twin battery split charge setup

[ScottieJ]

Thanks Tony one for the stickies

[Henry]

Just a very quick note,

If this was mine i wouldn't use the blue connector thing.... useless pieces of ****!

But a very good diagram, i might have to do this myself

[ScottieJ]

I would agree, scotch blocks are horrible things

[Henry]

The diagram is v helpful, Scottie! But what specific split charge relay unit do I need and where from? I want to get a winch and have decided with your and Henrys advice to go with a 12 or 13000lb one. I have a unipart 60ah 550 battery but want to run winch off a separate battery - maybe a numax cxv-x 1000. I can cope with the wiring but I'm getting confused about which split charge unit to get. EG I'm reading that if you run winch when motor is on the split charger allows acces to both batteries sot here is potentially the risk of killing both!

What have you done about this issue? Also I read that the split charge unit has to be pretty robust (150amp or better)to withstand the huge amp draw when the winch is under load. I only want the winch for a "get out of jail free" card on laning and playdays.

Any thoughts well received
Have a great birthday Henry!

Scotts department not mine! ha

My birthday? that was last month

[ScottieJ]

Sorry i pulled this diagram from another site.

If you run the above set up with a battery isolator switch, so just using the secondary battery to power the winch it will be fine with a smaller relay like in the pic above, however this will reduce the winch power as it's not getting a continuous charge from the alternator.

However I would recomend something more like 150amps if you dont want to run an isolator switch and it should be fine, thats how they tell you to do it on the X-eng website I'm just going to buy a relay form X-eng for £20.99 (F**k paying an extra £20 for the wiring though ) http://www.x-eng.co.uk/X-Charge.asp when i set up mine as it's rated at 180amp continuous and run it without an isolator.

hope that helps.

[muddy kev]

if u just want extra power for winching why bother with all that extra wiring, just connect a second battery. run earth to chassis.run another battery cable from positive to starter feed. job done. just use 2 similar rated batteries and all is good.
split charging is fine if u r gonna run 1 battery totally flat like in a caravan, but i run my engine all day when playing so keeps both batteries fully charged.
cheers kev

[Zukipilot]

Just remember that when running a split battery setup as shown above, BOTH batteries will take on the charateristics of the weakest battery. By this I mean that if one battery is faulty, the good battery will give the same charateristics as the faulty battery. This I know from experience.

It also helps to upgrade your alternator

[Highlander]

As Kev says, two batterys wired together is the easiest option, if you flatten both of them winching a Suzuki out of a hole then you're REALLY stuck

I'm in the middle of fitting twin 100Amp alternators and batteries to my Samurai, going to run them as two completely independant systems,

one running all the car electrics as normal and the other used by the winch only.

I will have a manual switch to connect the batterys if necessary though so each system can power the other if needs be.

[gringo1987]

Hi im thinking of fitting a winch and was going to fit a second battery and alternator, any one got any tips like what size alternator and battery. The winch is going to use 15A - 400A when under load thanx gringo