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Best way to run Power to the back of a Suburban?

dbreid

dbreid

1/2 ton status
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San Mateo CA
All,
I am planning a 3 (or more) week road trip this summer through the PNW and up through Banff and down through Wyoming etc with my Girlfriend. We are planing to hit most of the national parks, and spend a lot of time hiking and just generally goofing off and seeing what there is to see.

Now, we decided it would be more fun to just live in the back of the Suburban than it would be to pay for hotels and be tied down to reservations, etc (We have no problem with hotels and will probably stay in some when we feel like it, it is more the scheduling we are opposed to).

So the plan (which is well underway) is to Take my 1989 3/4 ton Suburban. We bought a mattress from IKEA, bedding, etc. We sewed and installed curtains for the front of the truck and the rear window. We Bought one of those Yakima Rocket Boxes to store stuff on the roof, and I installed a Yakima Roof Rack. And we are busy planning and packing our things. We plan on a few trial weekend runs (and did a few before we decided on mattress as opposed to air bed, for example).

Here's the question:

I am planning to build a "console" into the back of the truck, about as thick as the wheelwell, kind of in the area where the stock tire well goes. I want to add 12V power, as well as AC inverted Power to this area. And I have a couple options:

1.) Add a dual battery setup under the hood and run a couple of heavy gauge wires to the back of the truck, and up through the wheelwell and basically make "terminals" back there to run cigarette lighter plugs and a 160Watt inverter to charge laptops and stuff with. I also want to run standalone dome lights and reading lights with a switch in the back that can be run without the key on (hence the dual batteries, of course).

2.) Wire a Dual battery setup with the second battery installed in the rear console (down in the wheelwell, for example). Same ideas as above, but actually have the battery back there.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I am a little worried about power loss due to the resistance of such a long wire (I know a big gauge will help, of course, but that is still a long way).

Any advice would be great.

Thanks!

-Dan
 
Here's some pictures of the truck, for reference:
suburban_04.jpg


suburban_01.jpg
 
I got nothing to add other than that's a sweet burb and I've been pondering the same question of power to the rear :crazy:
 
Im no electrician by any means... but my thought would be that you would be better off with the battery under the hood, and running power back. My reasoning is, if your having power loss due to the long cables, you would rather have the loss going to your accesories rather than loosing juice going from your alt to your battery. I would think that everything would run just fine though. tons of people run massive stereo systems in the back of vehicles that require a ton of juice. And they seem to do fine. Like I said... No electrician, just my two cents. Nice rig by the way!
 
I vote for option one also. I have almost that exact same setup, except the wire that runs to the back is running a camper! Your 160 watt inverter, even with a couple camper-style florescent lights at the same time won't be any problem for a piece of 10 or 8GA wire on a 30 amp breaker with minimal power loss. Your looking at 20 amps (or less) max with that inverter.

TANGENT when you wire your dual batteries up, seperate them with a constant-duty RV/marine relay instead of a battery isolator. The battery isolators use a diode which adds a 0.7v voltage drop to the second battery while it is being charged. This makes it take longer to charge your second battery. You need to keep the batteries separate so you can fall asleep with the lights on and still start the truck in the morning (and charge both batteries.) I would either use the relay for this (like I do) or if you want to go hi-end use a Hellroaring isolater. Just don't pull an old-skool diode isolator out of a JC Whitney catalog or something. /TANGENT
 
my 0 wire to the back of my tahoe is fosgate oxygen free w/soldered on lugs to a bulkhead connecter in the rear....running about 2500 watts w/24v 1.2 f surge cap

i'd check into 4 ga welding cable!
 
Hey PatJ, does the rv relay you use allow you to switch between batteries and shut one off all together yet allow you to charge both? If so, where did you get it and do you know what its called?
 
a battery isolator will disconnect your second battery from your starting battery so you can run the second battery dead and still start up.

many people do this with a deep cycle for the second battery, they work much better for what you are describing then a normal starting battery would.
 
I say #1 as well and have a sugestion or 2. I would run 0 gauge to the back to a power block with 3 or 4 fuses. Say 1 for inverter 1 for cig style plug 1 for interior lights and a spare. I would also run the ends out to the front and rear bumpers with warn multi-mount type connections then have jumper cables built with that conection on 1 end and regular jumper cable ends on the other. That way you can jump someone or be jumped from either end and not have to lift the hood. ( :doah:why do I feel that sentace will end up as someones sig? ) This also comes in handy if you ever tow something like a car trailer with a winch.
 
I would not use a battery in the passenger area of your truck. Espically in a non vented box where gasses could build up and a spark could make it go BOOM. Sleeping next to a hydrogen sulfide generator may not be a good thing either.
That being said. I have power in the rear of my Blazer. I have 4 Ga wire running off the battery hooked to a 1500 W invertor mounted behind my spare tire. I use it to run power tools, A small 1/2 hp air compressor for airing up tires on the trail, and Most importantly. the Blender:wink1: It works great.
 
i wouldn't use a normal battery in the passenger area, but a sealed battery such as an optima deep cycle would be safe in the back.

badmix said:
+1..I really like that. I shouldve gotten a burb instead of K5 for the space.
Click to expand...

i'll trade with ya :wink1:
 
All great thoughts! As for the dual battery under the hood, I plan to run a 12vguy controller. I have one in my trail truck (the k30) and it works like a charm!
 
My vote would be a thrid or second battery mounted in the rear, deep cycle optima works. Then you would just have to run a wire from the alternator or isolator to charge the battery. You then could run a totally different set up in the rear. When I do this that is the way that I'm going to do it use the front two to start and run the major truck systems and the third for extra in the back. I had a similar system in my trailer, deep cycle to run the trailer stuff and a wire to get charging from the alternator.
 
Add a battery under the hood. Run some 4ga welding wire to the rear. Don't put a battery in the passenger compartment. Put a relay in between the second battery and the alternator. Make the relay a key-on relay(or if you have a good memory wire it to a switch). Doing this allows you to run off of the second battery only, when the key is off. It will charge when the truck is running. You can run the aux battery down to nothing and still start your truck. Same thing as an isolator.
 
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