My 2006 Saturn Ion 2 has the battery in the trunk, which can be a pain sometimes when your trunk is full, but when it comes to car stereo stuff, that's the perfect place for the battery! Now I only have to run my 1/0 gauge cable from the battery to each amp just a few feet instead of all the way from the engine compartment to the trunk! And since my spare tire compartment is where my battery is, I found there is more than enough room for a second battery! So I want/plan to run a second auxiliary battery to power my stereo and use the main battery for what it was designed for and mainly starting the car. I purchased a 100 amp continuous duty solenoid (assuming that's high enough of an amp rating). I've watched tons of videos and looked a million diagrams on how to hook up a 4-wire continuous duty solenoid, but found NOTHING that tells how to connect your stereo power to it! Connecting the batteries to the solenoid seems like a simple task, but some make it complicated by suggesting a rocker switch to the solenoid, most just say run a wire that is hot when the car is running to the one small post and a ground wire to the other small post, then a main cable from each large post to each battery's positive terminal. Makes sense so far! But what NOT ONE diagram or video tells me is how you power your stereo off it the solenoid. This is where my confusion and frustration starts.
I'm going to assume you simply run the power wire to your power distribution block off the positive post of your auxiliary battery, and ground everything correctly. Is it THAT simple? I've noticed that the 4-wire continuous duty solenoids get their ground to a small terminal on top, where the 3-wire solenoids are grounded to the body of the solenoid. The grounding part isn't my question. Nor is the main battery connections.
Again, what's confusing me is the cables AFTER the solenoid. I plan to run my 1/0g power cable to my system through a distribution/fuse block, and even a second distribution block for my grounds (something I started doing many years ago so you only have to make ONE ground for all components instead of a separate ground for each).
As for the rocker switch shown in some diagrams, would anyone suggest this connection? Or would it be just as good to run a wire to my solenoid that is hot with the engine running and avoid the switch? And should that wire be on that is hot whenever the key is in the ON position, or only when the car is RUNNING?
I never imagined something as simple as a continuous duty solenoid could be so complicated, but then a battery isolator is even worse!
Have any of YOU used a continuous duty solenoid so you can sit and listen to music when the car is not running and not drain your main battery? Was it a simple process to connect? Like I said, the wiring TO the solenoid and batteries is quite clear, it's the wiring FROM the solenoid to your stereo that confuses me!
Thanks for any advice! (And to think I'm 62 years old and haven't figured this out on my own!)