Battery Isolator/Separator Upgrade Install

[crowland]

I have been slowly but surely revamping my stereo and this has started with upgrading the electrical and charging systems -

I will have 2 Banks of batteries when all is said and done -
1st bank - 1 Starting Battery
2nd bank - 3 Deep Cycle Batteries - to run all Stereo and Accessories

Prior to this the set-up I had was 2 BEP Marine switches - I believe these were from the factory. These came set up with a metal bar that bridged the 2 switches together or Looped the switches. So even though my starter/alt cables were on one of the switches I could connect either battery or both batteries and start the boat. I could have re-wired this to acheive the isolation that I was looking for, but I wanted something that was automatic and that I didnt have to worry about.

I added a SurePower200amp auto Isolator/Separator/Combiner. This device is going to hopefully do a couple of things automatically for me -
First of all it is going to isolate the starting battery. So when underway and charging the Starting Battery will be topped off at 13.3v before the switch closes to begin charging my Stereo battery bank. Secondly, when the boat is sitting it will Separate my starting battery from the Stereo battery bank.

I also have rewired a couple of the switches so that I have 2 Fail-Safes - One to turn off the power to the engine completely and a 2nd that is wired to bypass the SurePower - this will combine the Starting and Stereo Bank should the starting battery ever loose a charge out on the water. does 2 things - it isolates while starting/or listening to the stereo - and combines for charging, but only combines once the starting battery has been charged.

Here is what I have pictures of so far -
-the first is of the original wiring setup
-the second is of the new wiring set-up - please pardon the wiring mess, one of the switches broke and has to be replaced this weekend so I didnt bother making is look clean.
-the last is of the Isolator/Separator wired up - I ended up mounting it underneath the support for the ski pylon. As you can see it allowed very easy access to wire across the boat and should be far enough away from the engine so that I do not have to worry about heat.

Also - I cant say enough about how helpful David at Earmark has been - from initial thoughts, to follow up conversations, to drawing up a diagrams

[ers906]

Thank you

Crowland
That is exactly what I was talking about. I think that is my game plan. Where did you locate all of your batteries? Do you have any pictures?

[Mikeski]

This is almost exactly the same setup I have in my boat. I use the Yandina C150 combiner and a Perko switch but the functionality is the same. I have a very small Optima red top for starting and two of the biggest Kinetik 2400's for the stereo (all AGM technology). For the most part it works flawlessly with zero user intervention. On occasion it does what it is supposed to do but it does not charge the stereo batteries. That situation is when the stereo batteries are too low. When the large stereo battery bank runs low the alternator cannot always maintain the voltage over the minimum charging voltage threshold. In that case you need to use a shore charger on the battery bank or you need to manually combine all of your batteries and give the alternator adequate time to raise the voltage back before you put things back to the normal settings.

I suggest anybody using this arrangement charge all of your batteries before each outing. If you show up at the lake with low battery charge levels all of your systems will suffer poor performance, struggle to keep up, and will run hotter and less efficiently due to the lower voltage levels.

[Stef_Jelos]

What brand/type of batteries are you using?