Running a dual battery setup can be a perfect option for solving low voltage problems in your
camping or touring vehicles. If you have a few accessories added into your kit and have them wired
up to your single battery, it can put extra strain on it causing you run into problems with flat
batteries and low voltage warnings causing those lights to flicker and the ignition to hesitate upon
trying to start. This is not something you want to encounter when you’re not necessarily staying at
home for the night but may instead be out on the road somewhere or camping way out in the bush
with no help around to grab a jump start. So, addressing this problem before you dive too deep into
camping adventures may be a really good idea.
The whole purpose or running dual batteries is so that you can easily run those extra accessories
without putting strain on your cranking battery, allowing it to stay at full charge all the time. With it
all set up, the secondary battery will take care of working hard to run your 12v fridge, camping lights,
and any other electrical accessories you may decide to add to your adventure gear.
The auxiliary battery will still gain charge as will your starter battery as you drive along the road
which will keep them both at the optimum level for the most part.
Things to consider when getting ready to level up and install a subsidiary battery include not only
what you should buy, but where you are going to place things. You want to ensure you can safely
mount your deep cycle battery in a manner that it is accessible, but also out of the way and doesn’t
take up valuable space. Because of their size, mounting a second battery under the hood of your
vehicle is not usually possible, so you may rely on other methods some other methods including
mounting at the rear of the vehicle,
or inside the tray if being installed in a Ute. Wiring is going to be required, so you want to be able to
run your extra cords safely and neatly in hidden areas such as underneath the vehicle or at least
under the sill panels along one edge to keep them out of the way. Some things you may wish to
purchase could be a dual battery mount, allowing you to house the batteries together if you have
enough room, a battery voltage monitor, electrical isolator and of course a battery. These will all
have you well on your way to keeping your system fully charged.
Using an ever-important battery isolator throughout your system can help you to set it up in a way
that your primary battery doesn’t take all of the load. You can effectively isolate your main
battery while your off the road for the night and ensure that only your backup battery gives life to
all of your accessories. It will also help to keep things charged up when you are pulled up for a longer
period of time, and don’t want to have anything in your vehicle running and using up your valuable
charge. Simply flick the isolator and the whole system will shut down keeping your voltage where it
belongs and not bleeding out into your fridge that has nothing in it at the time. The way that an
battery isolator works is simple, it will allow charging current to move from your alternator and allow both
your primary and secondary batteries to charge, but it will be a one-way ticket and won’t allow your
core battery to share charge with your secondary, or other accessories.
Running a battery voltage monitor as part of your setup, will allow you to actively monitor your
voltage and take action when you can see a spike in usage or irregular charge happening, which can

indicate that their may be a problem either within your battery system, or with one of your
accessories. Once you have narrowed it down you may find something needs replacing, you may
have an earth issue, or it is time to replace one of your batteries so that the system can continue
working to its full potential. Monitoring from day one will allow you to see how well your system is
working and give you a good indication of whether or not you are both allowing it to charge up
enough or draining it too heavily with excess load. Again, using an 12v isolator inside this sort of system,
will play a big role in ensuring the focus battery is left to power the vehicle, while the second has the
job of picking up the pieces with all of the accessories.
The Adventure Kings Dual Battery with Smart Isolator is a great addition to the system as it will
automatically isolate your cranking battery as described above, which is definitely what you will
need. It is an all-in-one DIY installation kit to get you moving towards having your own dual battery
system. Included in kit is everything you need to get started and has inclusions such as Earth Cables,
Red Wiring Cables, Marine Terminals, Smart Isolator, Crimping Lugs, Heat Shrink Tubing, Cable Ties
and all other associated hardware and fixings you’ll need to mount your new system successfully and
safely. All you need to do is pair this kit with a battery, and a form of battery mount or battery box for
your secondary add in, and you’ll have yourself the perfect camping or adventuring charging and
powering set up. With the easy DIY kit, it will take just an afternoon to run everything and get it all
connected so that you can think about what accessories you will add on next. For ease of access, you
can add in a 12V control box or 12V accessory panel which will make it easier to hook up your next
few bits and pieces.
If you’re running accessories other than the standard inclusions in your vehicle, then having a
secondary battery in the mix should be top of the list, to save you from needing a jump start on your
next adventure.
So get out there and pick yourself up an auxiliary battery plus a dual battery kit so you can easily do your own DIY install or better yet cheaply get a qualified installer to do the work for you.