I have mounted several overhead off road lights up top as well as 2 backward lights to illuminate the bed.
I am only running 1 battery. (1 big one)
Was thinking of maybe adding a small car type battery just to power the lights. Want the gen to charge that battery too and also have its current available for starting. BUT--- I don't want the lights to be able to run down the main (big) battery.
Idea is to wire up little battery in parallel as normal. (for engine) Wire the new lights to small battery only.
Put in a couple of relays so that whenever I hit the switch to turn on the aux lights- that current passes through the coil of another relay (have to split the current with a resistor some how) which unhooks the little battery from the big one.
Idea is to not let the lights suck out of the big battery- only the small one. Once shut off - the alt charges both.
Would I want to try to make the alt. charge the little batt while the lights are running ? Would that need an additional high current diode to isolate the big battery / ( I may have to draw a picture to think it though....)
Anyone tried something like this ?
Tim