Perko Switch Help

[Sy Maokhamphiou]

Hi guys. Hoping someone can clarify for me. I am currently running a perko switch between two blue top optimas with a third blue top running parallel to battery two. I have battery one running to post one on the perko and battery two running to post two. My question is do I put all the positives of my stereo equipment on the "common" post of the perko switch with the ignition or can i hook them straight up to battery two. Does it matter where I have the stereo pos's hooked to?

I've read the dual battery thread and the perko switch thread and couldn't find any posts that touched on the subject.

[BriEOD]

Personally, I would go with battery 2. Ideally, you want your batteries seperated in case you run down the battery bank for the stereo you still have enough juice to start your boat. So, you want to isolate the stereo from your starter.

[JimN]

The feeds for the stereo should all go to the same battery. Under load, any resistance causes a voltage drop and this causes amplifiers to run hot and cook. It also causes all kinds of noise problems that will drive you crazy. Your best bet for trouble free operation is to take all audio power from one place and use a Bosch-style relay, latched by the wire that sends switched voltage to the head unit.

[johkur]

My '08 X45 with the Mastercraft dual battery switch wasn't what I expected, it has off-batt1-both rather than off-batt1-both-batt2. That means if battery 1 dies, switching to both rather than having batt2 available means that the batteries equalize and its harder to then start.

But to answer the question, I've been running my boat with batt1 setting, and the amp kept popping. I checked voltage, and batt2 was at 9V. I switched to 'both', and immediately, amp started working. So:

- the switch only charges the batteries active at the time, so if you put the amp on batt2, plan on making sure you run with batt2 active (or both) so that it gets recharged.
- if you put the amp on batt1, and usually run on batt1, you have batt2 avail as an emergency battery, so I'd recommend putting amp on same battery as everything else (batt1) and keep batt2 for emergency switchover/start, and then recharge both/batt1 again after restart.
- or if you leave boat for along time and want bilges to run, only then leave on both.
- Having the amp on a common output also seems to make the most sense of all, so that the switch really lets you choose where all power comes from, but I've seen some switches that make that difficult.

[wiltok]

I actually just wired my pontoon for two batteries last week. I ran the stereo to the common post of the Perko switch. Since you are able to move batt 1 or batt 2 by the flip of the switch, it doesn't matter which battery you use for the stereo. My plan is to run on one battery one weekend and then switch to the other the next. I'm no expert so please correct me if I'm wrong or scrwed this up!

[rspiecha]

I actually just wired my pontoon for two batteries last week. I ran the stereo to the common post of the Perko switch. Since you are able to move batt 1 or batt 2 by the flip of the switch, it doesn't matter which battery you use for the stereo. My plan is to run on one battery one weekend and then switch to the other the next. I'm no expert so please correct me if I'm wrong or scrwed this up!

That is how mine is wired, but I'm using the Blue Sea switch. I alternate each day on the batteries. No issues so far. On the negative side, I wire half the negative connections to one battery, and the other half to the other battery with a common grounding strap between them. This way, when you switch batteries only half the load goes across the common strap:)

Rob