Warn Winch Dual Battery Switching System – Another in the Borneo Series

Shannon Bushman | December 14, 2009 | 0 Comments

One of the requirements of the Borneo Expedition 09 is a dual battery setup. Its a not just nice to have, without it we won’t pass scrutineering and get to stay home, or rather in Pontianak while everyone else goes on the Expedition.

Generally we hear guys wanting a second battery for little more than longer run times on their stereo while parked. In the jungle it’s a much more fundamental issue. We expect to spend quite a bit of time winching through some nasty swamps and endless mud pits. The last thing we need is to find out we are out of juice and can’t even get started to generate some more and we are ass deep in thousand foot long mud pit and expecting anyone to be happy about winching up next to you so they can jump start your rig is a bit much to ask. More likely they will have to drag your sorry butt out doubling their efforts.

With the Warn dual battery setup, Part number 77977, we have everything we need in one smart little package. First you need to two batteries (not included). They should match. Mismatched batteries makes for a mess, When the batteries charge and discharge at different rates they stress each other and can reduce battery life. It is important to regularly test a dual battery setup. If one battery starts to fail it will drag the other down with it, fast.

This kit includes a solenoid that switches the power and works with a smart little computer module that manages the switching. The module is heavy duty and encased in what appears to be an acrylic or epoxy material so getting it wet is not a concern. The best part is that the module does all the thinking for you.

Essentially you hook up the second battery as the source for your accessories. You hook them up to the battery terminals on the second battery just as you normally would. You hook the critical functions such as starter and normal starting/running elements to the first battery. In normal running mode the computer module senses that you are charging and tells the solenoid to connect both batteries, so they charge equally.

When you start winching, or running your stereo, the computer module continually watches the voltage and when the voltage of both batteries combined drops to the point it knows you are about to get into trouble it automatically breaks the connection between the two batteries. This means that your accessories are now only pulling juice from the second battery and you are free to continue until it is bone dry. The first or primary is battery has been preserved with enough voltage to make sure you can get going again. It’s also smart about how it works when charging. It can tell if the primary battery is low and makes sure it gets charged up first, then, connect the second battery making certain you always have the juice you need to keep rolling.

We were able to install this on the RZR-S inside of the center console, mounted on the shift stick framework. Wiring was sufficiently long and the components small enough we had no problems find a place to put it all. In all this took maybe an hour to install.

This is a great little setup. It means that when you are parked somewhere listening to that great stereo and you hear it grind to a halt because you have lost track of time or all those really sweet off-road lights start to go dim you really don’t have to worry about being stranded.

This is by far the best setup we have found, it is pretty much fool proof and simple to install and at $269 it not too hard on the pocket book.

More info at: http://www.warn.com/atv/accessories/dual_battery_control.shtml