Dual Battery Setup?

[boehml]

I decided on adding a house battery, so I've ordered the following:

Renogy 20A DCDC Charger (would like to upgrade to Redarc 1225 in the future, but not in the budget now)
Odyssey PC1100
American Adventure Labs rear cargo bracket (Jeep JL)

I was planning on a 70amp fuse and 4 gauge wire. Are ANL fuses ideal, or are there other types I should consider? I will be wiring as below. Anything I am missing? Any advice?

 

[smritte]

I run resettable circuit breakers.
Something in this range. Breaker. There's other designs and if you look in their catalog you can see different mounting options. All the automotive wiring i do now over 20 amps, I use something like this.
They have survived under my hood for years. The nice thing is, you push a button and it kills power to the circuit instead of pulling a fuse.

 

[M Rose]

I decided on adding a house battery, so I've ordered the following:

Renogy 20A DCDC Charger (would like to upgrade to Redarc 1225 in the future, but not in the budget now)
Odyssey PC1100
American Adventure Labs rear cargo bracket (Jeep JL)

I was planning on a 70amp fuse and 4 gauge wire. Are ANL fuses ideal, or are there other types I should consider? I will be wiring as below. Anything I am missing? Any advice?

View attachment 205578

What are you planning on running off of your second battery. 70 Amp is kind of small for a main fuse on the second battery. If all you are doing is running a fridge, or a set of lights (not both) this would be fine… but if more than 1 high amp draw circuit 70 amp isn’t going to be enough. Also there won’t be any room for growth to your system at 70 amps.

Personally I won’t go below 100 amps for my second battery, and usually make my overload protection at 200 amps with a circuit breaker like @smritte suggested.

4 gauge wire should be good, but 2 gauge or larger would be better, but then again. It knowing the load, I can’t give accurate information.

 

[Duval Dummies]

I decided on adding a house battery, so I've ordered the following:

Renogy 20A DCDC Charger (would like to upgrade to Redarc 1225 in the future, but not in the budget now)
Odyssey PC1100
American Adventure Labs rear cargo bracket (Jeep JL)

I was planning on a 70amp fuse and 4 gauge wire. Are ANL fuses ideal, or are there other types I should consider? I will be wiring as below. Anything I am missing? Any advice?

View attachment 205578

So I run the Redarc 1225, I used 2g wire from my front battery to my Redarc, which is located in the toolbox of my Tacoma. I used 2of these then from the house battery I have a 12 circuit fuse block to distribute my power. I am currently running a 40L fridge, 16 rock lights, a 300w power inverter, and a light in my truck bed. I have had it set up for a year. I have never been let down. I addd a cheap battery level monitor for my house battery as well. Its handy to be able to pop the toolbox and see how much power I have left.

 

[boehml]

What are you planning on running off of your second battery. 70 Amp is kind of small for a main fuse on the second battery. If all you are doing is running a fridge, or a set of lights (not both) this would be fine… but if more than 1 high amp draw circuit 70 amp isn’t going to be enough. Also there won’t be any room for growth to your system at 70 amps.

Personally I won’t go below 100 amps for my second battery, and usually make my overload protection at 200 amps with a circuit breaker like @smritte suggested.

4 gauge wire should be good, but 2 gauge or larger would be better, but then again. It knowing the load, I can’t give accurate information.

The house battery will be dedicated to a fridge. Interestingly enough, Redarc and Renogy both recommend 6 gauge and 40 amp fuses for their 20/25A DCDC chargers. I was considering actually changing my setup to go that route.

So I run the Redarc 1225, I used 2g wire from my front battery to my Redarc, which is located in the toolbox of my Tacoma. I used 2of these then from the house battery I have a 12 circuit fuse block to distribute my power. I am currently running a 40L fridge, 16 rock lights, a 300w power inverter, and a light in my truck bed. I have had it set up for a year. I have never been let down. I addd a cheap battery level monitor for my house battery as well. Its handy to be able to pop the toolbox and see how much power I have left.

Did you ever have any issues with those fuses? I was reading some reviews on Amazon and they were hit and miss, but I was considering them.

 

[Duval Dummies]

What are you planning on running off of your second battery. 70 Amp is kind of small for a main fuse on the second battery. If all you are doing is running a fridge, or a set of lights (not both) this would be fine… but if more than 1 high amp draw circuit 70 amp isn’t going to be enough. Also there won’t be any room for growth to your system at 70 amps.

Personally I won’t go below 100 amps for my second battery, and usually make my overload protection at 200 amps with a circuit breaker like @smritte suggested.

4 gauge wire should be good, but 2 gauge or larger would be better, but then again. It knowing the load, I can’t give accurate information.

The house battery will be dedicated to a fridge. Interestingly enough, Redarc and Renogy both recommend 6 gauge and 40 amp fuses for their 20/25A DCDC chargers. I was considering actually changing my setup to go that route.

So I run the Redarc 1225, I used 2g wire from my front battery to my Redarc, which is located in the toolbox of my Tacoma. I used 2of these then from the house battery I have a 12 circuit fuse block to distribute my power. I am currently running a 40L fridge, 16 rock lights, a 300w power inverter, and a light in my truck bed. I have had it set up for a year. I have never been let down. I addd a cheap battery level monitor for my house battery as well. Its handy to be able to pop the toolbox and see how much power I have left.

Did you ever have any issues with those fuses? I was reading some reviews on Amazon and they were hit and miss, but I was considering them.

So I ended up having to send one back because it came broken. The exchange was quick, the worst part was troubleshooting back to that circuit breaker. I have had them in now for about a year and have never had another problem.

 

[M Rose]

The house battery will be dedicated to a fridge. Interestingly enough, Redarc and Renogy both recommend 6 gauge and 40 amp fuses for their 20/25A DCDC chargers. I was considering actually changing my setup to go that route.



Did you ever have any issues with those fuses? I was reading some reviews on Amazon and they were hit and miss, but I was considering them.

40 amp fuse and 6 gauge wire for the dcdc controller would be fine… except that you then can’t use the house battery as an auxiliary start battery in case of emergency.

 

[smritte]

Did you ever have any issues with those fuses? I was reading some reviews on Amazon and they were hit and miss, but I was considering them.

The biggest issue I've seen with that design is, people don't tighten the wire hold down screw properly. With high current, the connection heats up and melts the housing. They use the same wire holder in the bigger inline fuses too. I've had to fix a bunch of those on stereo set ups. I personally prefer the lug fitting. I also get my cable from my welding shop. High grade of fine strand copper and heavy copper lugs. I make all my cable's like that.
Over the years i've gotten very picky with what I run from breakers to terminals....

 

[M Rose]

The biggest issue I've seen with that design is, people don't tighten the wire hold down screw properly. With high current, the connection heats up and melts the housing. They use the same wire holder in the bigger inline fuses too. I've had to fix a bunch of those on stereo set ups. I personally prefer the lug fitting. I also get my cable from my welding shop. High grade of fine strand copper and heavy copper lugs. I make all my cable's like that.

Same place I get all my cable as well.