I was thinking about putting a winch on, and am realistic enough to know that at over 100 amps draw the stock battery can't take much draw for long, since it is a 200 cca 14 ah battery. I have found a garden tractor sized battery that is 500 cca, 33 ah, and is AGM, it comes out of a battery backup for a computer system. I was planning on putting this in the rear storage box (under the seat) as I don't use this space anyway, and was wondering what the best way to hook it up would be. I was thinking about running both batteries in parallel with a battery shut off switch so I could have the 14 ah for starting the quad, and the 33 ah for the winch, but either an isolator, or a battery selector switch (like on a marine application) may be better.. the only thing is the battery selector switches are large, (about 5 1/2" diameter) has anyone done this before, or would just running the battery in parrallel be better. the only thing is the large battery tends more toward deep cycle use, while the other does not. I wanted a backup battery incase all fails to get me back home.

 

Surveyor,
My friend has a set up like you wish to install. He has the new #3000 winch and he had the same concerns as you. He primarily uses his winch around hunting season it works great to lift animals up in the air for cleaning. We installed a battery isolator with a dry cell battery the great thing about this battery is it is 2/3 the size of comparable wet cell battery with more amp draw. It is about the size of the battery on the V700 it puts out 3 times the amp draw and can be used for winches or any heavy draw application without any harm to the battery. He also has a switch to combine the 2 batterys is need be, he has a small togle switch that operates a 500 amp solenoid for the combination this way he can have a small switch on the dash and the solenoid under the plastic out of the way of prying eyes.

 

Alltoys,
Thanks for the info..most of the isolators I have seen are marine use, they have a post in the center for the charging circut to go to, and a post that goes to each battery, when there is current on the center post the circut connects, so it charges both circuts, but the down side to this is using with it on, ..I wanted a isolator that I could control, to be able to combine battery if need be, or run off either one. so far my options are a selonoid that gets power from a backup battery, or a marine battery selector switch, that alows use of battery 1, battery 2, or combined battery, the only problem is that they are large.. so the selenoid may be the best solution. It looks like the battery I have won't fit in the storage area, so I'll have to modify something to make a tray for it. it is about 8x5x8 1/2, I wanted to use this as the main battery and the stock one as a backup..I may just end up redoing my storage containers and putting it in a box on the rear rack, as that would be easier, although not exactly where I would prefer to have it.

 

Surveyor,
You should be able to go to your battery store and ask for a dry cell battery the ones that are used on trailers for electric brakes you can get them in varied sizes they can be mounted in almost any posission they put out more power than a comparable wet cell battery. A solenoid is probably the better way to go with the way you want to operate it.

 

would the extra juice do anything to the cdi or other electonics

 

I think you should connect them in parallel without a selector/isolation switch to keep it as clean and simple as possible. The total current will be the sum of both batteries and the voltage will remain 12V nominal. The only drawback I can see is if one battery were to fail catastrophically it could drain the other. Those kind of shorts are rare and the risk is no greater than having one battery. Having them in parallel all the time posses no other risks that I can see.