Dual battery in Ford Ranger

Greg,

Don't have a Ford Ranger but the solution I used suits all Utes, Tubs, Traytops and any other vehicle for that matter.

The Flyer from Sidewinder is a very good, flexible solution, especially when also using an AGM battery. The Flyer is basically a Battery Box, but with a built-in Isolator to protect the starting battery and comes complete with heavy duty cable pre-terminated ready to install.

The "problem" with any sizeable AGM battery is that they are just too big and heavy to be mounted in the vehicle engine bay, even if there is room.

Derek's solution is very flexible as you can choose any brand and size of AGM battery you desire. You can even remove it from the vehicle as a "portable" power pack if you wish, but with a 100 A/h plus battery inside, I don't really regard them as portable. I will continue to use the Thumper for that purpose.

I have both systems wired up and terminated with Anderson Connectors and they sit at the back corner of the tub, behind my Drawer System where they are easily accessible.


Sidewinder Flyer


Bill.

Hi Greg
This may not be your cup of tea, but I had a Navara styleside dualcab some years back & mounted the battery in the rear left hand corner of the tray near the tailgate.
The fridge was shackled down in front of the tailgate & only had about 16 inches of lead attached direct to the terminals. It worked perfectly with minimal voltage drop between the fridge & battery.
The battery never suffered from heating issues either.
We punished the crap out of that car. The tray was cracking around the mounts after 80,000 k but we never had to worry about the battery tray breaking.
I reckon the heat under the bonnet in my Patrol killed second batteries. Never got a real good run out of them.
Getting a tray back in January & I will mount the second battery under the tray.
No heat issues out there.