When you’re out on the trails riding, hanging out with friends and having a good time, there’s no greater buzzkill than a dead side by side. How could this happen and how can we prevent it? We spoke with Shane Smith, owner of Genesis Offroad, about a new innovative product to keep your side by side alive.

 

The Story

In May of 2012 Shane Smith started Genesis Offroad, a custom 4×4 shop in Byhalia, Mississippi. Primarily focusing on Jeeps, they did everything from labor installs, like lift kits and bumpers, to parts sales. One of their early projects was for a customer from Florida who volunteered as a first responder for natural disasters. He contacted Shane to build a search and rescue vehicle using a Jeep Wrangler, and this project turned into one of the most overbuilt Jeeps Shane had ever seen.

“He had so many electrical accessories I think we put 28 switches inside of that jeep to control all the equipment that was in it, it was pretty complex” says Smith.  “He had such a heavy electrical load we were trying to find a dual battery setup for that vehicle but there was just nothing on the market that met his needs. We bought a dual battery kit, the nicest one that was available. We modified it, hacked it up, chopped it up and changed it trying to make it fit our needs. We ended up just taking it out and throwing it into the garbage and building a completely custom dual battery setup for his rig.”

After that project Shane realized that there’s got to be a market for guys that need a really nice, high end, completely assembled dual battery kit.  Shane took what he learned from that project, made some perfections and designed a production dual battery kit that was all prewired out of the box. Genesis Offroad ultimately got out of labor and installs and focused primarily on dual battery kits for off-road vehicles. When the Polaris RZR hit the market Shane knew it was going to be big, he kept his eye on the UTV market and its explosive growth.

“I was watching the SxS market grow and grow and getting more and more popular” said Smith. “I started seeing these guys building these things with light bars, stereo systems, and winches; really building these things up even more so than these guys do with Jeeps.  I said ‘man there’s got to be a market, as much aftermarket stuff these guys are putting on these things, these guys are going to need a dual battery set up just like the jeep guys do.’ I did a little research on it to see what was out there, it was pretty pitiful. I saw some homemade stuff on YouTube, homemade dual battery setups, oh man I can’t even follow what these guys are doing and I make dual battery kits for a living. It was just terribly complex, just kind of a spaghetti mess, the stuff that was out there. Nobody was doing a complete prewired dual battery set up like we were doing for the Jeeps for the RZR guys. So I said ‘I think there’s a hole in the market here. I think there’s a market for guys who want to add lights, stereo equipment and all this extra powered stuff to their RZRs.’ So I got with a buddy who had just purchased a Polaris RZR XP 1000, got it in the shop and took some measurements and finally got the RZR kit launched.”

 

 

The Product

Run your accessories without worrying about being stranded with a dead battery, the Genesis Offroad Dual Battery Kit for the Polaris RZR XP 1000 and XP Turbo is a completely prewired dual battery kit allowing you to run two batteries in your side by side. It prioritizes protecting your cranking battery so you can always start your engine while giving you a second battery for running your accessories for a longer period of time.

 

 

How Does It Work?

A smart isolator automatically connects and disconnects your batteries: Your batteries are linked together while they’re fully charged to give you extended run time, that means more run time for all those accessories, but when the smart isolator sees the cranking battery drop down to 12.7 volts it will disconnect the cranking battery and leave it aside just for cranking the engine, you then continue to run all your aftermarket stuff off your second battery.

“The smart isolator is really the brains of the system,” says Smith. “It’s watching the voltage level on both of the batteries all the time. So when it sees your cranking battery above 13.2 volts for two minutes it will link the two batteries together giving you the combined capacity of both of the batteries together. That gives you extended run time and more capacity to run accessories like your winch. You know your winch sucks a whole lot of power really quickly, so spreading that across two batteries really helps.  If you stop on the trail and listen to the radio and you have your lights on you’re draining the power from both of the batteries together, when the battery isolator sees your cranking battery get down to 12.7 volts for one minute it will automatically separate them to protect the cranking battery from getting drained by your aftermarket stuff.  When you start back up it charges the cranking battery up for a couple minutes, then it links them back together to charge up the accessory battery. So you don’t have to worry about switching back and forth between batteries or worry about which one is being charged, it does that for you automatically.”

 

 

Normally the smart isolator handles the connecting and disconnecting all automatically, you don’t have to think about it, but in the event that your cranking battery is dead you can give yourself a jumpstart by manually reconnecting the batteries with the easily accessible boost button.

“What the boost button is essentially doing is manually linking the batteries back together,” explains Smith.  “You can reach your hand right down beside the seat and press the boost button that will let you jump start yourself off your second battery without even getting out of your seat. It’s the same concept as having to pull out the jumper cables and connect your cranking battery to another battery. As long as your accessory battery still has power, pressing the boost button will manually reconnect them and that lets you use the power off the second battery to start the engine. You hit the boost button, you fire it back up and away you go. When you crank back up it will charge your cranking battery first then it will charge up your accessory battery.”

 

 

Easy to Install

This kit uses the factory location for the second battery; the install time is estimated at 15 minutes without any cutting or modifications to the product or vehicle.

“We tried to think through the entire process from the customer’s perspective,” says Smith.  “A lot of times a company will make a product and you go to install it and you just have to wonder did anybody at the company actually install this thing? There are other kits out there that would let you put two batteries into a vehicle, but then you would have to go to another source to find some sort of a battery isolator device, get a bag of ring terminals and a spool of wire and figure out how to hook all this stuff up. It’s just a lot of work, it’s not an easy task to do and even the DIY guys out there who enjoy wrenching on their rigs and doing all the work themselves, even those kind of people get scared off by the electrical stuff. Our kit just takes every bit of that off of you. With the smart isolator and all the other components completely prewired right out of the box there’s absolutely no wiring for the customer to have to do.  You don’t have to touch a pair of wire strippers to install the dual battery system. Our system has all the wires the perfect length for lining up with the battery posts. The kit comes with the actual posts that screw on to the Odyssey batteries and all the hardware to install it. What I tell folks is: If you’re handy with a wrench and if you’ll read the instructions ahead of time, you can install this with no problem. You don’t have to touch any wire strippers. You don’t have to know anything about the electrical system. You don’t have to know how to wire up a dual battery kit because it’s all pre wired out of the box.”

 

 

Power and Ground Bus Bars Make It Easy to Connect Accessories

You’re going to be adding on lights, stereo equipment and everything else to your machine, so you have to have a way to hook up accessories, right? This kit includes a power and ground terminal bus bars with several connection points to hook up all your electrical accessories.

“The bus bars have 8 small screws around in a circle for hooking up your ring terminals for low amp accessories like LED lights and CBs,” explains Smith. “There’s a larger center stud for hooking up high amp accessories like a winch or stereo amplifier. So that gives you a central main place to run your wiring making it easy to hook up stuff that needs battery power rather than what we call playing ring toss, stacking up all your ring terminals on your battery posts, which turns into a big spaghetti buffet real quick.”

 

Heavy Duty

“My plan was for the Dual Battery Kit to outlast the vehicle” says Smith. “You’re not going to run into any corrosion issues or reliability issues with this kit. All of the components are completely waterproof. The smart isolator and the boost button are both IP65 rated, sealed up from the elements like water and dirt. The power and ground and bus bars are all made out of stainless, and the heavy duty lugs are tin plated copper. All of our connectors, heavy duty battery lugs and smaller wires have super heavy duty heat shrink with adhesive lining.”

Brackets for this kit are made of thick aluminum that will not rust and is powder coated for durability.

 

Batteries

Your stock lead acid battery is not compatible with this kit. Your stock lead acid battery that comes in the vehicle is not intended for deep cycle applications. You can kill the stock battery very quickly, especially if you’re running your stereo and LED lights with your engine off. Genesis Offroad recommends the Odyssey PC925 or the XS Power PS550; both are excellent deep cycle batteries and are safer than your stock battery, but you can use most batteries size 925. Deep cycle batteries have more cranking amps and more reserve capacity; you’ll be able to run your accessories for longer by using a high quality deep cycle battery. It’s best practice to have two identical batteries the same size, the same capacity and preferably the same age. If you mix them, the weaker battery will leach off of your stronger battery and can lead to reducing the life span of both batteries. Genesis Offroad strongly recommends going with two identical deep cycle batteries when you install this kit for the best performance and longest life. At Side By Side Stuff we give you the option purchase this kit with two Odyssey PC925 deep cycle batteries just to make shopping easier.

 

 

Features

Protects your cranking battery from being drained by your accessories.

Smart isolator connects the batteries together to give your accessories extra run time.

Easily connect your accessories to the power and ground bus bars.

Once the cranking battery drops below 12.7v for 1 minute, the isolator will separate the batteries to prevent the cranking battery from being drained by your aftermarket accessories.

If the cranking battery is ever too drained to start the engine, simply press the boost button to jump start from the second battery. Boost button is conveniently located for easy access without getting out of your seat.

Uses factory location for the second battery.

The kit includes all required battery posts for installation.

Drop-in installation in only 15 minutes, no cutting or modification to the vehicle necessary.

Completely pre-wired out of the box.

All components are waterproof.

Severe duty 4ga wires will not corrode.

Brackets are made of thick aluminum and will never rust.

Black powdercoat for durability.

All hardware is stainless steel.

 

 

 

The Genesis Offroad Dual Battery kit is currently available for the Polaris RZR XP 1000 and XP Turbo, but Shane tells us that they plan to answer the demands of the SxS market.

“If SxS guys start asking us to support other vehicles, we will continue to develop this product for other specific applications and answer that demand.” states Smith.

We encourage you to give us your feedback, if you’re interested in this product for another machine let us know in the comments below.

 

To purchase this product for the Polaris RZR XP 1000 or XP Turbo visit our Genesis Offroad brand page at SideBySideStuff.com