Dual Battery / Single Battery Advice 2007 JKU

[DharmaInitiativePhoenix]

Hello Expo,
We're on the verge of pulling the trigger on a dual battery system and had a few questions I wasn't quite able to find the answers for. I'm hoping to get some feedback and advice.

We have a 2007 Jeep JKU. We are transitioning out of rock crawling and into more overlanding style trips. After lots of research and reading about a million threads we went with the 23Zero Byron RTT, which is sitting in the garage waiting...and waiting....and waiting on the Gobi rack to mount it up. While we're waiting on that, we wanted to add a fridge and upgrade the battery system. We only want to do this once and were not opposed to spending the money to do it right, but we also don't want to waste those dollars that could be used for other upgrades, if a single battery system will suffice for our needs. At most we will only stay parked in one place for a maximum of 3 days between driving. I'd appreciate any advice you have to offer on the setup and any advice on vendors to make this purchase.

Here's what we want to be able to run:

• ARB 50QT (Most trips will be me, my wife, and our daughter. Max duration would be a week. For now we are sticking to areas where we can reach grocery stores etc to resupply at least once during a week long trip. This seemed to be about the right size?)
• Assorted Led lighting: Rock lights and cubes already installed, will be adding a few lights on the rack for driving and spotlighting and a few floods on each side to light up the surrounding area and for backup lights)
• Winch (adding sometime this year)
• Additional usb charging ports / 120v sockets (would probably need an inverter? I can probably wait on the 120v socket, but would like to be able to run at least one appliance of some sort in the future)

After doing some research we narrowed it down to the Genesis dual battery system with (2) Odyssey PC1500s, perhaps with a solar panel supplement (like a Renogy 100w?) if we were to go dual battery route. Can I get away with a single battery with solar supplement with everything we want to run? If so what do you recommend? If dual battery is the way to go what do you think about the Genesis setup? We're ready to pull the trigger so any thoughts on this setup (fridge and fridge accessories, battery setup, solar) would be greatly appreciated. If you have suggestions on vendors that would be great as well.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and input

 

[ratled]

I have '17 with the Genesis and a pair of Oddyssey 1500s. My primary reason to run this set up is for winching and for running a 63 qt fridge/freezer. Because there are times where we don't leave camp for a couple of days I have a Renogy 30w Wanderer with a Renogy 150w panel to keep everything topped off. We run it a full freezer 90% of the time and use a cooler for a fridge..........no ice just frozen soda bottles with water from the freezer.

ratled

 

[larock1971]

When I tossed a Smittybilt Artic fridge in the back of my 2007 JKU, I quickly learned the stock battery couldn't keep up. I dropped an Odyssey 1500 in which helped, but I was caught with a dead battery a few times in the driveway. So I started carrying a jumper battery pack, saved my bacon once, but still a little bit of a pain. So I took the leap to a Genesis Dual Battery system and a second Odyssey 1500. I couldn't be happier. The install wasn't very difficult. Occasionally I find the house battery flat, but the starter battery fires the Jeep up without issue. It's a great system.

The JKU isn't my daily so when it sits two plus days the fridge completely drains the battery. When driving it daily while traveling, the setup has no problems.

 

[CatButt]

I run the same setup as ratled...it is a ginourmous amount of Frogskins but all in all it was the easiest, most thought out way to go. I have converted my JKU to full overlander...and I run quite a bit of stuff off of the house battery with no issues at all. I also have a fold up portable 135w solar panel (so I can park in the shade and drag the panel out to the sun) just in case I am staying longer and not starting the car as much.

 

[DharmaInitiativePhoenix]

Thanks for all the replies. Leaning more and more towards the genesis. Sounds like the single battery even if daily driven probably won't keep up with a fridge and the rest of the stuff we want to run.
Keep the comments coming! Still keeping hope alive that someone has a success story of running a single Odyssey or similar. Still wondering if it would be doable as my daily driver and for the occasional week long long trip maybe just starting and running the jeep for a while each day would suffice.
Still torn!

 

[ratled]

A single Odyssey would work overnight and stil have enough juice to crank in the moring if you had a fridge and watched your other uses.

 

[DharmaInitiativePhoenix]

Thanks! Thinking I may start with the single Odyssey and a solar setup to charge it during the day. If it doesn't work out I can transfer all of that to a dual setup. Any suggestions on a solar setup that won't break the bank but will put out enough power to keep the Odyssey topped off?

 

[MANUCHAO]

If going single battery, and can fit a Deep Cycle Group 31, or 27 AGM in the engine bay....
I say do so, plenty of Ah and cranking power.....

I run a Blue Sea system on one rig, and a NLPPP on the other.....
The NLPPP is super easy to install and the same system can be transferred from vehicle to vehicle... all you need is to run a set of wires to the main batt....

 

[ratled]

I ran wire from the batteries to the front bumper. I used a piece of ABS to make a little plate to hold a Zamp style through the roof connector. I can use this as a handy 12v power point for whatever needs we have and I also use this as power in for the batteries from the Renogy Wander 30W
solar charger. From that I hook in my panel/s. I have seen them mounted in a variety of spots like these:

ratled

 

[DharmaInitiativePhoenix]

Thanks so much for the feedback. Some great ideas! Any suggestions on the best single battery and a solar package? So far I'm leaning towards this Renogy 100w starter kit:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFCNFRM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
and this Odyssey PC1500t:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00249CSS2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

 

[BigBad408]

I also am running the same setup as Ratled. Another vote for Genesis and Odyssey.

 

[ratled]

4 Wheel parts is usally the cheapest source for that battery and lists it for about $20 cheaper than Amazon

 

[DharmaInitiativePhoenix]

Thanks ratled and thanks everyone for the comments and ideas. Happy Easter!

 

[DharmaInitiativePhoenix]

Update
Ordered an Odyssey PC1500t, an Arb 50qt fridge, a Renogy 100w suitcase solar panel, and a Victron smart solar MPPT charge controller. Also picked up some dual usb charging ports with voltmeter readout to place throughout the vehicle, along with a blue sea systems fuse block that I'm going to wire up all of my accessories through.

I've never wired anything solar (or much of anything really beyond some basic lights etc) but a friend of mine is very good with electronics and wiring and. He's going to be wiring this up but also doesn't have much experience with solar. Can we use low voltage wiring and battery cable, maybe 10ga to wire this up? What about the connectors? Can we simply cut the wiring and adapt to sae or similar?
I dug around and read alot of threads but couldn't quite find that info. Thanks in advance