Any experience with a battery switch?

[BBQbassin']

Bassers,
I've been considering installing a battery switch that will allow me to switch between my two Optima batteries. The batteries are a blue top dual purpose I use for starting the motor and running accessories...lowrance, bilge, stereo, etc....the other is a yellow top deep cycle I use for my 12 volt trolling motor. Everyonce in a while I find that one battery may be a little low on juice while I'm out fishing and rather than head back in I was thinking I could use the switch to prolong my time on the water by either getting one more start for my 70hp evinrude or maybe even charging my trolling motor battery on a long run up the river. Does anyone have any experience with these switches? They have settings to use battery 1, battery 2, both batteries, or niether of your batteries.

Also, if you set these things to both batteries are you no longer running a 12 volt system?

Thanks

[Hunt'nFish]

I agree with your desires, and encourage you to install the switch.
However I don't think it's a good idea to use the "both" position thereby connecting a blue top to a yellow top Optima.
If they were both yellow top deep cycles I wouldn't feel so negative.

Anyway, yes I big fan of battery switches. They are very handy and allow you to control where that big motor charge is going.

Some guys will hook the big motor directly to one battery and the kicker directly to the other battery and the bowmount to the switch output. That way each motor has it's own seperate battery and the bowmount can run from either. AND, in the case of a dead battery, the "both" position can be used to "jump" the dead bank.
Hunt'nFish

[Vinny]

To answer your last question, you would still have a 12-volt system, as you will be wiring your batteries in parallel. That's positive to positive and negative to negative.