Dual battery for inverter

[slightlydodgy]

I picked up a 600watt inverter cheap yesterday and am thinking about hard wiring it. I have 2 good batteries that would fit on the shelf side by side so thought that I would wire the inverter to one but would like to be able to isolate that battery (preferably without opening bonnet) so that its only running off one if the ute is turned off (so that I stil have a fully charged battery to start ) but run them together when the ute is going for charging and to help with running lights heater etc -cold dark mornings latley Any thoughts out there

Thanks Pete

[pig75]

I use this it works well
http://secure.oatleyelectronics.com//pr ... cts_id=270

[slightlydodgy]

Thanks that looks good I dont suppose you know who would sell that over here

[muzila]

Go to supercheap and ask for a Matson Dual Battery Isolator. It is a full Kit with wiring and instructions as well as all the cable ends and stuff. $169.00 I think they are from memory. Its a VSR Type. Great for what you want. I am putting one in my MU.

[pig75]

Thanks that looks good I dont suppose you know who would sell that over here

They ship internationally

[wbski007]

I ran a cable from the hot post on the starter to a heavy duty solinoid, from the other side of the solinoid to the POS on the second battery, and grounded the NEG battery side to the engine, I have a simple on off switch on the dash that's wired to the solinoid, I turn it on if I want to use the second battery or to charge it off the engine, other wise I leave it off, that way the second battery is isolated from the system until I need it, if something happends and the main battery goes dead for some reason, I just flip the switch to on and the solinoid makes the conection and bingo, I'm good to go. Heavy duty solinoid at auto parts,$9.99, simple

[slightlydodgy]

Thats the sort of thing that I was after. Thanks very much. Like the washers on top of the battery bracket bolts too!!

[geeves]

Dont laugh at those washers. I looked at a Mistral in the auction a while ago(your allowed to look) and it had 2 holes in the bonnet that lined up with the after market battery bolts

[slightlydodgy]

I was'nt laughing I think that its a great idea Ive got myself hooked on them a couple of times

[Captcol]

Interesting way of coming at the problem of dual batteries, kind of in reverse to most systems as I understand it, so you are using the second battery as you starter battery when required?

[wbski007]

Yes I use it only when needed, I do alot of bush camping and use 12V for alot of differant appliances, I forgot one time and did not disconect my Rodeo from the caravan and was useing my 12V's quite abit and ran my car battery down also, lucky I was in a campground and some one gave me a jump, so that's when I decided to keep a extra battery isolated from the rest all the time, but still easy to kick into the system when needed and that's when I came up with the solonoid trick. Its saved me a couple of times already, once when I left the interior light on all night and half the next day, what a great test that was, my battery was just about dead, the motor just bearly turned over but not fast enough to fire her off, so I clicked the switch on and bingo, she fired right up, HOORAY, If you are running two battery's you can keep one isolated for those type of emergancies, or for when you need that extra power for that inverter. Also you don't have to go to the hot on the starter like I did, I did that because it was more conveniant to tie into the system there rather than going all the way over to the POS post of my main battery, if your running two batterys now, just place the soloinid on the POS wire in between the two batterys.