Spare battery?

[bijou22]

I only have 1 battery on my boat and sometimes when i moor it at various locations, like to listen to music and leave the fishfinder running also. I am worried that there will not be enough power to start it after and so have fitted a device which shuts off the power at 11.9 V allowing enough power to start the boat. Is it also possible to reroute all appliances to work off another battery or any other ideas would be appreciated on how its done?

 

[wire2]

Re: Spare battery?

A battery isolator will allow the alternator to charge both at once, but not allow current from 1 battery to flow to the other.

You will have to remove all but the starter from one, and connect all other loads to the 2nd batt.

Isolators are available on eBay, marine, or motorhome supply.

 

[PondTunes]

Re: Spare battery?

The device you speak of is called a battery buddy or battery brain. It works as a disconnect between the battery & your accessories. Once your battery is drained to a certain threshold it trips and disconnects all loads. You press a reset switch and it reconnects power and you have juice to crank.

www.batterybuddy.com is the company that makes/supplies these.

 

[wire2]

Re: Spare battery?

PondTunes, I read his post that he already had one of those installed, and was looking for a 2nd battery system.

 

[PondTunes]

Re: Spare battery?

So it would appear that he does have one of these already Typing must be faster than my reading today. As always I recommend the blue sea systems 'add-a-battery' setup if you're going to be adding one or more banks to your setup. There's several ways to do this, see the following link.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=220892&highlight=add-a-battery

If you scroll down theres a detailed explanation of each setup and it's pro's/con's as well as links to more threads on the subject.

As far as isolating your cranking/engine from the accessories this should be easily done at the battery as you probably will have more than one heavy gauge wire connecting to the battery.

Ideally you should have your engine electrics + starter on one, and everything else on the other, (nav lights, stereo, trolling motor,fishfinder) the stereo and fish finder are easy enough to isolate, I would recommend running a heavy gauge wire up to the console and creating another 12v distribution point to tie the radio/fish finder/lights or whatever up to batt #2

 

[wire2]

Re: Spare battery?

Bijou, here's what an isolator looks like;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/70-a...018QQitemZ280151405336QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

but have a look at Pond's link for more choices and info.