I am setting up a dual battery in my Jeep Wrangler. I would like to use dual Optima batteries. I will use a Painless Wiring 250amp control system which uses a relay/solenoid to manually isolate the batteries. I'll stack the batteries using a MG or Kilby dual battery tray. I would like to essentially just replace the stock battery with the new red-top (so this will continue to power the stock fuse block and the starter). The new yellow-top will run a second custom auxiliary fuse block, which I plan to hook up all my accessories to, including a new winch. This setup should keep the existing stock wiring completely intact, I'll just be adding a second wiring system that is isolated.
Here are my questions I'm hoping somebody who has done this before can answer:
- Is mixing red-top and yellow-top a problem? Some people say you must have "the exact same batteries" and some people seem to use a red-top for starting (intermitent shallow use) and yellow-top for auxiliary use (deep cycle). Has anyone run this setup and had problems, or premature battery failure?
- With the painless system, when the jeep is off the batteries are isolated. When you are driving, you can flip the switch and charge both batteries, right? Does the fact that your second battery has less charge (presumably since you have been using it wearing it down) than the primary battery cause problems? Because they are no longer "exacltly the same" or might have different charging rates/characteristics? I am a little foggy on how exactly the charging takes place.
- Does my setup sound right? Any problems with keeping the starter on the primary? I have seen a similar setup, but he had the red/yellow's reversed and the starter on the "secondary" battery formatting linkThanks Lee