P1000 Dual Battery Wiring - Confirm thoughts

[bumperm]

I didn't notice the Tru isolator. What @CID said.

Pretty much everything, especially high current stuff, that you may want to use with key-power off, should be powered by the Aux battery. If you don't do that, then the engine should be running (a sub-optimal alternative IMO). However, keep in mind that the alternator, at engine idle, is not able to generate all that much power, to do that the engine has to be up a few thousand RPM.

Bottom line, winch should go on the Aux, light bars maybe (my 52" draws over 16 amps) can go to either, but if you want to run the light bar for very long with engine off or at idle, it maybe should be powered by the aux.

There is a disadvantage to running the Aux battery ground to the main battery negative post. That means that ALL current from and to both batteries is running through that one wire. On the up side, that wire is short and any resistance is probably low, as long as ground connections are good. Good old redundancy, and avoiding potential for single point failure. would dictate the Aux is better off having it's own separate ground to the frame.

 

[MadcoHokie]

No, it doesn't work like you thought - 1. your headlights run off of the cranking battery unless you change it. 2. Like Scoop said - you had your key on to get the headlights on, so you were also running all the buggy's electronics, none of which work off of the aux battery.

"I thought the true system was sensing battery voltage between the two and pulling from auxiliary except for when starting ..."

It can't do that, the headlights are wired to the cranking battery unless you rewire them. Even if you had a multi battery bank as auxiliary, the headlights would still run down the cranking battery unless rewired.

Thanks, I guess I am going to have to break down and wire this thing correctly.

It is annoying right now if have sound bar playing and then start it. Have to resynchronizing everything because it powers off. But typically just running this thing around the farm so not worried about it until you are stranded. First time left me stranded was from listening to music while camping so put in Tru system and didn't happen again until last night. I guess dumb luck.

 

[CID]

Thanks, I guess I am going to have to break down and wire this thing correctly.

It is annoying right now if have sound bar playing and then start it. Have to resynchronizing everything because it powers off.

All you have to do is move the sound bar's power to the aux battery. I'd add a switch so I could turn it on and forget it, no resync'ing. But then you have to remember to switch it off when you're done for the day (like if you turn it down to talk to someone and forget it's powered up). If you do that, you'll only run down the aux battery - if wired correctly.

But typically just running this thing around the farm so not worried about it until you are stranded. First time left me stranded was from listening to music while camping so put in Tru system and didn't happen again until last night. I guess dumb luck.

Yep, dumb luck, it sounds like your sound system is wired to the cranking battery at this time; move the power lead to the aux battery or fuse block and put a switch in the circuit so it'll run on its own.

 

[Scoop]

I have the red labled with "-" symbol, good enough to remind me what I did.

🙄

Other than buying the correct colored cable, a better solution to this would be to wrap the entire cable with black electrical tape.

Same deal, but in reverse: