Auxiliary Battery (second) Install- 24 Bison HD ZR2

[Bison 650]

I added a second battery to my truck. When I looked at and removed the cover over the starter battery, I was a bit worried on how to attach the terminals. With the help of another owner in another forum, I found it wasn't as complicated as it looked and in fact it made for a very clean set up. I got an AC Delco AGM battery and a Keyline 300 amp Isolator from Amazon. Now I will attach all future accesories to the auxiliary battery.

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[AXE]

Excellent work!

 

[Bison 650]

Thanks Axe.

 

[8ball_99]

I added a second battery to my truck. When I looked at and removed the cover over the starter battery, I was a bit worried on how to attach the terminals. With the help of another owner in another forum, I found it wasn't as complicated as it looked and in fact it made for a very clean set up. I got an AC Delco AGM battery and a Keyline 300 amp Isolator from Amazon. Now I will attach all future accesories to the auxiliary battery.

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Is this working for you? A smart isolator would not work correctly on my 1500. These trucks have smart alternators that vary the voltage based on battery health. Those isolators are made to run on standard systems where the voltage is above 13.3v anytime the engine is running. On these trucks the voltage drops well below that often.

I'm in the process of adding a second battery to my HD. I ended up ordering the factory distribution panel for the auxiliary battery. It includes a isolator on it from what I understand from the diagrams. Factory the isolator engages once the engine is running. I was hoping the contol circuit would be present on the engine fuse block. So far I haven't found it though. The fuse is there, but I'm not sure if there is actually a wire lead coming out for it.

Anyway, I stumbled across this thread looking to see if anyone else had done this yet, lol. Maybe even could confirm that isolation harness is present. If your isolator isn't working well I can post up the part number for the factory panel with isolator. I haven't gotten mine in yet, but I'll probably post a thread on it once I get it all sorted.

 

[Bison 650]

Yes it absolutely works flawlessly. I don't know if there is a factory isolator in the truck or not. I do know using the factory aux battery mount is way more expensive and more complicated. The factory aux battery cable alone is $79 bucks in my area. Both systems work.

 

[8ball_99]

Yes it absolutely works flawlessly. I don't know if there is a factory isolator in the truck or not. I do know using the factory aux battery mount is way more expensive and more complicated. The factory aux battery cable alone is $79 bucks in my area. Both systems work.

Hmm that's strange. I'm surprised the isolator is staying on. The charging system on my 1500 often dropped below the cut off. Maybe the HD system isn't so reserved. I had the exact one that's in your pictures above.

I ended up going with an aftermarket isolator. Not really because of cost, But because the factory distribution panel with the oem isolator was on national back order with no ETA, so they cancelled my order, lol. I wasn't planning on buying all the OEM cables and what not. Cause yeah the prices are silly. Just the battery hold down strap was like 85 bucks. It's just a thin piece of stamped sheet metal. But the distribution panel was worth a 95 bucks. Fuse panel with a isolator all contained and matches the look of the main battery panel. The isolator I went with is not controlled by voltage. It's basically just a big relay.

 

[Bison 650]

That does look clean. I like the protection the aux terminals have with the covers. Wish I had that pic before I started mine.

 

[8ball_99]

That does look clean. I like the protection the aux terminals have with the covers. Wish I had that pic before I started mine.

I appreciate it. It turned out pretty clean I think. The oem panel would have looked a little better. I used kind of big gauge wire between the batteries because of the stereo and my onboard air will have two compressors. Besides I had the 1/0 gauge wire from taking my stereo out of my old ZR2. Wire was to short for this stereo, but worked well to connect the two batteries