[BIG] Dual Battery Project

[flimmy]

Nice work Chris

[txgrown1404]

hey chris with that distribution block can you have circuits with keyed power to? if you can how would you go about doing it on a rhino? looking at cleaning up my wiring on my aux battery.

[SteveS]

hey chris with that distribution block can you have circuits with keyed power to? if you can how would you go about doing it on a rhino? looking at cleaning up my wiring on my aux battery.

Simple enough to add a relay ahead of any fuse block, or buy a fuse block with a built in relay:

[Chris]

I've seen some guys cut the bus bar and add another positive lug. Then you could have one side switched power when the key was on.

[txgrown1404]

Simple enough to add a relay ahead of any fuse block, or buy a fuse block with a built in relay:

so the relay need to big enough for the current draw of just the keyed circuits or all circuits? sorry for all the questions. im no bueno when it comes to wiring

[SteveS]

so the relay need to big enough for the current draw of just the keyed circuits or all circuits? sorry for all the questions. im no bueno when it comes to wiring

If you have a 2 bank fuse block (as described in the modification post above) then sized only for the bank that you are powering. Automotive style relays are commonly 30 Amp capable, but there are 40A and 80A automotive style relays if you hunt them down. Also, make sure that you size the mains fuse and the associated wiring to handle that total current draw as well.

[Chris]

UPDATE:

I wanted to provide a update on this project and give some further feedback on how everything has worked and held up after a couple of months and several hard rides.

The dual battery has been flawless and given me the freedom to use my electrical accessories without fear of becoming stranded in a remote area. It also lets me put a cool beverage in the hands of some fun people, all the while let the tunes crank and the lights shine.

For example, it was about midnight down in the river bottom and the music was playing. All of a sudden a guy on a Polaris Sportsman sinks the back of his ATV when the 4WD would not engage. The spectacle looked something like this:



Guess who's lights shined on the ordeal for half and hour and guess who's winch raised this junk from the sugar sand bottom? Yep. The really cool thing was that we had already been down there for about an hour already. The battery provided all the power we needed.


On the way back, I had to self rescue. Again, I was able to winch and run the lights all I needed.






This was a weekend long ride. When I got back home I put the Teryx on the battery charger to recharge. The big auxiliary battery was showing about 12.2 volts resting before charging, and my AGM battery charger was registering about 35% when I hooked it up. That right there tells me the stock Teryx4 electrical system could not do what I was wanting to do, particularly the kind of engine off - lights on kind of activities that require substantial amounts of reserve capacity.



One other thing to note - my starting battery and my auxiliary battery are very different in size. I noticed that when I really started pulling a lot of amps out of the auxiliary battery that the Sure Power battery separator would open and close the relay more often than I was accustomed.

If you have ever used a smart relay separator before , you know that you can hear the relay opening and closing with an audible "THUNK."

What I determined was happening was that once the auxiliary battery's charge starts falling, and you still have your accessories running, the stator's capacity can't supply enough amperage to run the Teryx, maintain the stock battery above 13.2V, and charge the auxiliary battery. So what happens is something like this:

Start the Teryx up. About 10 seconds later, THUNK, the stock battery is fully charged and the relay begins charging the auxiliary battery.

THUNK, 60 seconds later the auxiliary battery has drawn so many amps from the stock battery that the stock battery's voltage has fallen to 12.8V and the relay opens for the stator to recover the charge in the stock battery.

THUNK, 15 seconds and the stock battery is fully charged again and the relay closes to resume charging the auxiliary battery.

The longer the engine is running and the stator is generating current, the less frequent the THUNKs become as the auxiliary battery recovers its state of charge. That recharge time also varies based on how many accessories I am running, because you have to remember the Teryx4 charging system is pretty meager. I would guess you only have about 15A of reserve current after powering the stock electrical system, headlights, etc.

Once the auxiliary battery recovers, the relay can then remain closed and you no longer hear the noise of it opening and closing.

It is a cool system. So far, I am thoroughly impressed.

[Crusty]

Bringing this thread back alive!!
Chris, I've been wanting to install a dual battery setup in my Teryx since I seen your setup. I've been looking at a few batteries to use and noticed you used the XP2000, my question is do you think the XP750 is capable of handling a couple accessories? Winch, stereo and 52" light bar? Looking for something small and this kit caught my eye since it comes with the battery mount and all the wiring I would need. 750 amp 22AH I wouldn't be using any accessories while parked except maybe the stereo once in a while.
Thanks for any help anyone has.

[SteveS]

Bringing this thread back alive!!
Chris, I've been wanting to install a dual battery setup in my Teryx since I seen your setup. I've been looking at a few batteries to use and noticed you used the XP2000, my question is do you think the XP750 is capable of handling a couple accessories? Winch, stereo and 52" light bar? Looking for something small and this kit caught my eye since it comes with the battery mount and all the wiring I would need. 750 amp 22AH I wouldn't be using any accessories while parked except maybe the stereo once in a while.
Thanks for any help anyone has.

I know that you did not address this question to me, but I want to point out that 22 AH is only a little more than half that of the stock battery. I would use a much larger battery since you listed a winch as one of the "couple of accessories". 22 Amp Hours is not going to give you much run time on a winch under load. I would even be worried about using it as a starter battery for the machine.

[Crusty]

Was actually looking for any help!! Thanks Steve. So I would be better of going with something like an Optima? I already purchased the UTV Smart isolator and Blue Seas fuse block.