Battery upgrade

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! That went crazy.... I am still on my stock battery from 09... No issues but with the added 400w am coming soon i just dont want to run into issues on the trail..... I like to jam my radio when we have a group together or when i wanna show off... LOL

I looked at the odyssey batteries.... and i think that will be my first option if needed... Ill try the stocker and see if she holds up... But, ill bring jumper cables with me.........

Thanks for the info.....

I run a car battery under the seat and extended the cables. So far so good.

i wouldnt mind buying an optima and using just that.... i dont know if the stator can keep that up tho and i dont want to screw up my new stator.....

banchee6 wrote:

............ I like to jam my radio when we have a group together or when i wanna show off... LOL
I looked at the odyssey batteries.... and i think that will be my first option if needed... Ill try the stocker and see if she holds up... But, ill bring jumper cables with me......... .

Dual batteries are the answer for that kind of situation. Run the GettoBlaster off of the auxilliary battery and if that goes dead, then you just have to quit showing off, eh? Your primary battery will not be affected and will get you home. A deep cycle design battery is more suited for that kind of heavy discharge cycling and will live much longer under that kind of 'abuse'.

You will want to beef up your wire harness grounding if you are going to add that much aux loading, especially if you run that thing off of the stock battery. Get your battery negative terminal grounded to the frame, or the engine case grounded to the frame, with a heavy ground wire (at least 12 ga, 10 ga better). There is a good possibility that the puny stock ground pigtail coning off of the battery negative terminal, and going into the wire harness, will melt down with that additional load.

The safest way to run dual batteries is with a 'Voltage Sensing Relay' module (battery 'separator') to eliminate the circuit path between the batteries unless the batteries are actually being charged. Steer away from any 'battery isolator', which is the common name for a diode isolator (3 large power terminals), which have a significant voltage loss and require cutting of a stock wire. The VSR separator has only 2 large power terminals and just wires in with no modification to any stock wiring.

Separator wiring diagram:

!solator wiring diagram:

banchee6 wrote:

i wouldnt mind buying an optima and using just that.... i dont know if the stator can keep that up tho and i dont want to screw up my new stator.....

That is a really good question. An alternator (stator and rotating magnets working together) should be designed such that the voltage droops with current draw and simply 'runs out of steam' before the coils overheat. You will see the output voltage droop below the voltage needed to charge a battery if the battery demands too much current to charge at that rate. It then just takes longer to charge the battery. The older 660 stators seem like they had fewer failures than the newer 700 stators (??). I'm sort of wondering if they put bigger magnets into the rotor without up-sizing up the coils to match, in order to boost the output.. That would be a recipe for overheating and burning up coils.

There are also quality issues that might be plaguing the stators. As an example, the coils are varnished to prevent the turns from shorting out with each other. If the varnish is less heat resistant or thinner in spots, it leads to a shorted turn which will immediately burn up the coil. Just speculating here. It seems to be the luck of the draw.

We have a few people running a deep cycle battery in parallel with the stock battery. Sticking it under the seat. So far no issues. Hopefully it works. I'm going to try something. Just don't know what yet. And I can't loose the "ghetto blaster". Lmao

I keep mine on a battery tender I believe it's the original from 08 I will keep and eye on it I have four or five batteries on. Monthly charge schedule just to be safe or if I'm out wrenching and feel like a good charge...

i have run optimas in my trucks for years they are pricey but you get what you pay for, really thinking about the sure power isolator now

i wanted to duel batteries but i carry a 350 am jump pack for jumping it if i need too. but i think i might need too now, i just added 2 HID 4" lights along with 2 6 inch LED light. but i do like alot of lighting for night rides.

I used a car battery and built brackets to put it in the front end between the frame rails. Works great

is that all you run is a car battery. i has been thinking of doing the same for awhile but havnt done it yet, could you put a pic of how you did it. thanks

No im running the factory battery plus the car battery. here is a link to the build thread i did on it.
Dual Battery Install

I'm thinking about doing that also.

CustomizedRhino13 wrote:

SteveS wrote:

Firefighter wrote:

CustomizedRhino13 wrote:

madmax 1 wrote:

i run dual batts without an isolator, 3years with no problems

Good info!

You can run dual batteries without an isolator. People do it every day. Just be careful when one of them goes bad. The bad battery can cause the good battery to discharge at an explosive rate !!! And if this happens, do NOT try to pull the cable off with Your bare hand ! It can scar for life.

Agreed. I actually had this happen to my diesel pickup with a paralleled battery stock setup. The only way you can stop this is to disconnect one of the cables from the battery that is not spewing it's guts out. And, yes, the cables get very hot! It is a scarey thing when it is happening.

My dads duramax battery's went out about 2 years ago, luckily no problems on reinstalling them, now that I read this we would have had to find out the hard way.

just food for thought, on all chevys, they were made for a true maintenance free battery(no way to check fluid levels) so when replacing batteries either go optima or the stock battery or another closed cell true maintenance free battery. expensive yes, but the pickups are set up to charge these style of batteries(which require the higher charging rate than open cell batteries.) one reason side posts get a bad name for corrosion is cause most people won't put the correct battery back in due to costs and this in turn will boil the battery and corrode the battery connections and wires under the insulation. So if you want to save some troubles down the line.

the stock charging system isnt strong enough to charge the larger batteries.... Yes they would be an awesome upgrade and well worth the extra money, but you will be replacing stators once a year probably.... I am building an extra battery box for the drivers side under the hood and going to house a battery in there as well,,,, Just to help out with the other one and hopefully i dont trash the stator in the process..

banchee6 wrote:

the stock charging system isnt strong enough to charge the larger batteries.... Yes they would be an awesome upgrade and well worth the extra money, but you will be replacing stators once a year probably.... I am building an extra battery box for the drivers side under the hood and going to house a battery in there as well,,,, Just to help out with the other one and hopefully i dont trash the stator in the process..

On the subject of overloading the stator: For what it is worth, when the charging voltage droops to where the voltage is too low to actually charge both of the batteries, the Voltage Sensing Relay (separator) will disconnect. What happens then is that all of the available charging current is available to the primary battery, and the loads that are attached to the primary circuitry, only. The auxiliary battery and it's loads are left to fend for themselves without any charging. This is no worse than the stator load that would have happened with a single battery setup.

so if i run two identical battery styles in there and hook both batteries together, the charging system wont go boom????

banchee6 wrote:

so if i run two identical battery styles in there and hook both batteries together, the charging system wont go boom????

If you simply connect the batteries in parallel, the charging system still sees the full load on everything. I was simply pointing out the load disconnect that a VSR (battery separator) affords. I suspect that the stator simply goes boom when it feels like it anyway.

The greatest load that the charging system could possibly see would be when running a winch at full load, with the engine running revved up to help. I don't recall ever seeing anyone ever posting that as a cause of a stator burning up.

Good to know. Thanks for the help.

ok, i just re read the whole thing and you are saying with the disconnect or seperator.... Well what if i dont run that seperator and just hook them up parrallel????

Reason being is that i dont know if the seperator can handle being under water

what about putting an alternator on? Then you wouldn't have to worry about it. Don't they have kits for 200 bucks or so?

Wow!!! 700's don't have available alternators and mine goes deep underwater. Won't work

banchee rides some really DEEP stuff and I don't think the alternator would handle that

I don't have a rhino, I have a hippo!!!!!

banchee6 wrote:

ok, i just re read the whole thing and you are saying with the disconnect or seperator.... Well what if i dont run that seperator and just hook them up parrallel????

Reason being is that i dont know if the seperator can handle being under water

Earlier in the thread, you were real concerned with overloading your stator and burning it up. I was answering that question, pointing out that the separator will disconnect the two batteries if the stator is not keeping up. There is no device named a "Disconnector", but rather a separator device that disconnects under certain conditions.

Yes, you can simply wire your batteries together in parallel. Both batteries will be permanently connected to your stator and pulling juice from it, just like you were visualizing. You have read of and are aware of the potential meltdown that you may experence if one of the batteries internally shorts out? It is defintely a rare thing, but still does happen (likely while you are peacefully sleeping :-). There are tradeoffs and you are now aware of them.