Thread: Replacing battery terminals/leads - what best to replace with?

Originally Posted by Morry948

The extra post doesnt make it an "accessory" battery. Its just a battery with extra terminals

Of course it doesn't make it an accessory battery, sorry if that's what it sounded like I was saying. They are quite literally the same battery but one has extra terminals in the front for a different type of vehicle setup.

Someone just alerted me to the fact that this was indeed handy for people who wanted to attach more things to a battery, like on a 4wd setup, and I was just wondering which battery might have more crap coming off it and hence would benefit from the extra terminals. Sounds like the second battery would, from what I'm reading anyway.

I think attaching heaps of stuff directly to the battery is a bad idea. More chance of shorts down the track. I run my accessories off one heavy 8ga wire through a 50 amp fuse then a bus bar and individual low amp fuses for the individual accessories.

Originally Posted by Morry948

Personally, I would winch off the spare battery instead of the main one.

It is actually a better practice to run the winch off the main cranking battery with the engine running at the same time.
The reasoning is that the winch draws so much power it also needs the input from the alternator and the best place to get that input is from the cranking battery

Originally Posted by Morry948

....
Personally, I would winch off the spare battery instead of the main one....

Me too.
What DBS system are you going with?
If a redarc, the way I see it is that while you're winching, and with the motor running, if you winch off the starter battery the voltage drop would cause the DBS system to isolate the two batteries.
That is once it drops below 12.7 volts, the starter battery will be on it's own .. and you'll be winching off it. Obviously with the volts now reduced the DBS won't charge the aux battery
If you connected it to the aux, at least if you do get severe volt drop and need to winch for a while you only deplete the aux battery, but while the engine is running the aux still gets it charge and starter is unaffected.

Chances could be that you may need to winch yourself in a situation where the winch power requirements will exceed the alternators ability to charge.

Originally Posted by trout1105

It is actually a better practice to run the winch off the main cranking battery with the engine running at the same time.
The reasoning is that the winch draws so much power it also needs the input from the alternator and the best place to get that input is from the cranking battery

Well you should always winch when the motor is running, but if your cables are a decent size then it wont really matter as the alternator is just giving it extra capacity.

High current draw can ruin a good battery. I prefer to ruin the 2nd battery rather than the main one. ( in all honesty, lead-acid batteries are actually the worse type of battery for automotive use as they dont like heat, vibration, high charge/discharge etc but they are really the only decent choice without going crazy expensive )

Be aware that those side terminals on a Yellow Top are JUST for accessories. Do not try to run a winch or anything else that draws a lot of current.

I also use a buss bar and crimped on cable lugs. Also should be available at a marine chandler.

http://www.asap-marine.com/shop_by_c...tion/2185.html

Link posted for illustration only.

Originally Posted by trout1105

It is actually a better practice to run the winch off the main cranking battery with the engine running at the same time.
The reasoning is that the winch draws so much power it also needs the input from the alternator and the best place to get that input is from the cranking battery

But by the same token ..

if the DBS cuts the connection at 12.7v, and the winch drops voltage below that, then you're only running the winch from the one battery, even tho the alternator is still charging it.
if the voltage drop is below 12.7, then the alternator probably isn't charging it as much as the winch is drawing from it.
In this case, I'm sure that having the winch running from both batteries would not only give it more power over the long haul, but as Morry says, if it does drain a battery first, better off being the Aux rather than the main.

As this is relevant to the D1 due to the forum that the thread has been posted into, and the 300Tdi runs a 120amp alternator then what would make sense would be:
1/. Get a 150-200 amp capable DBS solenoid/management unit.
2/. run large 4B&S cables from solenoid to Aux and from Aux to chassis for earth.
3/. run winch to Aux via a fused link of some type.
4/. probably handy to have an overide switch to maintain the batteries connecting during winching in case voltage drop disconnects them.

Personally I would only winch from 1 battery. ( isolators, disconnect..etc )

Its easier to deal with 1 stuffed battery than 2 stuffed ones