Single battery setups?

RedSmokey · Jan 9, 2012

Who out there is running a single battery? What did you do/change to run it (as far as cables or relocation all together)? Also what kind/size of battery do you run and what CCA is it rated at? Any pics would be nice too.

samoht517 · Jan 9, 2012

I run a single group 31 with 900 or so cca. I run 2/0 from the battery to the starter and 2 from there up to the starter solenoid. One thing is my truck is ether start. If I did it again I'd run one group 8d with 1400 cca

Cat_rebel · Jan 9, 2012

Why do you need ether to start your truck?

RedSmokey · Jan 9, 2012

samoht517 said:
I run a single group 31 with 900 or so cca. I run 2/0 from the battery to the starter and 2 from there up to the starter solenoid. One thing is my truck is ether start. If I did it again I'd run one group 8d with 1400 cca

Thanks for the info. Got any pics? Im thinking about converting over to a 8D, or possibly two 31A with 950cca each.

Cat_rebel said:
Why do you need ether to start your truck?

:whs:

dave186 · Jan 9, 2012

A pair of group 31 batteries is smaller, lighter, cheaper and has more CCAs than an 8D. We went through this on a couple of old trucks. not to mention you can find a group 31 just about anywhere. If I had a reason to change, thats what would be in my truck.

samoht517 · Jan 9, 2012

I run ether because for some reason even with 2 batteries I draw to much power when cranking to fire the injector with glow plugs on so until I figure it out ether it is.

RedSmokey · Jan 9, 2012

Right now I cant afford the 8D and Im thinking I want to keep the battery under the hood. So I will probably be picking up a 31A tomorrow and trying to figure out how to make this work with the single. Do I have to do anything with the ground cable on the driver side?

Edit: And I don't use the glow plugs, so we will see if the 950 CCA will work for me.

samoht517 · Jan 9, 2012

You may or may not need to worry about the ground. The first time I did mine I didn't have the block grounded well enough so it wouldn't start. The key in dinger (sp) freaked out when there wasn't enough ground so it was easy to tell when it was

RedSmokey · Jan 11, 2012

So I said screw it yesterday and went and got a 31A battery and a new terminal. My positive terminal on the passenger side was beat to hell. So last night my buddy and I cut off the old terminal, soldered on 2 new wire ends and put on the new positive terminal. Removed the positive wiring for the driver side batter and just left the ground line sitting in there (at least for now). I have to say, my truck has never fired so easy/quick as it did this morning, especially when it was freezing outside. I think it was probably about 32* (Ice on truck, overhead said "ICE/32"). So as for Day 1 I'm pretty happy with it

Thanks again for the info guys.

JAP · Jan 11, 2012

What battery did you go with Alex? It's time for a new one for me, and I'm sick of fighting these single battery issues... I may bite the bullet and throw duals in the bed... i just don't think this 1/0 I have is going to be enough... I have enough 1/0 to run from each battery to the front though, so that may be an option...

RedSmokey · Jan 11, 2012

I got an 31A battery from a local battery place. I did have to modifiy the battery tray for it to fit.

RedSmokey · Jan 17, 2012

So, the new single battery does not like the low 20's. Had fun this morning getting it started... LOL

JAP · Jan 17, 2012

Screw a single... I'm about to go duals and just go to one side or to the frame rail.

Deputydog · Jan 17, 2012

I've seen a few with aftermarket bumpers put the batteries in the bumper. It looked pretty clean and out of the way.

samoht517 · Jan 17, 2012

Singles are fine if you don't need the truck as a DD but I'm going to be adding a second group 31 and isolating the glow plugs on one of them.

RedSmokey · Jan 17, 2012

JAP said:
Screw a single... I'm about to go duals and just go to one side or to the frame rail.

samoht517 said:
Singles are fine if you don't need the truck as a DD but I'm going to be adding a second group 31 and isolating the glow plugs on one of them.

Im going to run a second 31 and either go to the frame rail or make a box and put them in the bed

RedSmokey · Jan 17, 2012

Deputydog said:
I've seen a few with aftermarket bumpers put the batteries in the bumper. It looked pretty clean and out of the way.

Would be cool, but probably look funny on my 2wd lol

JAP · Jan 17, 2012

samoht517 said:
Singles are fine if you don't need the truck as a DD but I'm going to be adding a second group 31 and isolating the glow plugs on one of them.

So, you're going to run a battery JUST for the glowplugs?