HO Alt and Battery bank?

[sleazebagger 10+ year member]

right now I'm running a 250 amp mechman and a xsd6500. I plan on adding up to 3 more batterys in the rear with an isolator so I can run about a 400-500 amp load.

My question is how this all works. I would like to fully understand the charging and drawing current on this type of set up. How much power for how much time time can you draw before you need to charge your batterys and how to calculate this when choosing how many batterys for the amp load in question.

If somebody has an in depth answer that covers this subject then they should link me to a new thread that we can get up as a sticky.

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[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I wouldn't run an isolator, and all of these things depend. If you are playing music while driving, especially with a h/o alt, you should be able to play full tilt for a while because music isn't really drawing as much current. The bass is more inconsistent, which means time for recharging of the batts.