Installing A Battery In The Trunk...sandt?

Depends. What batteries did you get? If you got the platinum series sealed AGM, no need to vent. My assumption is you don't have Platinum, and in that case I would seal and vent.

 

what for? do the batteries get too hot?
Also what is this solienoid thing i heard you need to install when using two batteries?

 

I believe it's a competition rule, Seth.
All batteries installed in the interior or trunk must be vented to the outside of the car, or at least that's how the rules used to be... I don't believe there are exceptions based on what sort of batteries you are running, probably because of the logistical headache that would cause.

 

Ever smell the rotten egg stench of a battery? That is a dangerous gas given off when the battery goes through prolonged heavy charging. It can be deadly to humans .

The solenoid is called an isolator or a constant duty solenoid. That is the cheap way to do it. The correct way is a true battery isolator, similar to the one I will attatch below, that I use in my car.

I believe some (if not all) sanctioning bodies do use that as a rule. However, my assumption is that since he had some Yellows in an open rack either he doesn't compete or his sanctioning body allows for certain open non-vented apps.

 

I thought that rotten-egg smell was from the catalytic converter...
Usually comes after pushing the car hard, driving it for a while...

 

Depends. Sometimes the cat gets that smell, but other times it is the battery "sulfating". But to smell sulfating batteries you need to be near it, unlike a cat where you can smell it all over the place.

 

3/4 is PLENTY. heck, 5/16 would be more than enough

 

Well, the REAL "cheap" way to add second batteries, is to just wire them in parallel. B)

How different is a solenoid from a battery isolator?
I thought they were one in the same.. or at least that an isolator contains a solenoid, maybe?

 

A CD solenoid is open when the car is off (provided it is wired correctly ), and closed when the car is on. What it does is seperate the drain from 1 battery and the other ONLY when the engine is off. It also allows for the drain and charge of both batteries to occur any time the car is running. This can lead to deterioration of a good battery if the other battery is bad.

A true isolator completely seperates both battery systems. It will provide the proper charge to each battery individually, and allows the load to be drawn seperately on each system. This also eliminates the issue of 1 bad battery killing the other battery.

For example, my amps are the only thing on my trunk battery. If my system is off, there is no drain occuring at all from the trunk battery. Also, since there is no demand, the rear battery is not recieving any energy from the alt. Now, if I had a CD soleniod, the system being off would in no way prevent the rear battery from being sucked down by the rest of the vehicle. Also, the CD sol. allows the amps to draw from the main battery, and the iso does not, further eliminating dimming and driveability issues that occur durring heavy load situations.

 

For someone that never operates their system without the car off, the solonoid wouldn't make much sense then.

I'm not even seeing much call for the isolator, IMO...
I'd rather simply double the "total reserve" of my system in adding a second battery.

I think I need to add a second battery anyway, mine's dead again.

 

chris, the thing to consider here is that the only right way (that im aware of) to add a 2nd battery in parallel would be to buy 2 batteries at the same time, and use BOTH of them equally...because otherwise its too easy to screw stuff up.

eric

 

The only way that I ever add a second battery to a customer's car is to use a battery isolator, I have had good luck with the isolators that PAC makes. I just don't want to deal with the possibility of a customer complaining about how his car won't start as a result of one battery killing the other. ISOLATORS RULE!!

 

The thinkg about Off Brand and Name Brand Batteries is that they are alot of time the EXACT same, Hell Johnson Controls Produces alot of the "off brand" and "name brand" batteries in the same factory the only differance is the Label they slap on the side


When you get in to the True premium Levels with Differant Techology like Spiral Cells, and whatnot is the only time you will have a differance


I still have my 6 year old Mejier Brand Battery that was made by Johnson Controls....

 

Not really. There are only 7 battery Mfgs in the world, and how many speaker Mfgs? Are you saying all speakers are the same?

Similarly the batteries are made to individual companies specs. Performance is differant... that is what drives the market

 

Michael, "950 cca and 650 ca" do you mean vise versa?

I got myself an Exide Orbital starting battery last week for $119 that has 950 ca 750 cca. It is a smaller (in dimensions) than the battery that was originally in there. So I figured out that if I take the battery tray out and customize a tray I can fit an Exide Orbital blue top (deep cycle) right next to my starting battery. I can't wait to have the money to get the blue top!