Re: charging deep cycle trolling battery with truck

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in news:ef0a04d7.0311201851.3902793
@posting.google.com:

> I'd also like to charge that trolling battery as I drive around. I
> know most will tell me to get a fancy isolator and connect it to all
> sorts of places in the truck. WHY? Any way I can safely hook it up to
> that 4 gauge wire with diodes and pull from both batteries and the
> alternator when using the inverter, but never ever pull from the
> trolling battery or the inverter for anything relating to the car. 

Connect the trolling battery to the 4 gauge wires through a relay. The 
relay should be energized from the ignition power. The trolling battery 
will be connected when the ignition is on and the motor is presumably 
running. A standard automotive relay that can handle 20A or more should 
be adequate. 

Connect one relay coil terminal to the 4 gauge ground wire. Run a single 
thin (18 gauge) wire from the other side of the relay up to the front of 
the vehicle to a source that's on when the ignition is on. I would put a 
1 amp fuse on this line. Connect one of the trolling battery lines 
through the normally open contacts of the relay.


Tim

-- 

"The strongest human instinct is to impart information, 
and the second strongest is to resist it." 

Kenneth Graham