Batteries

[Steve B.]

3 hours ago, jjackkrash said:

I run dual bank (house and starting) with blue seas ACR add-a-battery, plus the off, on, combine manual switch.  I can't see any downside to having the on, off, combine manual switch.

I have had to use the "combine" switch on several occasions to get started.  Flip switch, combine, turn key, go skiing.  If given the choice between flipping a switch and starting my boat, on the one hand, and unhooking and swapping batteries out in the middle of the lake with a boat full of people, well, that's a no brainer.  

Word.

Steve B.

[Lees23]

Seems very complicated here.  Just have 3x the battery you will ever need and good charger and be done with it(my therory and 4 boats later it has never let me down).  To each their own. 

[MLA]

9 hours ago, MadMan said:

is you've just introduced a bunch more connections to come loose.

two in reality. One B+ from each battery to the switch. All the other terminations will be there regardless of the switch or no switch. if someone has installed an ACR or other heavy duty solenoid, you now have the same number of connections as you've got a cable between the solenoid and each battery.  

[Nitrousbird]

9 hours ago, Lees23 said:

Seems very complicated here.  Just have 3x the battery you will ever need and good charger and be done with it(my therory and 4 boats later it has never let me down).  To each their own. 

I'm going to guess you haven't had much of a stereo in any of them. 

[MadMan]

13 minutes ago, MLA said:

two in reality. One B+ from each battery to the switch. All the other terminations will be there regardless of the switch or no switch. if someone has installed an ACR or other heavy duty solenoid, you now have the same number of connections as you've got a cable between the solenoid and each battery.  

I should have explained it better, if you already have something to isolate the batteries (isolator, relay) the switch becomes redundant and only adds more points of failure.

[Lees23]

7 minutes ago, Nitrousbird said:

I'm going to guess you haven't had much of a stereo in any of them. 

1600 watts in my last two.. I know that isn't very much.

[MLA]

42 minutes ago, MadMan said:

I should have explained it better, if you already have something to isolate the batteries (isolator, relay) the switch becomes redundant and only adds more points of failure.

Thanks for clarifying. I think it still only adds two cable. Everything else just gets relocated from the battery B+ posts to the switch. To go a step further, I would not suggest a switch be added. To be honest, I would suggest the relay be tossed in favor of a dual bank 1/2/BOTH switch. 

[Gavin17]

So I finally got time to start working on this project today.  I'm going with 2 group 31 dual purpose batteries.  My batteries and amps are behind the observer seat.  There are 4 positive wires that are not the stereo. Three of them are 4 guage and one small 12 guage or so. I'm guessing the small one is the bilge pump but I haven't tested it yet.  Can you help figure out the other 3.  One goes under the floor with the ballast drain lines. One goes toward the dash.  The last one goes toward the dash but is fused at 60 amps.  Is this fuse factory? 

 

[Fffrank]

12 hours ago, Gavin17 said:

So I finally got time to start working on this project today.  I'm going with 2 group 31 dual purpose batteries.  My batteries and amps are behind the observer seat.  There are 4 positive wires that are not the stereo. Three of them are 4 guage and one small 12 guage or so. I'm guessing the small one is the bilge pump but I haven't tested it yet.  Can you help figure out the other 3.  One goes under the floor with the ballast drain lines. One goes toward the dash.  The last one goes toward the dash but is fused at 60 amps.  Is this fuse factory? 

 

The small one is for the auto bilge.

The one that goes under the floor goes to the starter/alternator.

The main feed that goes to the dash should have a circuit breaker (it would have from the factory, anyway.)   It's a 6 gauge cable.

I'm not sure what your second feed towards the dash would be for.  I just removed all my factory wiring and didn't find anything like that.  Is it the same type of cable?

[Gavin17]

1 minute ago, Fffrank said:

The small one is for the auto bilge.

The one that goes under the floor goes to the starter/alternator.

The main feed that goes to the dash should have a circuit breaker (it would have from the factory, anyway.)   It's a 6 gauge cable.

I'm not sure what your second feed towards the dash would be for.  I just removed all my factory wiring and didn't find anything like that.  Is it the same type of cable?

Thanks, I didn't realize the starter and alternator used the same wire.  I'll have to pull out my sub box from under the dash and see where the mystery wire goes. 

[shawndoggy]

It actually goes to "just" the starter.  There's a second jumper wire on the starter that runs to the alternator.  It's like 8awg at best (probably 10awg) between the alternator and the starter terminal.