Adding a second battery

[215ec]

I have a 2000 215 express cruiser that currently has one battery to run everything. What I want to do is add a second battery. I plan on using a Dual Pole Plus Marine Battery Switch[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] from Blue Seas, and a VSR from BEP. What i want to end up with is one battery to start the boat and the other battery to run everything else. My question is how hard would it be to accomplish this, i am not looking to re-wire the entire boat. If anyone has done this or can share knowledge/experience from similar installs that would be appreciated. [/FONT]:smt100

 

[Bt Doctur]

easily done from under the dash,just need to isolate the main 12v feed and run it to the second battery

 

[dpmulvey]

I would re-think or think through the plan. What are you going to use as a starter? What are you going to use as a house? How do you plan to charge and /or isolate them to avoid depleting one and or the other? Will the equipment handle the load should you consider different size batteries? To me, there are a lot of known unknowns here. My ideas may or may not fit your boat, budget or plan so I'll wait until I hear what your wants and needs are.

 

[215ec]

I would re-think or think through the plan. What are you going to use as a starter? What are you going to use as a house? How do you plan to charge and /or isolate them to avoid depleting one and or the other? To me, there are a lot of known unknowns here. My ideas may or may not fit your boat, budget or plan so I'll wait until I hear what your wants and needs are.

-I have 2 new optima blue tops. With the the battery switch and vsr, the basic function of this setup will be on/off, and combined in an emergency. Put the switch in on, start the boat, forget about it for the rest of the day. Dock the boat, turn the switch to off. The VSR will always protect the starter battery and isolate it when voltage drops to a certain level on the house battery. While i am cruising, the alternator will always top off the starter battery first, when it is sufficiently charged, it will allow the house battery to begin charging. When docked and the switch is turned off i have a battery tender directly wired to both batteries.

-What i was planning on doing, was directly wiring the bilge and radio to the house battery. Everything else will go through the switch.

 

[Wylie_Tunes]

i am not looking to re-wire the entire boat

Not hard as long as you have a comprehensive custom wiring schematic. You will not have to rewire the boat, but you may need to separate a few house/accessory loads from the main helm BUS if you want them to only draw from the house bank when engine off.

The Blue Sea 5511E and a VSR are a great combo and should do want you want. Personally, I like the Blue Sea 7610 ACR. Just note though, everything but the auto bilge should go through the switch. The stereo should not be wired battery direct, circumventing the switch.

 

[mquiet]

EC. I just added a second battery to my beach boat. Switch selector with off,1,both,2. I run with battery 1 and radio and bilge off battery 2. They both stay charged and if needed can use both for emergency start. Simple and inexpensive solution.


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[dpmulvey]

-I have 2 new optima blue tops. With the the battery switch and vsr, the basic function of this setup will be on/off, and combined in an emergency. Put the switch in on, start the boat, forget about it for the rest of the day. Dock the boat, turn the switch to off. The VSR will always protect the starter battery and isolate it when voltage drops to a certain level on the house battery. While i am cruising, the alternator will always top off the starter battery first, when it is sufficiently charged, it will allow the house battery to begin charging. When docked and the switch is turned off i have a battery tender directly wired to both batteries.

-What i was planning on doing, was directly wiring the bilge and radio to the house battery. Everything else will go through the switch.

EC. I just added a second battery to my beach boat. Switch selector with off,1,both,2. I run with battery 1 and radio and bilge off battery 2. They both stay charged and if needed can use both for emergency start. Simple and inexpensive solution.


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I sometimes tend to overthink things. I was under the impression you were putting in a very large (4D or series of golf cart batteries) for a house bank. MQUIET has the same setup I had in my Regal and I had the Optima blue tops as well. I was good for about 6 hours because of the fridge, hence my first thoughts.

For the house, I used battery position "1" on odd numbered days and battery position "2" on even numbered days. I switched to both on the run out and in and at the dock for charging purposed. I cannot recall if I had an isolator as the boat came from the factory set that way.

 

[Steve195]

My battery switch is wired a bit differently. Anything, including starter, bilge, accessories, can run off either battery. My typical routine is start my boat on Batt # 1 and leave it that way the entire day. If I ever run that battery down, I'll have #2 that hasn't even been touched that day. The next time out, I start with Bat #2. Time after that, back to Batt # 1, etc. etc.

Remember I have a small boat, so I don't have a "house" bank. I'm just trying to make sure I've got a way to crank up and get home if I play the radio, GPS, etc. all day.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Since you won't really have a full "house" load in a 215, what about keeping it even simpler? Install a simple "1-2-Both-Off" switch. You can avoid discharging both batteries with simple battery management and not using the "both" setting when the engine isn't running. All you need to do is run a positive cable (from each battery) to the switch, then one cable back to where your current positive cable goes. Nothing else needs to change. Not that it can't be done other ways, but I had it this way on my 215 (and other boats, too) and it never let me down.

FYI, the "memory" for the stereo would be direct wired from the battery, as well as the float switch for the bilge pump.

 

[Steve195]

Since you won't really have a full "house" load in a 215, what about keeping it even simpler? Install a simple "1-2-Both-Off" switch. You can avoid discharging both batteries with simple battery management and not using the "both" setting when the engine isn't running. All you need to do is run a positive cable (from each battery) to the switch, then one cable back to where your current positive cable goes. Nothing else needs to change. Not that it can't be done other ways, but I had it this way on my 215 (and other boats, too) and it never let me down.

FYI, the "memory" for the stereo would be direct wired from the battery, as well as the float switch for the bilge pump.

Yep, that's how mine works. The only difference is I don't have a radio memory wire going directly to the battery, because my radio has non-volatile memory so killing the power doesn't affect anything.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Yep, that's how mine works. The only difference is I don't have a radio memory wire going directly to the battery, because my radio has non-volatile memory so killing the power doesn't affect anything.

Look in the bilge, near the bilge pump fuse, for another, stand-alone fuse. Now, I see A LOT of boats, so sometimes these things run together:smt101 ... but I'm pretty sure you still have a stereo memory fuse. It should have a yellow wire exiting the weather-pak.

 

[Steve195]

Look in the bilge, near the bilge pump fuse, for another, stand-alone fuse. Now, I see A LOT of boats, so sometimes these things run together:smt101 ... but I'm pretty sure you still have a stereo memory fuse. It should have a yellow wire exiting the weather-pak.

Nope! There's not even a yellow wire in the wiring harness. I also just checked the wiring diagram in my manual (a lot easier than poking around in the bilge!!!) and it's not listed. The radio (Rockford Fosgate PMX-5) has an EEPROM for memory.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Nope! There's not even a yellow wire in the wiring harness. I also just checked the wiring diagram in my manual (a lot easier than poking around in the bilge!!!) and it's not listed. The radio (Rockford Fosgate PMX-5) has an EEPROM for memory.

Aha! :smt001 OK, now it makes sense. You have the optional, upgraded stereo system. After my last post I went and looked through some wiring diagrams, too. They all showed the stereo memory fuse - but that is for the standard stereo.