Thinking of a 2-battery setup - opinions?

[LMedina]

Hey everyone, there's no Electrical Forum so I'll post this here. I'm thinking of installing a 2-battery setup using the stock batt (Motorcraft low-maintenance) for starting, and a deep-cycle batt (maybe an Exide Orbital XCD or Optima AGM) to power the audio and my 12V camping gear.This is my ideal setup, but I read it's not wise to have 2 different batt types because this might cause voltage/charging problems between the 2 batts-? (this is fine with me, but I just thought to save some cash and use the existing stock batt insteading of buying 2 Optima's). The other item is that some guys have told me it's perfectly fine to use a deep-cycle batt for both starting and for accessories, and others have told me to just stick to a 2-batt setup. What's the story on all this? Anyone running strictly off a deep-cycle batt to power everything?

 

[Crankcase]

Many people run 2 batteries of a different type....If you get a Yellow top Optima or another group 65 battery, you will be fine.

Some of the street guys are running just single yellow tops with no problems.....

 

[expo5.0]

the people running single yellow tops aren't doing the right thing

what your doing is the right idea. i run two deep cycle svr batteries in my truck with a red top up front and a PAC isolator seperating them. You will need the isolator.

 

[NOTAJP]

Expo is right. You need an isolator. Any auto parts store will have this setup. When you isolate the batteries from each other, you can run two different batteries and not have a problem. I run a single red top Optima and a 200 amp alternator and have yet to run into any problems and save weight and cost at the same time.