Charging 2 "house 6 volt" batteries on Vehicle's alternator. Good/bad/possible?

[olsen_karl]

Hey Olsen K,

What type of solenoid to did you buy? Did you have a thread on how you set it up? I just ordered a 35amp charger from batterystuff.com and I will mount it in the van.

My thread on this --
http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ical-ignoramus

[AUTO360]

Close to being done with my dual 6volt battery setup. I made the battery hold down, wired up the van and plan on finishing the install tomorrow.

[AUTO360]

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[AUTO360]

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This is my box. The batteries go in there and I will put it all under my bunk. The hose on the side will let the box 'breath". I will drill a hole through the floor of the van and route the tube out along the frame. Instead of running my cables through a hole on the box I instead decided to bolt them together on either side. I will put a seal on top of the box and make a lid and it will be then squeazed shut by the weight of my bunk. There should be no leaks anywhere other than my tube on the side.

[AUTO360]

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The Blue Sea fuse box won't actually be attached right there, it will be mounted on the solenoid. I have homemade ground made from angle iron and its attached to the NEG on the batteries.

[dwh]

Nice and clean, but OMFG! you are soooo close to those terminals. Man, that's gonna be one fine arc weld if there is a touchy-touchy accident.

I would so totally wrap those hold downs with 20 mil:

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawe...fn=70HDTDS.pdf

Using a "half lap wrap":

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawe...SevTSeSSSSSS--

[AUTO360]

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This is the charger that I will mount under my bunk. Its a 35amp and will be powered by my Honda Gen. I bought the charger from batterystuff.com for $159. I will hook it up tomorrow once I get some more cable to wire it in.

[dwh]

And um...hydrogen rises. The vent needs to go up to let it out, not down.

And for those batteries, I think you need about 1.5" diameter (or larger) tubing to vent them properly - with an intake at the bottom of the box as well...

[AUTO360]

Hey DWH,

Yes, your right on the closeness, think I will wrap them a bit. That is the second hold down I made. The first one I did measurements but it still came out slightly crooked and I didn't like it. What I needed to do was tack weld it while on top of the battery to get it perfect.....BUT...I was thinking that even tacking something while sitting on top of a battery is bad idea so I put small dabs of JB Weld on it, let it dry, then I took it off and welded it. Much better the 2nd time around. I looked over the wire diagram in the post that your forwared to me last week...or 2 weeks ago. Anyway, got the solenoid and 80amp fuses installed. I think I hooked the wires on the solenoid backwards because today my battery light came on and when I got home my van wouldn't even start. I 'think"I just put the starter battery wires on the wrong side of the solenoid post. I'll recheck it tomorrow.

[AUTO360]

Ok, 10-4 on the hydrogen rising. Now, question is if I vent it going up, well, where do I route it too. I'd rather not cut a hole in my roof