Accessories - house or starter battery?

OIIIIO

Observer
I have a dual battery setup in my ZR2. Blue Sea ACR manages the work. Starter in my diesel is 95ah and I have a 68ah Odyssey.

In my old rig (Jeep ZJ), I had all accessories wired to the house. Radios, lights, USB chargers, fridge, etc. In this new setup, I am beginning to rethink this approach.

I was thinking radios and lights would go to the starter...after all, I tend to run these while driving. Since my truck is newer, all of my 12v/USB stuff is on the starter as well. So that leaves the fridge going to the house.

Thoughts?

How did you decide what to run to each?
 

john61ct

Adventurer
Anything you may want to run with the engine off should go to House.

IOW, the Starter batt is only used for cranking the engine, alt carries the loads otherwise.

You could set up an Essentials load circuit tgat could be switched from House to Starter, navigation, security / safety related consumers.
 

comptiger5000

Adventurer
I'd say anything not ignition switched goes to the house battery. And even the ACC circuit of the ignition switch (not the ON circuit) should be on the house too.
 

blacklbzbeauty

Active member
I have my rig wired as anything that pulls amps when the engine is not running goes to the house battery. Fridge, water pumps, extra lights, etc. Do not want the worry of starter battery being compromised.
 

lathamb

Observer
I have a big main starter battery (31M), so everything is on that. The 2nd battery is for emergencies only, jump start.
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
My approach was to wire non-stock stuff to the aux battery and leave the factory wiring alone. I drive a newer Tacoma and Toyota went to some length to prevent an inadvertent load from killing your battery. The overhead dome turns off eventually even in the 'On' position, headlights require intervention to turn on with the key off, etc. It's the fridge, GPS and ham radios that might draw a battery down so those went to the second battery. If I was starting from the ground up I'd follow the ignition-hot vs constant convention, though.
 

OIIIIO

Observer
This is all well and good, But can be considerable job. Especially if some accessory appliances are desired to remain connected on OEM system. Wipers for example...
One of my fleet trucks, I pulled out the OEM fuses to the respective accessory appliances I wanted house powered. Then applied to the load side of the fuseholder with wire jumpers that were powered from fuses on the house system.
This worked great and left the OEM system unmodified.

That is an interesting approach. Funny enough, I was hooking up my cb power to the interior fuse box. I noticed my truck has a constant 12v prong available in the box near the acc fuses. I ended up using a a female spade to power the radio.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
FYI, most male spade connectors are thicker than the ATC fuse blades. So if you insert them into the fuse socket (as a jumper or bypass) there is some risk of deforming the female connector in the socket. So if you switch back to an ATC fuse, the connection may be intermittent or weak. There are some add-a-fuse or similar products that have thinner blades to match the ATC sockets.

I have some loads on my starter battery simply because it was much easier to wire them that way. These are low current items such as a USB charger, and the remote lock unit. Worst case I am able to jump start exclusively from my Aux battery anyways.
 

OIIIIO

Observer
Thanks for the tip on the spade. I thought about an add-a-fuse, I had one in my box. The accessory fuse is square, so it wouldn't work.
 
I have a dual battery setup in my ZR2. Blue Sea ACR manages the work. Starter in my diesel is 95ah and I have a 68ah Odyssey.

In my old rig (Jeep ZJ), I had all accessories wired to the house. Radios, lights, USB chargers, fridge, etc. In this new setup, I am beginning to rethink this approach.

I was thinking radios and lights would go to the starter...after all, I tend to run these while driving. Since my truck is newer, all of my 12v/USB stuff is on the starter as well. So that leaves the fridge going to the house.

Thoughts?

How did you decide what to run to each?

I just got a zr2 , I would like to see where you put that battery
 

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