? If so any installation walk through? Any brand preferences? I am decently mechanically inclined however the last thing I want to do is cause electrical issues or reliability downfalls. I will be camping in some very remote places in Montana, and need to make sure my vehicle will have no issues starting.

 

Thanks everyone! Look forward to hearing from you.

 

 

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I'm interested in this also.

If the Duramax's still run dual batteries you may be able to get most of your answer from looking at one of those and schematic.

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That's were I hook up my positive cable ( 2nd battery ) to, ran it along fire wall ,along driver side to battery. ground wire to engine block . NO problems . your local auto parts can make up battery cables for you

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If you are looking for redundancy and/or an isolated battery for the camper, you want a separate circuit. This is commonly done with a battery isolator.

 

 

Running two batteries wired in parallel buys nothing if you're trying to ensure the camper doesn't drain the starting battery.

 

I installed a Painless isolator charging system and AUX battery on my 2008. It wasn't cheap. But it worked seamlessly and is still working years later. My brother had to use the AUX battery to start the truck recently. I'd recommend the Painless system.

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^^^ THIS! Are you running as an auxiliary battery or in combination with the starter battery?

 

They are in parallel, essentially just doubling the capacity of the stock battery. so I can run stereo longer without needing to worry much

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I ordered a dual battery system from GM in 1992 and all they did was to install a starter solenoid on the second battery. Then you always have a fully charged battery for starting. When running both are connected and charging and when off you run down the aux battery.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm looking to install auxiliary battery using only OEM parts. My local dealers cannot provide this information. After much searching I did find these schematics referencing RPO codes TP2 and 6A6 - with GM part numbers.

 

http://parts.nalleygmc.com/productSearch.aspx?&ukey_make=1024&ukey_model=14538&modelYear=2014&ukey_category=0&isOnSale=0&ukey_driveline=0&ukey_modelRange=0&ukey_trimlevel=25415&searchTerm=tp2

 

My problem\question now is what is the difference between the TP2 and 6A6 RPO codes? I'd prefer to have the "series"? setup where I have both batteries available for startup versus in parallel.

 

I was told that the secondary battery tray comes from the factory to account either for diesel engines or fleet vehicles (such as police or municipal vehicles).

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I used a Painless Performance 40120 digital power manager. It simply charges the aux battery as necessary and does not allow overcharge. It isolates the aux battery as well. It does not have any circuit to facilitate using the battery (no load side circuit), since it is set up for someone that has a camper or winch, etc, that they will wire to the aux battery. If you want to "jump start" your truck, you would need to use cables to jump to the main battery or swap battery positions or add a solenoid.

 

The Painless 40121 has the same system above to charge the aux battery, but adds a "jump start" solenoid, in case your main battery goes down.

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