Adding a second battery

[Gigante]

I was thinking of putting another battery in my car to run my new toys. i was wondering if you just put the battery where you want it or do you have to wire anything up. say i just wanted to run an amp and subs off it for right now. would i have to do something or do i just attach the amp to the new battery?

[matts]

well you have to have a way to charge the battery. if you hook it up to the battery under the hood they'll "fight" each other when the car is shut off and actually run each other down. you need a relay or isolator. i've got a 200 amp relay on emily's. they'll run you like $50 or $60. but you run positive to positive on the batteries. get a real good negative for the one in the trunk with some nice thick ground wire. as for hooking the realy up you have one wire coming from the first battery, one going to the second battery, a remote wire, and a ground wire. and it shuts off power to the 2nd battery when the ignition is off.

if you have the battery anywhere in the cabin or trunk you're going to want a dry cell battery. i.e. optima or i have a stinger dry cell. just make sure it's dry cell. deep cycle dont really make a difference, that's just a matter of if you want to spend the extra cash. but a dry cell won't have battery acid sloshing around and it wont have the fumes either.

[nineteen88ga]

What ever you do don'tdo what the kid who bought a sub box I had did.....

he had 2 Volfenhag amps hooked directly to a battery in his trunk.....yah...thats right not being linkedto the starting battery, jsut + from the amps on the + terminal and the - from the amps to the - on the battery...oh he did have remote turn on run back from the deck though.... HAHAHA

[matts]

bet that lasted a long time didn't it?? :lol:

[nineteen88ga]

couldn't tell ya...I the kid wasn't from anywhere near me...I thik he drove like a hour or something to pick up the sub box too. if not an hour he definately drove a good distance.lol