Looking for advice on batteries placement.

[Wisakedjack]

I am not always good about taking critical in-the-moment pics.The boards are actually PVC board. I mitered the edges as close to the hull contour as I could get them. They were 3/4" x 3" or so...glassed in longitudinally, with West epoxy to secure them to the boat. What you cannot see is on the inboard side of the settee, I glassed in 1 inch wide blocks that were vertical to give me something to screw the battery boxes into on that side too. The top of the verticals matched the height of the 3/4" outboard support boards.

In hindsight, I might have done a similar build, however, I might have run the PVC boards athwarthships and glassed the whole thing in. I will keep digging to see if I can find more pics.

Yeah, I saw vertical blocks on the inboard side in your original post that I've linked. I actually like this design. I am thinking of doing exactly the same thing, but using wood. I was considering putting a board between inboard and outboard sides. May be using some glass over it too or making it removable.

[jbsoukup]

for what it's worth, I put my house bank in the bow (two group 31's) and left the start battery by the engine. I tabbed in a cradle or shelf, for lack of a better term, and built battery box of plywood with resin lining which is strapped to the cradle. sorry I don't have better pix and this one is from my original set up in 2008 with three group 27's

[Wisakedjack]

for what it's worth, I put my house bank in the bow (two group 31's) and left the start battery by the engine. I tabbed in a cradle or shelf, for lack of a better term, and built battery box of plywood with resin lining which is strapped to the cradle. sorry I don't have better pix and this one is from my original set up in 2008 with three group 27's

Thanks for sharing a picture. I thought about putting my batteries in the bow. I don't have a holding tank there anymore, so there is plenty of space. But I did not want to have long cable runs to the engine and the main panel. There is also a weight distribution consideration, which is really minor for me since I don't race my boat.

[ndutton]

But I did not want to have long cable runs to the engine and the main panel.

Good point, darn good point. A solution for long cable runs is increasing the wire size.

There is also a weight distribution consideration, which is really minor for me since I don't race my boat.

This was actually one of several racer tricks in the 1970's. After measurement for handicap rating the racers would relocate their batteries forward to settle the bow a little lower and thereby lengthen the waterline which increased the theoretical hull speed while avoiding the longer waterline handicap hit.

[sastanley]

To add to Neil's point, if you have a tendency to have lots of "junk in the trunk", like 'roll bars' and dinghy + davits an outboard, etc...those 150 lbs of battery might help offset the stern weight.

Anyway, I decided to make my two settee tanks water since they are often full, and made my holding tank the bow tank (my boat only had the one little 17 gal tank to stbd) since I only fill the holding tank when necessary so it always starts a journey empty. It all makes a difference, but on big heavy boats like a C-30 weight distribution probably makes less difference than some others.

[jbsoukup]

That's exactly what I noticed. She seemed a little faster after the batteries were put in the bow. And yes, I did drop the $ on heavy cable ( I think 0 gauge, I don't remember. the copper inside the insulation is like 1/4 inch. You can see it in the previous photo.

[Wisakedjack]

Shawn, you were right about small gap between batteries settee lid. I took this pictures yesterday trying to see where my battery box would fit.


And things got even worse when I tried to move boxes forward (thinking if I ever want to expand the battery bank). All of the sudden the idea of putting battery box in the bow started to become more appealing. John, I am now curious where your main switch is located. I am trying to think what wire run lengths you had to deal with. I don't have much weight aft to balance batteries in the bow though.

When I got home I took another look at different forums and thought more about this. So, I think there are other options that may work for me:
1. Replace G27 batteries with G24 and put them under starboard settee. They are shorted by few inches and that should be enough to sit a bit deeper.
2. I am revisiting my earlier idea of placing batteries under the navigation table and using 2 6V GC2 batteries. They are taller, so I cant put them under settee. But this will give me a good size main bank so that I won't need to upgrade it. I could then put one G24 under settee as a 'reserve' bank.

Decisions, decisions... Got to make up my mind, so I can finish this project before boat launch.

[ronstory]

If you are committed to LA batteries and could find a place to put to two GC2 batteries, I would go that way. My batteries are in the nav station seat so they are too tall, so I live with two G27s.

[jbsoukup]

my main switch is in the galley below the stove and my panel is next to the icebox. those runs aren't too long, maybe 12-15 feet but i wanted to be able to start the A4 with the house bank just in case, hence the heavy wire. works like a charm.
my start battery is in the old location next to the engine. the negative lead goes from the house bank to the start battery negative and the positive goes straight to the switch.

regarding the weight in the stern, its all you baby (and hopefully someone special)

[Wisakedjack]

Hi, John,

Thanks for sharing the details. Good to know what others are doing. Really helps me with decision making (aka overthinking) process. I can certainly add more weight to the stern by having more friends over and adding to my liquor locker

Cheers!

[sastanley]

Jack, By the way...I see some standing water in the stbd settee in those pics. If you angle it correctly, you can drill a limber hole in the bottom of the stbd settee that will drain into the bilge underneath the cabin sole. The hull is 1" thick so you unlikely to drill thru that, and you are only drilling thru the settee fiberglass without drilling too shallow to come thru the cabin floor nor going to deep to drill into the hull.

[Wisakedjack]

Jack, By the way...I see some standing water in the stbd settee in those pics. If you angle it correctly, you can drill a limber hole in the bottom of the stbd settee that will drain into the bilge underneath the cabin sole. The hull is 1" thick so you unlikely to drill thru that, and you are only drilling thru the settee fiberglass without drilling too shallow to come thru the cabin floor nor going to deep to drill into the hull.

Ha! Nice catch. That standing water is a mistery to me. I had leaks on that side before because of the leaking windows on starboard side. I fixed those last fall. In addition the boat is under tarp now. And still it came from somewhere. I see a straight streak along the hull coming from the top, so that will be the first place to investigate. Good thing this is all the accumulation over 4 months. Will let you know what I find. I will consider drilling if everything else fails. It feels like its solid hull fiberglass there with no cavity under it.

[Wisakedjack]

I'd like to share the final result of this project. I ended up putting two G27 lead acid batteries under the navigation table. I removed two shelves to do this. The opening at the bottom inside Nav table is almost perfect size to accommodate two G27 batteries in port to starboard orientation.

I previously made a support for the battery shelf that I planned to use in the original location. While no longer necessary I used it for some extra support in the middle. Here it is shown attached to the battery shelf. The shelf itself was made from 3/4" plywood and painted with TotalBoat bilge paint.

I cut the ledge from a piece of marine wood that matched the angle of the hull. It was epoxied to the hull and then glassed over.

I cut two wood blocks and bolted them to the wall under the front of Navigation table as shown below:

This is similar to Shawn's installation that I linked in one of my earlier posts. Then I placed the battery shelf over and screwed it in, so it can be removed if needed (see pic in the next post). To be continued...

[Wisakedjack]

The following picture shows battery shelf inside navigation table secured with screws.

Next picture shows batteries in place. I placed a piece of wood between the batteries to prevent batteries from moving. All electrical components were placed on the right side of the batteries. Negative bus is located behind batteries.

And here is a picture of electrical components. Currently it is configured as a single bank, but it can be easily modified to add an extra reserve battery or use on the batteries as 'starter' one and another as 'house' battery. Power switch inside navigation table is a battery disconnect. If I add another bank I will put another battery disconnect switch on the left side. My 1-2 main batter switch is visible on the left side (4 large terminals with one unused). It is accessible from outside navigation table.

To be continued....

[Wisakedjack]

So, here is a final picture showing batteries with covers on and secured straps. I placed u-bolts on the battery sides to be used for the straps.