Camper power without sun with a Battery Isolator / Combiners

[5 Speed]

I did a lot of research before selecting the power for my 4WC. I have a large solar panel for my Apache Pop up but we were headed to Alaska for 4 months and I had to have power and I didn't know if it was going to rain the whole time, we would be camping under trees and didn't want to always worry about charging the battery with sun. I read a lot about old style battery isolators and their problems or manual switching between batteries and then I came across a post on Tundrasolutions.com about Hellroaring Technologies and their Battery Isolator / Combiners. After reading all the information I could find I went with the Battery Isolator / Combiners from Hellroaring and couldn't be happier. I installed it over 3 years ago and haven't had to touch it. In fact I had my main battery go completely dead in Montana last Christmas and jumped off my aux. I didn't use the combine function of the system for the jump because the main battery wouldn't take a charge and the isolator isn't set up for that. You could run your truck off both batteries if your alt died but it isn't for jumping just combining and if your main battery is dead that isn't combining.
The cool thing is that the hook up is just a single connection, nothing to splice or tap into! This was something I didn't want to do on a new truck. I have included pictures of the overall set up, I have a 3.4 5-Speed 4WD manual Tundra Access cab so most tundras with V-8's will actually have more room under the hood, you will see the large cruse control in front of the aux battery and on a V-8 this is in a different location. I looked at putting both batteries side by side but one thing you need with the Battery Isolator / Combiners is it is set up for remote battery and distance in the cord so I just fabed a box with a fiberglass base on the other side. I thought about putting the battery in the camper, under the frame, but if I put it under the hood I thought this would be easiest in the end. I never have to think about power extra camper power. I run lights inside and outside, DVD player, laptop and anything I can think of and have never worried about getting started the next morning. Now because of my camping style I usually move the truck every few days so charging has never been a problem. I wish all mods were this easy. Now please don't get upset with all the dust under the hood, I have been on quite a few southern California dirt roads in the past few months

 

[Kilroy]

Thanks. Great lead. I get paranoid about backing up battery. Have accidently left dome light on and found dead battery in the morning. Still think a solar panel is a good idea for topping off batteries when not moving.

 

[5 Speed]

With 12 volt light bulbs drawing only .15 amps per hour per 10 watts (OPTIMA spec) with the automotive bulbs we use for inside lights I don't know how many hours you could leave the cabin lights on but the advantage of a isolated deep cycle is if you dump it to zero charge you can recharge it. I guess if power was really critical I would add fluorescent lights but they always mess up my evening AM radio. Most automotive batteries don't like to be discharged to 0 at all. With a capacity of 55 amp/hours that's quite a lot of use, the Optima D34M has a pretty good capacity for a deep cycle battery and it keeps a charge for a long time. I have a large solar panel but never hooked it up but if I stayed in a location for any length of time I would just add it to the mix.