[shakes]

So when it comes to wiring (and searching) I suck.

Going to rewire my headlights and spots along with sorting out power for my uhf, cd player, amp etc.
Was thinking of getting all that from the second battery and leave the primary one as a starter only, is that the best way or am I dreaming?

I'll be running a winch down the track if that changes things, I thought I better ask this question while I have a clean slate rather than try re-hash it later.

cheer's

Simon

[royce]

only run things you are likely to run with teh engine off, otherwise youll be turning 300 things on and off whenever you get in and out

[shakes]

surely I could switch power to the fuse box via a relay from ign accesories? or is that a no no?

I only know enough to get myself in trouble when it comes to wiring

[royce]

you could but then you are draining the main battery anyway

I run my uhf from teh main battery, head unit from main but amps on aux, spotlights from aux, but I rarely run any of that without the engine for a long period of time, its mainly for the fridge and camp lights

[got_bar_work]

I run everything that is not stock off my second batt that way there is no chance of having a flat starter.
He'll on my Sierra even the headlights were feed from the second batt

[morpheus]

i had my fridge, radios, spot lights, amps and extra lighter sockets running off the AUX battery. that way i never had a flat battery, @ the drive in my amp wouldn't kill my starter battery, and whenever i stopped, the kids car DVD player would keep running off the AUX battery..

and as an added extra, i hooked up a cable, so if my starter battery did ever go flat, i could jump start myself by connecting both batteries together with a battery isolator..

[shakes]

morpheus wrote:

i had my fridge, radios, spot lights, amps and extra lighter sockets running off the AUX battery. that way i never had a flat battery, @ the drive in my amp wouldn't kill my starter battery, and whenever i stopped, the kids car DVD player would keep running off the AUX battery..

and as an added extra, i hooked up a cable, so if my starter battery did ever go flat, i could jump start myself by connecting both batteries together with a battery isolator..

So how did you switch it all so you didn't use it as royce said?

[shakes]

So stewing on this a little more at 2am this morning when my insomnia wouldnt let me sleep....

Is there any reason I couldnt use a 3 way rocker style switch, with the common to the relay, one side powered from acc and the other from the 2nd batt?

[royce]

as a way to give an option to power off the key or off the second battery while sitting still?

[PJ.zook]

A rocker would work if thats the way you would want it rigged up, but not in the way you describe. You would need two relays, but you would have to watch what loads you put thru the relays, IE the winch is a no-no.

Another thing to remember, the way all normal switches work (there are specialty switches that dont work as i describe) is when they switch over, they 'break before make'.

This means that when you flick the switch, power is cut for a split second while the switch physically moves. You also have a microsecond for the relays to physically move.

This wouldnt be a problem for most devices such as UHF, etc but if you are running say a car computer, this could cause issues.

As Royce said, the best way to wire things up is to hook devices that you would run with the engine ON to the main battery, and anything that you would run with the engine OFF to the aux battery.

Its also a good idea for any big loads like spotlights and winches to be hooked to the main battery (realistically those are engine ON devices anyway).

If you want we could set one weekend aside at Jas' joint and do a rewire.

[shakes]

thanks PJ.

My main thinking for this is being able to this is to sit around listening to tune's all day long without having to think to start my car at anystage. same deal with the UHF and a couple of lights and stuff for the back of the car when camping.

So 99% of the time it will be run off the acc switch, but for when I do get away I can flip it over. Seeing as I'm running power and whatnot for the radio's now, I figure save doing things twice.

Once she's all going, might take you guy's up on help with the rewire though.

[royce]

lights and so on you would wire to your second battery anyway, for your radios a simple over ride would be a switch with power from teh 2nd battery into the accesory line, jsut turn the key off and turn the switch on when you want to do that

youll also need to wire the battery feed for your stereo into the aux battery