CR-Snow

Hey guys, been doing a ton of research on this dual battery setup. I've got my batteries, isolator, some terminal buss bars and a few other little things picked out. Now I'm looking at alternators.

For some reference, the jeep is getting the big ViAir compressor, winch, lights and possibly a fridge. I'll be spending a lot of time out of cell range with the family so redundancy is top priority.

Mechman has two options, 170 and 240 amps. Most of the time I like the "over engineer" idea but with electricity things can get tricky. I don't want to risk over juicing the PDC, but I will have lots of potential draw, and two Optimas to keep fed.

How big should my fuse for the PDC be for either size? What determines my fuse size here, potential output from alt or wire size? Am I gonna need a 250 amp fuse? Is 240 overkill for my needs? Anyone have experience with these units? My very knowledgable car audio guy swears by them.

I'm obviously going to be running hulk sized wire everywhere. anything else you folks with experience can think of to keep my setup clean and safe? Thanks a lot CF

Mr. Pink

A 170amp should be more than enough with a dual battery setup, and the accessories that you plan on running. Do you plan on running a yellow/red top and a blue top(secondary)?

CR-Snow

I already have a red top for my starting battery. Planning yellow top for accessories.

I lve been looking on expedition portal at all these crazy dual battery setups with $300 isolator switches and I think I'm gonna go the simple route. Mechanical isolator between the two batteries is enough. The more complicated I get, the higher chance that something goes wrong.

Can you answer me this: I don't need fuses between my two batteries do I? I've seen some suggest it and others say it's not necessary.

Mr. Pink

i would run a blue top for your accessories, it will be better because it's a true deep cycle and will be better over all. as far as the fuses i would run a decent sized mega fuse on the setup.