isolator and second battery

how's it goin everyone? ....i wanna add a second battery to my car, and kinda got an idea of how its hooked up ...  well my question is, do i replace my original isolator with a new isolator?  and do i get power wire and run it from the isolator to both batteries,  and connect my amp to the second battery?  and do i ground my amp to the second battery?   and do i ground my second battery to the chassis too so it could charged from the alternator?   

Pheonix Gold has a product called an intelligent relay that would eliminate the need for an isolator.  run your amplifiers off the second battery.  Definetly ground the second battery to the chassis

Here's the scoop on isolators.  If you don't have an existing isolator, thene there nothing to replace.  Stock vehicles are wired from the alternator straight to the battery (no isolator).  An isolator gets installed in between them (aftermarket).  Run the power out from the Alternator to the isolator.  Seperate power wires get run from the isolator to the + of each battery.  Each battery gets grounded seperately (no more than 3' away attatched to the frame).  You run the power wire to the second battery the same way you would run the power wire for an amp, through the firewall.  And yes, connect the amp tp the second battery.  You may want to install a "kill switch" on the amps remote line as well.

another question ....how would i fuse the power wire from the isolator to the second battery?  or is it even possible to fuse it?  and do i ground my amp to the chassis like regular, or to the second battery?  cuz i will be using two amps.    and why the kill switch for the amps remote line?

thanks for the input wvsquirrel

Russ

The safest way is to fuse after the Isolator, and again before the 2nd battery (that way both sides of the firewall are covered).  When I ran 2 batteries, I used an inline fuse after the Isolator, and a 4x distribution block at the battery.  The reason I used the 4 way was one fuse was for the input to the battery, the other 3 were used for output lines from the battery (2 amps and a cap).  Ground the Battery to the frame, as well as any amps you may run.  I've always been told to never ground an amp directly to the battery.  Since you will be running 2 amps, you can use another distribution block to make a "common ground" for them (the amps).  Make sure your ground points are free of any paint and corrosion (bare metal).

I prefer kill switches on the remote lines for 1 basic reason... cops.  Where I am from the cops were a**holes, and would write you up faster than a serial killer for a loud stereo.  The easiest way around it was a quick way to kill the bass immediately, hence the kill switch (it's the same as turning off the headunit, but without actually turning it off).  The other reason for it depends on how you wire your enitre system.  I ran everything stereo related from the second battery, including the head unit.  The kill switch provided a manual turnoff of the amps if I wanted to just listen to the radio without the bass, and didn't have to mess with the HU controls to turn it down or off (the bass)