Add-A-Battery

[Jarcher3]

I know its been covered but after searching for a while i cant really get the details im lost on from the other threads....

01 Larson 4.3GL 65A alt. (figuring to use the 120A kit still) i have two batteries Starting and DC with a two bank charger and i want to add a blue sea systems switch and ACR.

while looking at the diagrams I'm not seeing much on actual wiring, just the diagrams that don't help to understand it fully.

so for the starting battery i connect battery>switch>starter that one i see and makes sense..


for the house i connect Battery> switch> what? is there one main wire that runs to my fuse block? what about the yellow radio wire and the bilge? are these connected somewhere else on the engine?

Do i link the batteries negative as i have seen, or buss bar? currently they are both grounded on the engine.. would that work okay?

What type of fuses should i use on here? im looking at the AMI/ MIDI, are MAXI better worse or just a different type. are circuit breakers worth the extra 20$ per?

would my 2bank charger work the same still?

can i move my battery to the opposite side for Weight Dist? just use the proper cable sizes and be fine? is there any radio interference issues with running these along other wires or should i run them separate?

overall i understand the kit but the details are what is getting me.

Thanks in advance..

 

[alldodge]

Does this help clear it up?

 

[JASinIL2006]

That's a good diagram. The one included with the Add-A-Battery kit is pretty awful and is particularly confusing on in I/O system. I have this set-up, too, and I want to add an onboard charging system, but I'm not sure where that would be connected vis a vis the diagram above.

As far as weight distribution, you can put the batteries on opposite sides if your cables are sufficiently heavy. I have my house battery on the opposite side from the switch, ACR, etc. and I used 4 AWG wires. (Probably overkill; 6 AWG would probably be enough.)

All this works much better with a neg. buss bar and a positive fuse block.

 

[dingbat]

If your boat was wired like mine, the worst part of the installation is organizing / separating the various feeds from each battery.

I separated mine into critical (motor) and optional (house) circuits.

Motor circuit: Motor / ignition, Trim Tabs, bilge pump, navigation lights, Chart Plotter, VHF
House: Sonar, Courtesy lighting, radar, Washdown and live well pumps, etc.


Not a fan of circuit breakers on boats. Susceptibility to vibration and corrosion are deal killers....

Charger is on the "motor" battery. Charges both batteries if needed

 

[Silverbullet555]

If you run a two bank charger on a system with an acr, my understanding is that you want to disable the acr so each battery charges separately. I did that by putting a switch into the negative acr wire. Plug in the charger and flip the switch and no combining. Otherwise, buy a single bank charger and let the acr combine to charge both

 

[Jarcher3]

If your boat was wired like mine, the worst part of the installation is organizing / separating the various feeds from each battery.

I separated mine into critical (motor) and optional (house) circuits.

Motor circuit: Motor / ignition, Trim Tabs, bilge pump, navigation lights, Chart Plotter, VHF
House: Sonar, Courtesy lighting, radar, Washdown and live well pumps, etc.


Not a fan of circuit breakers on boats. Susceptibility to vibration and corrosion are deal killers....

Charger is on the "motor" battery. Charges both batteries if needed

on mine im not really seeing all the circuits at the battery.... i have a positive that runs to the starter from the battery and i haven't taken the time to chase around the motor and see where all the wires are going... do i need to look for a larger wire running to the fuse block under my dash? does that tie in at the starter usually? i think the house load circuit is my main issue with all of this, I'm seeing the starter side, i get roughly how the ACR goes in but i dont see where I'm pulling my house load and i also want to be sure not to miss the bilge to always have power...

Okay i will stick with regular fuses and keep some spares. little cheaper i think too..

Good to know on the charger would i be able to continue to use my dual bank charger and only have it connected to one battery?

 

[dingbat]

on mine im not really seeing all the circuits at the battery.... i have a positive that runs to the starter from the battery and i haven't taken the time to chase around the motor and see where all the wires are going... do i need to look for a larger wire running to the fuse block under my dash? does that tie in at the starter usually? i think the house load circuit is my main issue with all of this, I'm seeing the starter side, i get roughly how the ACR goes in but i dont see where I'm pulling my house load and i also want to be sure not to miss the bilge to always have power...

The devil is always in the details....lol

There should be one large black (ground) and one large red (starter) cable running directly from the battery, or battery switch, to the motor and a power line running from the switch to the helm to supply power to the key switch, control and gauges. Everything else is discretionary.

On my boat the terminals on the battery switch where used as a common connection point between the two batteries. I spent a lot of time tracing out wires to determine which circuit supplied power to what. With the "house" circuits identified, I installed a bus bar to connect the circuits to the house battery. Some wires where long enough, others I had to extend. Took me a two good days to sort things out.

While I was at it I increased the size of the wiring supplying the fuse holder at the helm and replaced the OEM phenolic fuse holder with a larger, (Blue Seas) ST blade fuse block.

 

[charly1954]

good info tks.