Monday, Oct 08, 2007 at 16:51
David, No you don't need a second battery isolator, they are only used to disconnect the Cranking battery from the storage batteries so the Cranking battery is always fully charged and not used independently to run the fridge.
Just connect 'thick' cable to the first Aux battery posts and then to the trailer battery posts, via the Anderson plug and use a decent fuse at each (+) terminal of each Aux battery.
When you have the two Aux batteries connected via the Anderson plug you will then have double the battery capacity, so yes you do want "one deep cycle pulling from the other" that way they will last much longer because you are only drawing a small amount of power from each battery, not a lot from one and nil from the other.
Buy the Anderson plug and cable at the same time/place and tell them you want the thickest cable that will fit the Anderson plug to avoid voltage loss.
Why not 'borrow' the solar system asap and test the benefits for yourself.
The big difference between
Solar power and a genie is usability.
With genie;
you have to connect it to charge the battery when it gets low, about every second day with a 100ah DC battery, you don't run it all day to maintain charge in the battery.
Disadvantage; added work setting up daily, noise, smell, unhappy neighbours, cost of unleaded fuel, safe storage of genie and also fuel.
With solar;
the Aux battery remains fully charged because the fridge is powered direct from the solar system during the day, and the
battery power is only used at night, because no
solar power is going to Aux battery. The Aux battery is again fully charged
well before lunch next day to continue to run all the accessories again next night, with-out any human intervention at all or further cost involved.
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