www.iFourWinns.com

Adding a second battery to my 98 Horizon 180 sunsport. Looking at the current battery, I just have one 2/0 power cable coming off the starter to the cutoff switch. SO somewhere I guess there is a junction point for all accessories and stuff to get power. Hope it's not in a difficult location to access. Anyone done this before with tips/or how they accomplished this?

My question is how/where do I look to separate the power supply for the house electronics from the starter power, so I can run all of the house electronics (stereo, lights, etc) from my second battery leaving the first for only starting duty.

Many thanks!

In the simplest form, you need to change your "off / on" battery switch to a "off / one / both / two" switch. One battery connected to the "one" position, the second to the "two" position and the 3rd terminal to the cable that goes from the switch to the starter solenoid ( as it does now).

You will probably find that the set up you now have has a permanent connection from the battery terminal on the switch to the auto bilge pump harness. You can still connect the auto bilge to just one of your two batteries if you prefer. The factory dual battery set up on mine ( CE spec, I don't know if the US Domestic set up is different ) has both batteries permanently attached to the bilge pump harness; they used 2 diodes to prevent the batteries being permanently connected together and one potentially draining the other.

Thanks Graham.

I essentially have the Blue Seas ACR setup to add my battery. I am comfortable with how to wire it up... except that I currently have only one cable to the starter solenoid. I want ONLY the starter on my A battery and all the other accessories on the B battery (stereo, lights, etc). SO I need a place to separate the starter power from the accessory power so I can still use existing wiring to the second battery. The only connection to power from the switch is to the solenoid.

How do I route everything except starter to the new battery?

Thanks again.

You will need to find power to the key switch for ignition, blower and all the other accessories needed to start the boat. Guess I am confused on what you are trying to achieve . If you are concerned about draining one battery use the selector switch to turn one off.

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'96 200 Horizon 5.8l VP/SX

Me too; iif you only want to use the starter for battery 1 then select battery 1 when you are using the starter.

Likewise only select/ use battery 2 fior anything else

I think I may understand the potential misunderstanding: the cable from the battery switch goes to the starter solenoid but it then goes directly to the main supply box on the engine.

If you wire both batteries seperately, one remote from the main harness, how is the alternator going to charge both ? It's connected to the junction at the starter motor solenoid.

I think he is trying to use one battery for starting only and one battery for running everything else, like many large boats have. However, that requires re-wiring, it is difficult and not necessary on a small boat with just a few loads. The simplest thing to do is to wire in the switch as noted above, it will have Off, Battery 1, Battery 2 and BOTH positions. The positive cable from each battery goes to the switch, batt 1 to the terminal for batt 1, batt 2 pos cable to the terminal for batt 2. The one common post gets connected to the starter solenoid (large terminal). The batteries should be grounded individually to the ground studs on the engine. You should alternate the use of batt 1&2, so they are both charged regularly. You can run it on BOTH, both will charge but never leave it on BOTH because a weak batt will pull the current out of the good one. You can also use a combiner and that eliminates having to use the switch. I have just the switch and 2 Group 27 dual purpose batteries, I alternate between 1 and 2 and it works great. No dead batts and a simple system.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Yeah, I have this setup:

http://bluesea.com/products/7650

I don't want to rewire everything. I have a new group 24 battery and a group 29. I understand what you are saying now.

My switch has off, on, and combine.

I mainly added the second battery for stereo amplifiers and new accessories, so I guess I will just leave the current circuit as is, wire that up to the 1 on the switch and just add all my new stereo stuff to the new group 29 battery. You just leave the switch to ON and it charges both batteries. I can always set to combine if the group 24 goes dead to start.

The ACR will charge both batteries all the time.

Seems a lot of people don't like the BM system, but I actually bought it 2 years ago under many recommendations. I'm just now installing it... since it's already purchased.

Thanks everyone!

Jason

Forgive me, I would stay away from the Arc system. The main reason is just this from the last post "My switch has off, on, and combine."

You can not use ether battery alone, to start your engine. So if your main battery is going bad, with the Arc system, you must combine them and risk that the other battery may discharge into the bad battery.

I must agree with Lou. If you alternate between #1 & #2 in starting, than you will know that ether battery alone can start your engine alone. The the Arc system, you can not do that. Also by adding the combiner, the other battery will charge when the engine is running. No matter which battery the switch is set too.