Adding second battery to power exterior lighting

[Frenchy906]

Ok, so a thought that’s been rattling around my cranium the past couple days, is adding a snack secondary battery, with an isolator, to run my (current and proposed) exterior lighting. What I want to do, is add a small auxiliary battery in the rear quarter panel, passenger side, and mount my relay system for the lighting in there as well…

I can’t see why this isn’t a plausible idea…

My reasoning for the auxiliary battery, is every now and again, I’ve noticed my SOC on my main battery is around 65% (I don’t drive much long distance) and then my current ditch lights will not turn on when triggered. But once I start driving, they work fine.

If I added an isolator, and an auxiliary battery, and ran the lighting off that battery, in theory, the SOC on the primary battery would be irrelevant to the lights turning on, right?

Sponsored

 

[TheX]

EcoFlow and their Alternator/Charger. Fantastic system.

 

[jkernitzki]

EcoFlow and their Alternator/Charger. Fantastic system.

This. No need to overcomplicate a fairly straightforward need. Bluetti and Bouge RV have alternatives to the EcoFlow (and I know there's others), but it's worth a couple hours on the Google machine researching.

 

[Frenchy906]

Ehhh… I’m referring to like… ditch lights… driving lights… roof rack lights…

What I see when I google EcoFlow is if I wanted to power a 110v set of lights.

 

[jkernitzki]

Ehhh… I’m referring to like… ditch lights… driving lights… roof rack lights…

What I see when I google EcoFlow is if I wanted to power a 110v set of lights.

You can power 12VDC lights from an EcoFlow (or any other of the battery systems). Most off-grid/RV installations are DC only. They have to go through an inverter--built in to the the EcoFlow-- to get AC output. DC output is "native".

 

[Frenchy906]

You can power 12VDC lights from an EcoFlow (or any other of the battery systems). Most off-grid/RV installations are DC only. They have to go through an inverter--built in to the the EcoFlow-- to get AC output. DC output is "native".

Thats good to know.

But my thought process is to make the entire thing… unseen. So, if that means I have to pop the interior panels off, and mount a battery in there, to keep it, and my massive relay system unseen, then so be it.

I added to my dash mount today, and now have a mount for my wireless trigger

I still have to decide on what additional lights I’m looking at adding, but my plan is to make the connections for those as accessible as the OEM connections, albeit, a little less hidden in the wheel wells.

 

[jkernitzki]

Thats good to know.

But my thought process is to make the entire thing… unseen. So, if that means I have to pop the interior panels off, and mount a battery in there, to keep it, and my massive relay system unseen, then so be it.

I added to my dash mount today, and now have a mount for my wireless trigger


I still have to decide on what additional lights I’m looking at adding, but my plan is to make the connections for those as accessible as the OEM connections, albeit, a little less hidden in the wheel wells.

Sounds like you want to engineer a true dual-battery solution. Now there's a worthy endeavor. Before that, though, I'd look into whether an upgrade to the stock battery/alternator combo is feasible.

 

[Frenchy906]

Sounds like you want to engineer a true dual-battery solution. Now there's a worthy endeavor. Before that, though, I'd look into whether an upgrade to the stock battery/alternator combo is feasible.

Yaaa. The hardest part for me, in my opinion, would be routing the wiring from the engine bay, to the back, as subtly as possible. From doing car audio installs for years, this should be no problem. Just… want there to be no trace of me ever doing it, should I decided to get rid of it.

I learned my lesson in my 20s on what not to do with wiring. When I was in a hurry, and just drilled holes until things worked. My truck was my guinea pig.

 

[kenmitch]

Anderson connectors are your savior I'm thinking. Do what you gotta do behind the panel minus the power supply. Mount an Anderson battery quick connect on the panel and you just plug and play your powering device when needed.

 

[Frenchy906]

Anderson connectors are your savior I'm thinking. Do what you gotta do behind the panel minus the power supply. Mount an Anderson battery quick connect on the panel and you just plug and play your powering device when needed.

…I just looked those up. I sell these at NAPA all the time… had no idea they had a specific name

 

[kenmitch]

…I just looked those up. I sell these at NAPA all the time… had no idea they had a specific name

It's probably the safer way to do what you want to do. A short circuit behind the panel wouldn't be fun to deal with.

Sponsored