North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

G'day fellas,
I wanna put a second battery in my 460 centre console. Is there a marine grade auto solenoid like the standard 4WD dual battery solenoid around or do you still need to use the old 3 position pain in the tits jobs??

Cheers,
Nath.

Are you just after a VSR (voltage sensitive relay)?
http://www.bepmarine.com/en/710-140a

Yeah something like that bud, just want something that'll charge both while the engine is running and the isolate the starter battery once the engine is off. Rather than go down the old road of switching battery preferences manually.
Nath.

Jack you can get them like jer has mentioned at road tech marine and they come with the isolator also as one piece so you can swap from battery to battery or use both

Cheers fitzy, I want something I can put in and forget about, so to speak.
Nath.

Are they both going to be cranking batteries? Or will one be a deep cycle AGM?

More than likely one deep cycle for the electric/fridge etc.

If the Deep Cycle is going to be AGM then you should get a DC-DC inverter to charge it, as you will end up killing it otherwise.

Jabsy's right.

Deep cycle batteries and cranking batteries need different charging arrangements to maintain their useful life.

Putting a deep-cycle battery on a vehicle or boat alternator will work but it'll reduce the life of the deep cycle battery.

To maintain the useful life of a deep cycle battery, get a smart-charger that runs off 12V DC (called a DC-DC charger). The charger can be switched between lead acid/AGM/GEL etc.

Get a DC-DC charger with a max rating of about 20% of the AHr of the battery eg 100AHr deep cycle battery needs a DC-DC charger rated at about max 20A output. It won't run at 20A all the time because the "smart" technology will regulate the charger to what's best for the battery.

You won't need a VSR as the "smarts" take care of that too.

Just make sure that you get a REAL deep cycle battery and not one of the "pretend" ones like a marine one. There are plenty of "pretend" ones out there.

Look at the specs on battery you are about to buy. It should ONLY have AHr on it. If it's got CCA or MCA numbers on it, then its one of the "pretend" ones.

Drop into Peter Brown electrics and they will sort you out. they really know their stuff.