electrical upgrade question

[4bannger 10+ year member]

okay so i want to upgrade my electrical system. right now im only running a little amp but from what I have heard it is very important to have a STRONG electrical system. I plan on upgrading the amps soon so this is in preparation for that.

My idea, of what I wanna do

-All 0 aug wire

-big three in 0 aug

-rear battery

So heres my question. When running the back battery I was thinking about a deep cell marine battery. I have a advancedauto parts platinum series up front. Should i run an isolator or just run 2 runs of 0 aug one for (-) one for (+) from the fornt batt to the rear.

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[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

Ok you shouldn't mix battery types. Not a good idea also the isolator only protects the front battery from being discharged when playing your system with the engine off that's pretty much it. When running the 2 aren't isolated from each other. Also if one battery has lower voltage. It can and will pull the voltage down from the stronger battery in which will lessen the life of the batteries

 

[MmatsDude 10+ year member]

I always ran neg and pos from bat to bat but always grounded the back one also.

like mylows10 said do not mix battery brands i would recomend xs batterys. depending on how much power you are running i would invest in an alternator instead of buying a second battery.

 

[zins184 10+ year member]

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/wiring-electrical-installation-help/398527-dual-battery-wiring-tutorial-why.html

 

[4bannger 10+ year member]

Thanks for the link to the tut. Let's say I want to run to different batteries. From my understanding it will decrease the life of one if not both batteries. But for a temporary set up untill I get the budget to get two matching ones how would I run this. I suppose using an isolator. Also, is it absolutely essential to run two runs one for (-) and one for (+) from my front battery if I run 1/0 aug from the positive to an isolator to Separate them and ground the read battery to the chassis.

 

[4bannger 10+ year member]

Any more opinions, I would like to figure things out so I can start a game

Plan

 

[4bannger 10+ year member]

bump need this figured out

 

[bbeljefe]

Just buy another AGM battery for the rear and you're set. And for that small a bank, you don't have to have a negative run from the front battery. Just make sure you have a very good grounding point for the rear battery and make sure your grounds in front are equally good.

If it's a unibody car, ground the rear battery on a strut tower or some other structural panel and if it has a conventional frame, ground to the frame.

As for mixing batteries, the problem is with mixing battery types, not sizes. You said you have an Advance Auto Platinum battery. That's an AGM battery so when you buy the second battery just get another AGM. But even if you mix battery types, the difference in surface charge is only a few tenths of a volt and it's not the catastrophe people make it out to be. All that happens is that the wet cell robs a small amount of surface charge from the AGM. Once they are equal in voltage, they stay that way.

In simple terms, robbing the float charge from an AGM battery is simply drawing a tiny amount of current from it for a short time. But actually using the battery is to draw much larger amounts of current from it so, to arguer that mixing wet and AGM cells shortens the life of the AGM is arguing that using the battery shortens its life. And, well, that's just a fact of life. Using batteries shortens their life. Duh.