Add a Battery

[Riverside711]

How difficult is it to add a second battery to my Tige Z1? I have a single blue seas switch now and a single battery. I want to put in a killer sound system and will need the second battery to support it.
The dealer want a fortune and it seems pretty simple by ready instructions and schmatics provided with the switch, but as always I don't want to get to the lake and find out I did something wrong.
Is this a do it yourself project?

[chpthril]

Dozens of other Tige owners have installed their own dual battery systems. Its not too hard to actually do the physical install. The main thing is to lay out the right charging schematic.

Some things that need to be taken into account now in the planning stages. How you intend to use the system will determine how many Ah's you will need. This will effect the number of batteries, as well as how it effects other aspects of the design.

Location of new house battery
Will there be an ACR/VSR?
Is a shore-charger in plan

[bryce2320]

Yes, you can do it yourself. How many amps are you going to be running? I would have 2 deep cycle batteries wired in parrallel to one side of the perko switch, than have a cranking batter wired to the other side of the perko so theyre seperate. Find out where you want to locate the extra battery or 2, than I'd run 0 gauge to the perko, and 0 gauge to a distribution block up by the amps into 4 gauge to the amps. Chpthrl and others will chime in, and get you going tho

[Riverside711]

I plan on adding 2 sampson SD9HD speakers to the tower and a 10 sub under the helm. Most likely I will have two amps one to crive the tower speakers and one to drive the sub woofer.
I have seen this set up with only a cranking battery and a house battery plus the space for anything more is very limited.
I am thinking two Alpine 500 watt amps should do the trick. This may be a dumb question but do I need to run any cables other than what is already coming from the alt / Block to the second battery? Hope this all make sense.
Thanks for the feedback...

[bryce2320]

You blue seas switch should have a 1, 2, and off. If your cranking battery is wired to the 1 side of it, run 0 gauge wire to the 2 side of it to the deep cycle stereo battery. Set your switch to 2 when docked and back to 1 to start the boat. Thats how I would do it anyways Others may go into more detail. What are your inboats running off of?

[chpthril]

I plan on adding 2 sampson SD9HD speakers to the tower and a 10 sub under the helm. Most likely I will have two amps one to crive the tower speakers and one to drive the sub woofer.
I have seen this set up with only a cranking battery and a house battery plus the space for anything more is very limited.
I am thinking two Alpine 500 watt amps should do the trick. This may be a dumb question but do I need to run any cables other than what is already coming from the alt / Block to the second battery? Hope this all make sense.
Thanks for the feedback...

Im guessing your Z1 does not currently have a factory sub, so I would deduce that that is has only 4 in-boats and they are not amp'd. If so, I would highly recommend feeding them with some power, they will really wake up.

Its a tight fit, but it is possible to fit a pair of batteries on the port side, leaving room on the starboard for one. if you get creative, the TAPS motor can be relocated to make room for a 4th. Or, leave the main cranking where it is an install the new dual battery house bank in the port mid-ship locker.

As far as amp go, I try and get past an amps total wattage output, even if its an accurate RMS watts output. Try an focus on the amps RMS watts output per chnl at a given load. This way, you cna be sure to match the best amp for the speaker(s) (load) you intend to drive. For a typical 8" HLCD like the SD9, I would want to be in the 200+ watts rms per speaker range. For your sub, I would get a vision of what the enclosure is going to be, then choose the best woofer that will work within those constraints, then choose the right amp to drive that sub at whatever coil configuration it is. You really have to get the horse before the cart.

The alternator's main cable is adequate for its 90A capacity. The boats power cabling is 2/0. Given the early plans of your system, I do not think you will need to add to or upgrade any of those existing OEM cables.

[shawndoggy]

I'm a visual guy. Here's how I've done it in the past. Granted not on a Tige, so don't know whether there are any tige-specific concerns there:



If you have more than one battery on the stereo side, you'd just piggyback them in parallel.

You will need some wiring to tie it all together. Great lakes skipper has pretty good prices on pre-cut/lugged marine battery wire: http://greatlakesskipper.com/categor...ery-cable.html

[Riverside711]

Great information everyone...Thanks for the schematics shawndoggy. I will keep you posted on my progress..paln on doing it after the holidays.

Thanks again...

[ST.TIGE]

IS THIS CORRECT?I HAVE MY ACR WIRED TO MY BATTERIES NOT BLUE SEA SWITCHIS THERE DIFFERENT WAYS?WHICH IS BEST?

[chpthril]

IS THIS CORRECT?I HAVE MY ACR WIRED TO MY BATTERIES NOT BLUE SEA SWITCHIS THERE DIFFERENT WAYS?WHICH IS BEST?

Are u using an onboard charger?

[ST.TIGE]

YES.PROSPORT 20.

[chpthril]

Then I would recommend placing the charger leads directly to the battery posts and the ACR terminals A and B connected to the terminals of the switch that are disconnected from the batteries when the switch is off. This prevents the ACR from coming combining the battery banks when the charger is doing its thing. How you currently have it is not wrong, but changing it to this configuration allows the charger to better replenish and condition the 2 battery banks, which are used differently from each other.