two battery's one fourwheeler

[bryan sandlin]

o.k. I am fixing up a 1998 Honda fourtrax 300 2x4 bought a new battery. it will not fit inside the well that is the battery box. I did buy the correct size after I found out that 4.38mm is just a tad bit longer than 4.00 inches. anyhow, has someone ever put another battery in the cargo box of a fourwheeler and tied them together as a series?
I was thinking q beam direct or running a coffee maker from a 750 watt inverter to charge things while "out there" running the roads. I don't want to give up on a new 120 cca 50.00 battery just due to the fact I cant read in MM. but I don't want to burn any wires to top that off. or overload the system. I do have breakers hanging around. this could be turned off, and on as needed. or a spare back up if the primary went dead.
anyone did this before?

[Luck_of_the_Draw]

You might could wire in an extra battery. But charging the dual set up would be a differant story.

[Hard Knocks]

Tie the batteries in parallel,not series.You will maintain the proper voltage,but double the capacity

[91cavgt]

I had a Honda Fourtrax 300 4X4 and here is what I did;



I built this box to go on the rear rack. I should have not made it as big because it did make riding a bit awkward.




Here is inside the box. The large orange thing is a large 50 amp/hr battery, which has almost 10 times the capacity of the stock battery. Lots of other storage in there as well.





I really miss that four wheeler.

[mudcatz71]

Would that give home too much amps? If he bridges that would give him 24v right? Or am I over thinking this?

[careybirdwell]

If you wire them in series, that would give you a 24V system

[bryan sandlin]

o.k. looks to be that it will be wired in parallel. battery's are new, will it damage one or the other? put too much of a load on one?

[Hard Knocks]

Are both batteries the same?

[bryan sandlin]

yes hard knocks. both 12 v. both 120cca just the body size is different.
not going to have the lights on for fishing 4 hours. and I hope that I don't forget to turn the key off all night and need the second back up to get it to the blind. just a coffee maker.

[91cavgt]

Both batteries MUST be identical batteries, otherwise it won't work out very good. This is why I decided to go the single, big battery route.

[dclifton]

U need to wire parallel. The extra Amps won't hurt. I've done it on trucks, rangers, tractors etc. That's needed extra battery for lights winches etc.

[bryan sandlin]

o.k. 91 cavgt that sounds good. think I will just stick the first one in the storage tool box.

[Steves ATV]

go parallel, just give you extra capacity. works real nice!

+ to + and
- to -

[Draco]

They make separators that let both batteries charge but only one is drained to start the engine. The other battery stays charged up. I had one on my welding rig for the bed winch so that if I was using the winch a lot, it wouldn't run the starting battery down.

[XR650RRider]

You're talking about a 62 amp load running a 750 watt inverter (they are very inefficient and will never deliver any where near that kind of output). Your battery would be dead in < 2 minutes trying to run a coffee maker or anything with a heating coil. You really thing the alternator is designed to put out > 50 amps of current on a 300 cc ATV? Put a battery on it that its designed for. Mount a very large deep cycle battery on the rack if you think you need to make coffee. Do NOT connect it to the ATV charging system. When its dead charge it.