Battery Location (was "So, this post can probably be de..")

Signaleer · Post by **Signaleer** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:51 pm

Aren't the battery(s) located at the center / most low part of the boat? (I'm considering moving them there...)

Wouldn't that have made sense?

BOAT · Post by **BOAT** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:55 pm

It's better to keep them out of the water. If they are at the lowest point they could get salt water on them before the bilge pumps get a chance to turn on. The batteries should always be a little bit above the bilge water. The batteries do not like salt water.

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:58 pm

Bow need extra weight forward on the MacX. I put twin group 29 house batteries forward bulkhead (Just forward of the interior rise of vberth)
Installed them 7 years ago and replaced once.
Works great, center of effort also sailing.
Dave

Signaleer wrote:Aren't the battery(s) located at the center / most low part of the boat? (I'm considering moving them there...)

Wouldn't that have made sense?

Signaleer · Post by **Signaleer** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:00 pm

DaveB wrote:Bow need extra weight forward on the MacX. I put twin group 29 house batteries forward bulkhead (Just forward of the interior rise of vberth)
Installed them 7 years ago and replaced once.
Works great, center of effort also sailing.
Dave

Signaleer wrote:Aren't the battery(s) located at the center / most low part of the boat? (I'm considering moving them there...)

Wouldn't that have made sense?

Dave,

Awesome - I had wondered about that.

You where do you have your charger(s) and thru hull?

Ed.

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:19 pm

I have a 10 amp auto charger for charging house and starter battery separate. diode is installed to keep both house and starter battery separate, this has been mentioned few times in my posts. you can go to advance search and look under DaveB.
My starter battery is a 24 group deep cycle battery and is in same location of MacX.
Keeping all batteries Deepcycle will be better on charging system both AC (battery Charger) and motor charging.
Voltage charging on a deep cycle battery 29 group or 24 group remains the same charge.
No underwater fittings .
Dave

Signaleer wrote:
DaveB wrote:Bow need extra weight forward on the MacX. I put twin group 29 house batteries forward bulkhead (Just forward of the interior rise of vberth)
Installed them 7 years ago and replaced once.
Works great, center of effort also sailing.
Dave

Signaleer wrote:Aren't the battery(s) located at the center / most low part of the boat? (I'm considering moving them there...)

Wouldn't that have made sense?
Dave,

Awesome - I had wondered about that.

You where do you have your charger(s) and thru hull?

Ed.

Signaleer · Post by **Signaleer** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:57 pm

DaveB wrote:I have a 10 amp auto charger for charging house and starter battery separate. diode is installed to keep both house and starter battery separate, this has been mentioned few times in my posts. you can go to advance search and look under DaveB.
My starter battery is a 24 group deep cycle battery and is in same location of MacX.
Keeping all batteries Deepcycle will be better on charging system both AC (battery Charger) and motor charging.
Voltage charging on a deep cycle battery 29 group or 24 group remains the same charge.
No underwater fittings .
Dave

Got it Dave!

So you have the starter battery, port side, aft of galley still. You put the house batteries in the forward V-berth.

I've been reading up on many of the electrical systems and you have well, answered my next question.

What if I wanted to put the starter batter in the V-berth area as well - will I suffer significant voltage drop if I do that (well, enough to make an impact?)

(Again, will keep searching and looking

) Thanks!

Ed

Ixneigh · Post by **Ixneigh** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 4:34 pm

The battery is pretty much a plastic box. Does it really care if the bottom parts wet?? As long as the wiring is dry and the water does not cover the terminals I would think it would be fine. ??
Ix

fouz · Post by **fouz** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 4:59 pm

I did like Dave and put 2 deep cycle batteries in the bow. I don't have a starting battery just the 2 deep cycle (I think they are group 24) and don't have any problems. I use both if the motor is running and 1 of them any other time.

Signaleer · Post by **Signaleer** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 5:00 pm

fouz wrote:I did like Dave and put 2 deep cycle batteries in the bow. I don't have a starting battery just the 2 deep cycle (I think they are group 24) and don't have any problems. I use both if the motor is running and 1 of them any other time.

I was thinking the same. That area would be so much better for the battery. I am considering moving the starter battery over there in a case. If the water is 8 inches high in the center channel of a MAC X ... you probably have worse problems than the batteries... ?

Post by **kmclemore** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 8:20 pm

!	kmclemore:
	Changed the title of the thread so that it's more meaningful for future readers.

Post by **dlandersson** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 5:51 am

Just a consideration, I find (PO did this) that having my batteries under the starboard side forward seat is very convenient in terms of access. Perhaps it's just me, or the batteries I get, but them MoFo's are a bit on the heavy side.

In that location it's pretty easy to get to them, work on them, move them, etc. And as noted, if they are in a plastic box, water really isn't an issue.

Signaleer wrote:
fouz wrote:I did like Dave and put 2 deep cycle batteries in the bow. I don't have a starting battery just the 2 deep cycle (I think they are group 24) and don't have any problems. I use both if the motor is running and 1 of them any other time.
I was thinking the same. That area would be so much better for the battery. I am considering moving the starter battery over there in a case. If the water is 8 inches high in the center channel of a MAC X ... you probably have worse problems than the batteries... ?

bobbob · Post by **bobbob** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 6:04 am

Signaleer wrote: What if I wanted to put the starter batter in the V-berth area as well - will I suffer significant voltage drop if I do that (well, enough to make an impact?)

You will want to size up your wiring. This was something I wanted to get to this year and ran out of time. The advice I received is that you should use 2 gauge wiring for that length (about 20'). Certainly no smaller than 4 gauge.

I did have one concern - should the batteries somehow be fixed securely to avoid them hopping around if the bow is crashing through waves? Certainly that part of the boat takes the brunt of choppy weather.

tlgibson97 · Post by **tlgibson97** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 8:49 am

I moved my batteries and charger forward of the bulkhead under the v-berth. I built a shelf and fiberglassed it to keep them a few inches of the floor in case any water gets in there. It's a bit of a pain to get to them but it's not something you really need to access very often. I moved the battery selector switch and voltmeter to the vertical section aft of the v-berth. I also have a 30-something gallon flexible water tank in the v-berth. Moving all that weight forward and more starboard of where they were previously has balance out the boat quite well.

Tomfoolery · Post by **Tomfoolery** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:29 am

tlgibson97 wrote:Moving all that weight forward and more starboard of where they were previously has balance out the boat quite well.

Mine lists to port, also. Two group 24 batts and a 7 gallon water tank, plus all the junk I store under the galley. It takes a concerted effort to getting it sitting flat in the water. But not enough of an effort for me to start thinking about moving all that stuff.

Seapup · Post by **Seapup** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 3:23 pm

There is room for two against the centerboard trunk under the fiberglass bin below the aft dinette. About as centered and low on the

as you can get.

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