I have a single cab 3.0 and am looking for ideas to mount my second battery. I'm trying to keep things out of the bed as much as possible. I read an article on a guy with an explorer replacing/relocationg his washer fluid resevoir to put one under the hood, but I dont really want to do that. Any one got any ideas other than the bed for a single cab?

 

the bed is your only option....

 

Dash-mounted battery!




ok that might be a bad idea. I think the bed is your only option as well... do you have a toolbox or anything?

 

weld up a bracket and get a blue top and mount it under your bed on a frame rail or spot under the truck

 

there isn't hardly any room for a battery under the truck on a regular cab truck...

 

TBarCYa went to a cone filter, ad was able to mount a battery under it where the airbox used to be.

 

no its not



open your hood, and look around, every engine bay has different room, like Griggs said, maybe look into deleting the airbox and going to a cone filter for more room.


Or depending on your priorities, maybe remove the a/c setup.

Also, what size battery are you looking to get? What are your goals with the batteries? You could look at a smaller batteries for the starter, and then a normal size for all accessories. Might want to look into a larger capacity alternator as well


ScottG

 

Bad idea!

This is the kind of idea I was looking for. Thanks!

I load motorcycles in my bed on a very regular basis. A good sized tool box would prevent that and with all the traffic in the bed all the time I'm trying to stay away from mounting much in there. I'm intending to leave the stock battery as is running starter and stock accessories. The second battery is for lots of lights, audio, inverter, and winch. A 200 amp alternator is already in the plan along with the painless wiring kit. Upgraded wiring throughout is planned already too. And if you've been to New Mexico before, A/C removal is NOT an option for me lol.

 

Here's some pics of Tom's setup. His Ranger is long gone, but the pics live on, lol.

He mounted an Optima on it's side (one of the advantages of the Optima) where the air box was orignally. It's much narrower than it is tall or long so this makes the best use of the space:


Here is the battery in place with cone filter over the top of it:


He mounted a constant-duty solenoid to connect/disconnect it on the fender wall behind the cruise control servo:


Those pics and more here: http://www.tombarcia.net/Truck/DualBatt/index.html

 

Thats a neat setup.

 

Tom's a very clever guy.

 

step over the edge, if you do the dual battery thing you better use a battery disconnect relay like the motor homes use. You'll wish you did when you run both batteries down out in the boonies with no way to start the trk.

The relay allows you to use the extra battery and not draw from the vehicle battery. When you start the trk the relay links the two batteries together and charges the extra battery.

 

That's how Tom's was wired more or less, Carl. Actually, he had that kind of selectable. There's a diagram on his site I linked of one of his wiring schemes.

Mines manually isolated until I turn a manual disconnect. The spare is charged by the solar panels and maintained that way until needed.

 

Thanks Griggs, as always you are the man. Just what I was looking for.

 

Pull the ABS module. not need for it anyway

 

I was going to make my own thread, but since there are so many addressing dual batteries, I figured I'd just reply to the one I found most helpful.

I ended up going with basically the same setup as Tom, except I used a Lifeline agm battery, and added a 10 second delay relay before the isolator to allow the engine to crank before tying the two batteries together. I also took power directly off the alternator to minimize resistance, and because it is closer to the auxiliary battery. Here are a couple pictures of my setup:

 

What is the model number of the battery what's the solenoid and isolator information also?

 

I'm running the following:
- Lifeline 33 AH Deep Cycle AGM Battery, P/N: GPL-U1T
- 12V 150A Continuous Duty Solenoid, P/N: 1114208

I have 100A circuit breakers on either side of the solenoid, and a standard automotive ten second delay relay between the 12v ignition source and the solenoid to give it a chance to crank before tying the two batteries together. Not as clever as some of the digital solutions out there, but a bit better than the solenoid alone. If nothing else, it delays the satisfying clunk of the solenoid contactor, so you can hear it :-)

 

What kind of air filter did you use?

 

The one in the photo is a cheapo I found on ebay. My buddy ended up giving me an old K&N he wasn't using, so I swapped that in.

It works great, but makes a weird humming noise if I idle at a standstill in warm weather (above ~70 deg F) I think it is pulling too much hot air from inside the engine compartment, so I plan to make a baffle out of sheet metal to try to direct more air from outside even when not moving. Haven't gotten around to it yet...

 

What 's the group number on the battery? What was the type and name of the isolator your using? You mentioned a delay for crank time.

 

Disregard last questions!!!!!

 

I was getting some weird humming noise when idling in warm weather, which I suspect was related to high intake air temps. I made a crude heat shield from some ductwork sheet metal. Hopefully this will remedy the issue, but at least it should help ensure the coldest air possible is fed into the filter