Frontier owners with dual batteries

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
I thought about doing a dual battery, but I ended up sticking with a single Odyssey. What are you planning on running with it?

I like your blog, by the way.
 

SursOverland

Observer
I thought about doing a dual battery, but I ended up sticking with a single Odyssey. What are you planning on running with it?

I like your blog, by the way.

LOL Thanks man! There's lots of info out there and everyone has their own way of doing things. I figured I'll start documenting the build, what I've got for equipment and where I'm going and what I'm doing to hopefully be able to help someone some day lol. Also keeps me out of trouble. Your front bumper and Snorkel are exactly the direction I want to go. Wish I had more space cash to drop on a bunch of parts lol. Would make things move a lot faster.

I want to ultimately be able to use a fridge in the truck and possibly have a couple of outlets set up that I can use for accessories like water filteration systems. I worked with my brother who's an electrical engineer for the DOD and he's helped me design a very robust system that all I need to do is start buying parts and putting together. First hurdle I've run into is that I don't know where to put the second battery. Everyone agree's theres not enough space in the engine compartment so I'm looking at options. At this point trying to see if I can find a weather tight box and build the whole setup in there. Put the isolator/selonoid under the hood and run the power wire to the bed and get that stuff set up in the bed. Hoping others here can chime in and show me what they've done.
 

Wyatt2

New member
Unfortunately I have nothing to contribute to your dual battery question!

I also really enjoyed your blog and was wondering if you could share the link to the mount you used for your tablet in the truck. It looks like a nice clean set-up.

Thanks!
 

Nd4SpdSe

Adventurer, eh?
My X is too old to compare for setup, but I'm running duals on mine, which is very convenient for self-boosting, giving that extra CCA in the winter, but also leave my lights and radio on as long as I want, also my light bars and 1500w inverter are on the secondary so I can run those without fear of not being able to start, I just have to be intelligent to not put accessorise that would drain both...

A google search yields plenty of ideas:

http://www.thenewx.org/forum/15-how-tos/30100-how-dual-battery-install-under-hood.html
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/113408-Xterra-1st-gen-Dual-battery-setup-show-me-yours
http://www.thenewx.org/forum/12-ele...te-pictoral-install-feb-2-2013-redone-13.html
 

SursOverland

Observer
Unfortunately I have nothing to contribute to your dual battery question!

I also really enjoyed your blog and was wondering if you could share the link to the mount you used for your tablet in the truck. It looks like a nice clean set-up.

Thanks!

Thanks! I forgot to add a link to the mount on my blog like I have with some of the other stuff I've been buying. This is the exact one that I bought. I will have to give you a fair warning though that it does have a little bit of a vibration/shakiness. I need to make a run to Home Depot or Lowes to buy a couple of things to see if I can create an additional mount mid way up to stiffen up the neck a little more. If you'd like more pictures, let me know and I'll be happy to go take some more.

My X is too old to compare for setup, but I'm running duals on mine, which is very convenient for self-boosting, giving that extra CCA in the winter, but also leave my lights and radio on as long as I want, also my light bars and 1500w inverter are on the secondary so I can run those without fear of not being able to start, I just have to be intelligent to not put accessorise that would drain both...

A google search yields plenty of ideas:

http://www.thenewx.org/forum/15-how-tos/30100-how-dual-battery-install-under-hood.html
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/113408-Xterra-1st-gen-Dual-battery-setup-show-me-yours
http://www.thenewx.org/forum/12-ele...te-pictoral-install-feb-2-2013-redone-13.html

Thanks for sharing these. I saw the dual battery one where they relocated the power steering reservoir. I personally prefer not to do any of that so wondering if anyone has had any luck finding competent batteries that could fit in the space where the battery is now with mount/holster fabrication.
 

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
There was a Tacoma guy I think who ran two smaller batteries in the stock location. If you could find a way to do it like that I'd be really interested to see that. Might even do it myself.
 

SursOverland

Observer
That's a good idea. I'd need to find 2 smaller batteries that put out enough juice that I could place there. Do you remember where you saw it or who it was on here?
 

bigskypylot

Explorer
One of my buddy's friends has his dual battery on his Xterra mounted where his spare used to be. Not sure what the Frontier has in regard to same location etc. I'm trying to get some photos and details.
 

SursOverland

Observer
The spare is under the bed so no go there. At this point given all that I've seen, I'm probably going to end up with a box in the bed that's mounted there permanently with all the electronics and the 2nd battery in it.

This is basically what my brother and I came up with. Should be good up 400watts of output power by adding more batteries inline.

RyT1mgy.png


I can share a bigger version of the schematic and parts I've narrowed down so far to put this together if anyone's interested. The whole setup is a little overkill with multiple redundancies and safeties but thats why he does what he does lol.
 

bigskypylot

Explorer
The spare is under the bed so no go there. At this point given all that I've seen, I'm probably going to end up with a box in the bed that's mounted there permanently with all the electronics and the 2nd battery in it.

This is basically what my brother and I came up with. Should be good up 400watts of output power by adding more batteries inline.

RyT1mgy.png


I can share a bigger version of the schematic and parts I've narrowed down so far to put this together if anyone's interested. The whole setup is a little overkill with multiple redundancies and safeties but thats why he does what he does lol.

Looks cool. I may go with the National Luna PPP. Thats a slick unit. But, it's also expensive. I do like the plug and play of it.
 

SursOverland

Observer
Yeah, essentially going for something like that but not wanting to pay as much as that thing costs. This will cost me less and be expandable.
 

SursOverland

Observer
Will definitely be posting progress on my blog. Going to start with the basics, dual battery and a couple of lights and then work my way up to adding the solar panel, charge controller and other accessories. Whole build as it stands right now is around $1040 including the solar panel.
 

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