How do I connect my batteries?

[mdonnelly]

Currently have new dedicated engine starting battery and a 110ah leisure battery for domestic use. Have an additional leisure battery, cables and attaching bits! Am going to boat in an hour so tell me how to connect the 2 leisure batteries please

 

[Andie]

Depends on the voltage of your boat _ 12v or 24v ? I am sure it would be 12V as you only have 1 domestic battery.
If this is the case then you connect the + to + and - to - with a cable that has been sized correctly.
Remember most boat fires happen because electrical work has been carried out by peolpe that do not know what they are doing!
Personally, if I did not know what I was doing I would get proffessional help.

 

[sailorman]

Currently have new dedicated engine starting battery and a 110ah leisure battery for domestic use. Have an additional leisure battery, cables and attaching bits! Am going to boat in an hour so tell me how to connect the 2 leisure batteries please

pos to pos
neg to neg

 

[mdonnelly]

Thank you sailor man. I'm off to do it now.

 

[VicS]

as sailorman says

but ideally the positive feed to the boat should then be connected to one of them and the negative feed to the other.

See http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

 

[Andie]

as sailorman says

but ideally the positive feed to the boat should then be connected to one of them and the negative feed to the other.

See http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

?

 

[mdonnelly]

I'll ignore methods 3 and 4 as they make my brain hurt! Will stick to pos/pos neg/neg for now but as only 2 batteries method 2 appears to be more battery friendly and think I will convert to this method when I get more confident. Thanks for the link.

 

[TNT]

As VicS states, this stops all the current being dragged through one battery, in effect you will only have one battery by combining the two in this way and taking one lead from each battery.

 

[VicS]

I'll ignore methods 3 and 4 as they make my brain hurt! Will stick to pos/pos neg/neg for now but as only 2 batteries method 2 appears to be more battery friendly and think I will convert to this method when I get more confident. Thanks for the link.

yes method 2 is the way to do it when there are only two batteries in the bank.

 

[dt4134]

And don't skimp on the cable thickness, albeit it is less critical if there is a short run between the two batteries.