I'm looking to add a battery to my toolbox to power a light bar and maybe some strip lights inside the box. I may end up adding a 12v outlet or USB outlet in the box as well. What kind of battery should I look for? I walked into Walmart and looked at what they had and have no idea where to start. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

How long do you plan on running those lights?

 

Only when I need some light behind me or in the toolbox itself. I'm only wiring them to turn on from the toolbox itself.

 

Why not use the battery under the hood? Doesnt sound like you wont be using it much or for a very long time.

To wire in a 2nd battery you would have to run wires to charge it, or charge it separately. PITA if you ask me.

 

Why not run a line off the regular battery? LEDs of the sort you're suggesting will run quite a long time on the standard battery.

If you really needed it, I'd consider your primary usage and then buy an appropriate battery. I'd look at a motorcycle battery with an isolator. The isolator will open up when the voltage goes about 13.6 (engine running) so it can't draw down the primary. I use these in marine applications for the same:
https://www.bluesea.com/products/760..._12_24V_DC_65A

 

Now that I think about it running a set of wires to my fuse block in the box would prolly be much easier to maintain.

 

Run a 4ga wire from your battery to a distribution block inside the toolbox and hook everything up to it. I would have a breaker between the battery and block so you can kill power to it completely also.

Or for your original idea I would use a deep cell batter. Get a Battery Tender Jr, run the pigtail for the charging leads for the Battery Tender JR from the battery in the box to under the bed and near the trailer plug connections at the rear of the truck and when ever needed you can plug the charger in and charge the battery.

Just a FYI, it can take days to charge a battery fully with the Battery Tender Jr.

Wayne

 

Well I was planning on running a 10 gauge wire to one of these. Would that suffice?

 

Depends how much you plan to power.

Wayne

 

You need to decide how much power you plan on running off the fuse block. I would not go smaller than 6 gauge with the run distance from the battery to the tool box. Also make sure you use an appropriately sized fuze or breaker close to the battery.