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Old 02-25-2009, 10:44 AM   #1
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Dual Battery Issues

I have been toying with the idea on how to hook up a 2nd battery to my Surveyor. The present battery is on the tongue, and there is no place for a 2nd battery without major modifications. Plus, I have a fairly heavy tongue weight already, and just don't want to go down the road with much more than I now have.

My idea is to carry a 2nd battery in a battery box in the truck, and just place it on top of my current battery box, and hook it up with some type of quick connection when I get to a campsite.

1st question: I have been looking for some type of polarized connector to accomplish this, but just haven't found what I am looking for. I have found a couple online, but the male ends have exposed contacts, which would be a no-no. Any thing out there that might accomplish this hook-up??

2nd question: Since I would have to put 1 battery back in the truck after camping, that battery would not get a charge like the trailer battery would off of the TV while traveling to the next site. Would hooking up a not fully charged battery to a fully charged battery be bad or dangerous?? I am thinking that it shouldn't be any more dangerous than hooking up jumper cables, but just not sure. And I realize the partially charged battery will draw down the fully charged batter, but I do have a generator that I could charge the pair through my converter while in place, but of course it would be impractacal in transit.

Thanks in advance.
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Old 02-25-2009, 10:59 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by mtnguy View Post
....1st question: I have been looking for some type of polarized connector to accomplish this, but just haven't found what I am looking for. I have found a couple online, but the male ends have exposed contacts, which would be a no-no. Any thing out there that might accomplish this hook-up??

2nd question: Since I would have to put 1 battery back in the truck after camping, that battery would not get a charge like the trailer battery would off of the TV while traveling to the next site. Would hooking up a not fully charged battery to a fully charged battery be bad or dangerous?? I am thinking that it shouldn't be any more dangerous than hooking up jumper cables, but just not sure. And I realize the partially charged battery will draw down the fully charged batter, but I do have a generator that I could charge the pair through my converter while in place, but of course it would be impractacal in transit.

Thanks in advance.
To question 1, Warn Winch makes very large polarized quick disconnects for use with portable vehicle winches. Here is a link to them at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CQBMJU

They are good for up to 175 amps. Of course you could also just use jumper cables.

Question 2: As you probably already have a charge wire running to your trailer I would find a place to tap into it on the truck and run a wire to the battery in the bed of the truck so it too can charge, you would of course have to ground the battery to the truck to complete it's circuit for this to work. You could even install a small socket in the bed of your truck and make up a cable with alligator clips on the end to plug into and attach to that battery if you wanted to get fancy.
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Old 02-25-2009, 11:09 AM   #3
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Here is a link to Granger that has all types of connectors. The Anderson products are probably what your are looking for.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg...&L1=Automotive

For charging, you could get a solar charger. Or I think think are chargers that run off a 12v. You could put a cigarette adapter in your bed to plug it into.

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Old 02-25-2009, 11:37 AM   #4
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Here is a link to Granger that has all types of connectors. The Anderson products are probably what your are looking for.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg...&L1=Automotive

For charging, you could get a solar charger. Or I think think are chargers that run off a 12v. You could put a cigarette adapter in your bed to plug it into.

David
Good call, these are the same as the Warn connectors, makes sense, Warn doesn't make them themselves. But does Grainger sell to the public now? Last I knew you had to have a business license to buy from them....
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Old 02-25-2009, 12:33 PM   #5
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Those type of connectors are exactly what I was looking for, but I just didn't know where to find them. I used those type of connectors to plug in electric forktrucks into the chargers during my working career. Thanks for the links.

I would think the ligher duty 1s should work for my application?? And what sized wire, considering 1 battery might be discharged some, and the other fully charged ??

I am going to reevaluate the charging of the 2nd battery, but I am still leaning towards using the generator to charge both of them before/after use.
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