2nd battery for 2008 ?

[bill.moulton]

I was looking unter the hood of my new 2008 LT3 and noticed the extra battery tray. What do I need to add a second battery ? (Other than the battery)

 

[smoothfrc]

Depends... Would it be an auxilary battery for something (stereo, winch/outlets?) or just looking to hook two batteries up?

could use a battery solator to charge both batteries while keeping them independant.

I believe the second tray is for the diesel models (Pickup's) On my old 99 sierra,(new style) i relocated my jack there, not an issue on the tahoe though.

 

[Renny]

my o7 has a 2nd tray as well.

 

[Denali132]

my 07 Denali has one to, does anyone know why?

 

[Nnaboy]

I was thinking about that the other day, I noticed the second tray a while ago and wonder why too?

 

[Rafael]

A lot of people who off road add a 2nd battery for several reasons. It nice to have a place to put it. A winch can easily drain a battery.

 

[Gambler]

there is a fairly verbose thread on this, check the search tool.

 

[JAGastrock]

I do believe it is for the hybrid models

 

[Hardin Thicke]

I think the tray is actually a sturctural gusset plate, that doubles as a second battery tray. It needed to be there, so the designers thought why not make it large enough to hold a battery. Here's a really good thread on installing a second battery:
http://www.tahoeforum.com/showthread.php?t=2321&highlight=battery+tray

The install uses an isolator, but there's no reason why you couldn't hook the batteries in parallel, and get the additive amp hour capacity. If you did it this way, I'd recommend 2 new batteries, so the old one doesn't pull the new one down.

 

[smoothfrc]

pictures are worth 1000 words i suppose.

the DIESEL models have the battery in this location. All the trucks share many of the same components of the front clip.

 

[smoothfrc]

I forgot...

My 1984 cutlass supreme also had TWO battery trays..... Guess what the second was for?.... the diesel option..:smilielol:

Not sure why they need they need to move the batteries for those motors though.

 

[strangeengine]

I forgot...

My 1984 cutlass supreme also had TWO battery trays..... Guess what the second was for?.... the diesel option..:smilielol:

Not sure why they need they need to move the batteries for those motors though.

Diesels are very high compression (the Duramax is 17.5:1). You need a lot of cranking current to start them against the compression, so they tend to have 2 batteries.

 

[Hardin Thicke]

....also preheaters like the grid heaters used for cold starts in my Cummins diesel pull a combined 180 amps for about 30 seconds on a cold morning. A single battery wouldn't last too long.

 

[Black Dog]

I just picked up my new Tahoe today (new thread and pics to come), and you know what one of the salesmen told me? That it's there so that later when there is no more use for gas motors you can add a hybrid system in that spot, and GM is working on a retrofit. I'm busting up inside. I said, "Wow, but I guess you'd have to replace the transmission and a lot of other parts too, huh?" He said "no, just add the hybrid battery". I almost laughed in his face, knee jerk reaction would've been to call him an idiot but I didn't. I don't know where they come up with this stuff.... unless he knows something I don't know:bs:

BTW, these trucks are badazz!