Adding another Battery to an existing Battery Bank

[Mark Bradley]

I have a 2008 240 sundancer. It came with a dual battery bank. I want to add a third battery and install it in the compartment where the battery switch is located. I was thinking of adding a second isolation switch between #3 battery and the feed coming off the factory switch. Thus when factory switch is in the off position and the second switch is on position the system is running only on third battery.Do you see any problems doing it this way?

Thanks, Mark

 

[Little Ducky]

How is your set up right now? Do you have a switch with 1, 2, Both, Off?

I would just keep it simple and tie it in with your current battery 1 or 2 and call that the "House Battery" and name the single battery the "Starter".

Connect the new battery in parallel and you should be good to go.

 

[Wylie_Tunes]

If there is a switch between #1 house and #2 house and said switch is on, then these batteries would be in parallel, so the "system" would actually be pulling off both house batteries.

You would actually come out better by making a permanent parallel connection between the existing house battery and the new second house battery. This doubles the Ah yet divides the load, in a way. Its better to have 2 batteries (acting as one large) run part way down, then running one down, then switching to another to run it low.

With that said. When connecting 2 batteries together in a permanent manor, its best to have them both new, the same size and same type.

 

[Mark Bradley]

If there is a switch between #1 house and #2 house and said switch is on, then these batteries would be in parallel, so the "system" would actually be pulling off both house batteries.

You would actually come out better by making a permanent parallel connection between the existing house battery and the new second house battery. This doubles the Ah yet divides the load, in a way. Its better to have 2 batteries (acting as one large) run part way down, then running one down, then switching to another to run it low.

With that said. When connecting 2 batteries together in a permanent manor, its best to have them both new, the same size and same type.

Makes perfect sense, seems pretty obvious now...THANKS

 

[Mark Bradley]

How is your set up right now? Do you have a switch with 1, 2, Both, Off?

I would just keep it simple and tie it in with your current battery 1 or 2 and call that the "House Battery" and name the single battery the "Starter".

Connect the new battery in parallel and you should be good to go.

Makes perfect sense, seems pretty obvious now...THANKS

 

[Little Ducky]

If you have time ... post up some pictures of your current set up to give us a better view of what you are working with. Many on here are more seasoned at electronics so they might see something in the pictures that might need to be addressed before you continue.

We are here to help.

 

[Mark Bradley]

Thanks, After posting question i realized how straight forward it was. After already having two batteries and a three way isolation switch. I took #1 positive battery lead and secured it two the #2 position. Thus making the two batteries now in parallel. I then took my third battery positive lead and secured it to #1 position on switch. Number 1 battery is now used as stand-by, while #2 is used for everyday use.