Battery Isolator Help

[jt1989]

Hello again,
I am wanting to put a battery isolator in my boat. Currently the two batteries are connected in parallel. I want to separate these batteries so I can have one battery for cranking the motor and one for all the accessories. All I have hooked up to the "accessory battery" is lights, bilge pump, bilge blower, head unit, and 1 small amp. Is this the best way to hook everything up? What is the best isolator to get and how many amp's should I look for?
Thanks

 

[Piece715]

Re: Battery Isolator Help

Do a search of the forums and you'll find TONS of info on this. Ill get ya started... This picture kinda gives a feel for the set up. With an isolator switch you don't "dedicate" anything to a battery. Each battery gets wire to a position and then every thing else gets wire to the COM terminal. So example Starting battery to position 1; Accessory battery (or House battery for proper termage ) to the 2 position. Then all loads get wired to the COM terminals i.e. fuse block, motor, etc. One recommendation to me was not to wire the motor to a negative bus bar but to take it back straight to the battery.

With the switch wire that way you can just keep it on BOTH start the motor and head to your spot. When ya get there you can change the switch to isolate a specific battery, and then when your leaving just change back to both and head on ur way. Hope this clarifies things but honestly use the SEARCH feature of the forums... SOOOOOO much info on isolator switches