how to wire a solenoid and which to get

[RootBreaker]

Ok so my truck has a drain... 2 weeks and the dual 1000ca batteries under the hood are dead.... ok so truck doesnt go out much...
if i do decide to take it out for a quick run and they dont charge up im screwed...


so im thinking of throwing a solenoid under the hood... run battery cables from the bed to under the hood....

I have 2 x 1300ca dump truck batteries in the bed (size of 4 normal batteries) for my winch.... well it would be nice to just flick a switch and use those batteries to give me a jump......



so I remember a while ago i read somewhere that you could use a ford solenoid...

what year and model should I get? (plus they are cheap and already mount on a fender)

run hot from bed to solenoid and other post of solenoid to one of my batteries...

then wire up a switch.... hot to the switch and switch to solenoid.... is it really that easy???

just curious...
thanks
~Jeff

 

[GotBoykins]

Ford starter solenoid off of a 70's model truck. I use a 150 amp resetable circuit breaker to disconnect my entire electrical system when my truck is not in use. That should cut down on battery drain.

 

[BizeeB65]

Ford starter solenoid off of a 70's model truck. I use a 150 amp resetable circuit breaker to disconnect my entire electrical system when my truck is not in use. That should cut down on battery drain.

WOW Look at all that spaghetti!!! mmmmmm........

Thats a lot of wires Labs...

 

[kgblazerfive]

Yes its a lot easier then his picture looks. just wire the second set to work only when you start the truck and put another switch in the wire to start so you can turn them on or off. Do a search to figure out how to wire the starter solenoid but its really easy. I had the same set up but used one battery it was only used on start up nothing else. I did have a isolator so it would get charged.

 

[dyeager535]

Just solve the drain issue. My truck sits for over a month (routinely) and has plenty of power to crank it over with a single battery.

Your batteries now may be toast anyways, and won't hold a charge, and perhaps that's what the problem is, or part of it.

I know you have the additional batteries, but people seem to want simple setups for the most part. Adding wires and solenoids and isolators and all that is just something else to complicate your rig. If your real problem is a battery drain, sounds like a really complex bandaid.

If you can fathom wiring up what you propose, I have faith you can fix the existing electrical issue.

 

[GotBoykins]

WOW Look at all that spaghetti!!! mmmmmm........

Thats a lot of wires Labs...

Yeah, but in reality it's nowhere near as bad as it looks. It is actually a very simplistic design,

Batt+ goes to the starter solenoid

feeder for the 150A comes off of the hot side of the solenoid.

Solenoid feeds 4 auto CB, main fuse block and electric fans via fuses.

Most of the mess is excess wiring that I am scared to cut away, cause sure enough I would need it the next day.

 

[ryoken]

Ya need a box.....

Anyway, Rootbreaker, Dorian is right... fix the draw.. it's simple, we've had lots of threads on this.. meter or testlight between the grd post and cable.... pull fuses till you isolate it... all your gonna do is kill batteries..

But for a slave solenoid, ya want a 12v continuous duty solenoid.... highest amp one you feel like spending.. go to napa and have em look it up in the cole hersee book... other fancy ones are available, but that'll be your cheapest, quickest avenue..

you'll have 4 posts, hot in, hot out, trigger and grd.. and yes, fused power to switch, switch out to trigger...

 

[badmix]

Fix the drain. I had a drain on my battery a month or so ago. From the good advice here I figured it out. took a whole 5 minutes too. It ended up being my autometer tach, it was wired to constant ON and somehow was drawing power. I switched it to keyed on and havent looked back, both my batts. (Im running dual batts) and they are good to go.

I hear the FORD solinoid deal is a good way to go. I went with a lil easier way (and more expensive) and got the Hellroaring kit. Install was super easy and the way I did it. Im running my 2nd batt. strictly as backup. But with the flick of the switch I can combine my batts for winching, etc. They both charge at the same rate, etc. Its a pretty slick system. IMO.

 

[ryoken]

But your still juiced to the starter, a key advantage to a slave... hot start no more... a marine switch would split it up too... Dozens of ways to go about it... parellel switches are almost mandatory on boats....

 

[RootBreaker]

Ya need a box.....

Anyway, Rootbreaker, Dorian is right... fix the draw.. it's simple, we've had lots of threads on this.. meter or testlight between the grd post and cable.... pull fuses till you isolate it... all your gonna do is kill batteries..

But for a slave solenoid, ya want a 12v continuous duty solenoid.... highest amp one you feel like spending.. go to napa and have em look it up in the cole hersee book... other fancy ones are available, but that'll be your cheapest, quickest avenue..

you'll have 4 posts, hot in, hot out, trigger and grd.. and yes, fused power to switch, switch out to trigger...

how does one go about doing this?
I understand adding volt meter between ground .... pull fuses.. what will i see?? voltage go up?

 

[badmix]

how does one go about doing this?
I understand adding volt meter between ground .... pull fuses.. what will i see?? voltage go up?

Your not looking for VOLTS, youll be looking for AMPS. What I did was disco the neg. term. of battery. Put the positive MM (*multi meter) line to neg ground wire, put the neg. lead of MM on the neg. battery term itself. So now the MM is the link between the NEg. cable and the battery. Follow me so far? And then you put the MM on AMPs. if you see anything more than .25 you have a draw. I had .75 when my tach was hooked up. I pulled the fuse to the tach and it went down to .18 which I can live with considering Ive got an auto meter clock hooked up, so it is on constant hot.

 

[RootBreaker]

Your not looking for VOLTS, youll be looking for AMPS. What I did was disco the neg. term. of battery. Put the positive MM (*multi meter) line to neg ground wire, put the neg. lead of MM on the neg. battery term itself. So now the MM is the link between the NEg. cable and the battery. Follow me so far? And then you put the MM on AMPs. if you see anything more than .25 you have a draw. I had .75 when my tach was hooked up. I pulled the fuse to the tach and it went down to .18 which I can live with considering Ive got an auto meter clock hooked up, so it is on constant hot.

WOW we did do this before.. but I think we were doing this on the positive cable!!!!!!!! Shees...