battery switch

[randyr]

I was wondering what everyones opinion is on battery switches. I have two batteries hooked up to a switch for bat. a, bat. b, and both. I was told not to switch batteries while the engine is on, but how do I recharge a possible dead battery? I was also told not to run the switch on both by my tige dealer as this could possibly damage the alternator. BTW I am running two amps. Any ideas?

[GIZMO]

I have switched it while running and I also run it on both when im going to be on a long cruise, I have not had any problems with it. I'll let you know if anything blows up.

P.S. At my shop we replace batteries with the car running so we dont loose radio codes or presets, never had a problem.

[raythompson]

I have been told that you do not want to run an alternator system without a battery load. If you do, the regulator in the alternator senses no voltage and cranks the output to the max. This is supposed to be harmful.

That may be true. But when you are talking about only a short period of time I doubt any harm will come.

Now for the charging issue when running dual batteries. I have been informed by Tige that if the battery switch is on 1, 2, or both, that both batteries are being charged. Only the battery(s) switched too are being consumed when the system is not charging (starting or stopped).

[scottie4421]

Get a Battery Combiner from West Marine. It senses when one battery is being charged and connects both batteries so they both are recharged. I'm running this setup with a battery switch as well and it works great.