Dual Battery systems

[kbushnz]

Well my dual battery isolator gave up the ghost at the Superwinch 24h challenge.
I was wondering why my lights were getting dimmer and dimmer, there were no electrons flowing to the accessory battery which also is my electric winch battery....
Lucky we didn't use it, but I have jury rigged it so both batteries are charging at once for now...not ideal but at least it got me my lights back and give the winch battery some power.....

Now the question...
Whats everyone running and why?
Projecta stuff looks good and price works...
Just want a simple system but not those diode ones....Been there done that...

[NJV6]

but I have jury rigged it so both batteries are charging at once for now

Why not ideal? I have been running this for a few years now and have no troubles. It was suggested I would but it has worked a treat.

I never buy a vsr type setup on it as I wanted the winch to drag from both batteries and have reserve for when I stall it during winching!

[kbushnz]

but I have jury rigged it so both batteries are charging at once for now

Why not ideal? I have been running this for a few years now and have no troubles. It was suggested I would but it has worked a treat.

I never buy a vsr type setup on it as I wanted the winch to drag from both batteries and have reserve for when I stall it during winching!

Both my batteries are different... Had two the same but the cost to replace both was prohibitive at the time (few years back now)
Also I run an auto so if I lose battery power I can't crash start it... Not a good look out on the trail....

Presently I have a std starting battery and a Exide orbital for my winch and a few accessories....
Have been looking at the VSR relay style which you can override the relay to act as a jump start and join in both batteries...

[niblik]

get two batteries the same and have a battery volt meter that is attached to your batteries, not the back of the alt.. in this way you will know exactly what the batteries are doin under winching etc and not what the alts supplying..

and as njv6 said, i too am running two batteries like ya state with no issues.. as soon as ya winching and under real loadings, ya can tell exactly what the batteries are doin... not that i've had to, but if ya got down to 10ish or so amps on ya batteries, stop winching and let the engine run for a while whilst batteries recover, or double line pull.. either way might be slower but saves killing batteries..

[callum007]

but if ya got down to 10ish or so amps on ya batteries, stop winching and let the engine run for a while whilst batteries recover, or double line pull.. either way might be slower but saves killing batteries..

You mean 10 Volts, but I guess everyone worked it out.. I'd do the same as Nib, also unless one of your batteries is sick, paralleling them up is not the end of the world as im most cases 2 "identical" batteries will not be the same capacity.
I have installed quite a few 200amp VSR's with no issues at all for vehicles with heavy winch requirments..

Each to their own, but if your previous setup worked for you, replace the damaged bit and your away laughing.

[Sketchy_Racer]

When I had twin batterys setup for winching, I used the VSR as the charge control unit so that it would always look after the starting battery before the Acc battery, then I had a isolator switch with some grunty cables to link both up when winching. VSR's wont handle the current draw of winching hence being able to separately connect the two batteries.

Now I have a twin battery Pajero from factory that just has the batteries wired in parallel, but I have installed a isolator so that I can disconnect one to keep charged for starting after we drain the other one camping.