add extra battery

[jonnymerc]

I am looking for any info about/how to add an extra battery to my 1991 Chev 3/4 ton plow truck. It has an 8' Blizzard snow plow on it and it sucks a lot of juice while plowing. Lights go very dim. It has the stock alt. on there (105 amp) I believe. Should I look into bumping up to a 124 amp or add another battery???? If its the add a battery, I could use some help, never done it before. As far as the truck goes, no fancy gadgets or power anything. Sorry no pics, don't have dig camera.

Thanks,

Merc

[jonnymerc]

Originally Posted by jonnymerc

I am looking for any info about/how to add an extra battery to my 1991 Chev 3/4 ton plow truck. It has an 8' Blizzard snow plow on it and it sucks a lot of juice while plowing. Lights go very dim. It has the stock alt. on there (105 amp) I believe. Should I look into bumping up to a 124 amp or add another battery???? If its the add a battery, I could use some help, never done it before. As far as the truck goes, no fancy gadgets or power anything. Sorry no pics, don't have dig camera.

Thanks,

Merc

Hey, me again, replying to myself.
I just talked with a local parts store and they suggested to go with a 140 amp alt. it comes with special wiring assembly but seems like a easier fix than adding another battery. Sounds good to me

[broughy84]

I would suggest to go with the higher output alternator and add a battery. all you need is the battery, tray, and some battery cable. Ground the battery to the frame and hook the positive terminal to the positive terminal on the stock battery. This will double the amps because it is hooked up in parallel, make sure you do not hook them up in series + to - and - to ground, because this will double your volts, to 24V frying the truck.

[jonnymerc]

Originally Posted by broughy84

I would suggest to go with the higher output alternator and add a battery. all you need is the battery, tray, and some battery cable. Ground the battery to the frame and hook the positive terminal to the positive terminal on the stock battery. This will double the amps because it is hooked up in parallel, make sure you do not hook them up in series + to - and - to ground, because this will double your volts, to 24V frying the truck.

Thanks, I think thats what I'll do. Although I don't think I am going with the 140 amp alt. I would think 124 would be enough. I will connect parallel. + to + and ground to frame on second battery. I don't need to go - to - do I?????

[broughy84]

No that is not necessary. I would probably put the bigger alt on anyway if you already have it.

[bmcl]

I agree with the alt and battery addition. i don't know what you want to spend but I run 2 optima yellow top gel matt batteries. Designed to be abused and rebound like a deep cycle but with 800 CCA. I also run a surepower battery isolator. This ensures that battery 1 never gets drained by battery 2 and it allows the alternator to charge one at a time rather than a massive draw to do both at once. I also just swapped my 105 stock alt for an Excelauto.com 200 amp High Output alt. Seems to work great but I think I smell warm wires from the defrost. May not be connected don't know yet. The isolator and the second battery will definately help your plow problem. i've been running that setup for over a year with no problems.