trailrider
Advanced Member
My Chevy Silverado had place to mount a second battery up front. I bought a group 24 deep cycle from Walmart which fit the tray perfectly. I bought the factory hold down clamp. I was fortunate to find very heavy battery cable with lugs already attached. Napa, Autozone and Oreilly have premade cables. I did have one cable custom made at a battery shop. I wanted heavy gauge for fast charging.
For isolation I went old school like my previous motorhome. I used a high amp solenoid to isolate the deep cycle batter from the starting battery-charging system. A solenoid is an electrically operated switch. It operates via a coil. All coils create an inductive load when they are de-energized. Do not connect this directly to a switch or your trucks electrical system. It needs to be driven by a separate relay. Even a relay can create and inductive load which is bad for modern computer vehicles. You need to get a relay with a built in flyback diode that prevents this from happening. I found the solenoid at etrailer and Napa has relays with flyback diiodes. All cables and connections to the batteries need to be fused. My truck already used a large 175 amp fuse at the cable. I bought some and fused both sides of my cable at the battery connections. If the solenoid is off both cables need to be protected.
Aux battery installed in spare battery tray.
Fused connections
Cables Installed
Solenoid and relay
For isolation I went old school like my previous motorhome. I used a high amp solenoid to isolate the deep cycle batter from the starting battery-charging system. A solenoid is an electrically operated switch. It operates via a coil. All coils create an inductive load when they are de-energized. Do not connect this directly to a switch or your trucks electrical system. It needs to be driven by a separate relay. Even a relay can create and inductive load which is bad for modern computer vehicles. You need to get a relay with a built in flyback diode that prevents this from happening. I found the solenoid at etrailer and Napa has relays with flyback diiodes. All cables and connections to the batteries need to be fused. My truck already used a large 175 amp fuse at the cable. I bought some and fused both sides of my cable at the battery connections. If the solenoid is off both cables need to be protected.
Aux battery installed in spare battery tray.
Fused connections
Cables Installed
Solenoid and relay