Adding batteries

[witeagle]

Anyone add house bank batteries to your 32 Open. If so where did you mount them.

Right now the boat has a pair of 8Ds and a grp 27 for the genset. All starting battereis.

Any thoughts?

Do Cat 3116 really need 8Ds to turn the starters or could I go to a 31 to free up space for 31 house batteries?

Thanks

Justin

[irishrogue]

justin

go to boatdiesel and read up...tons of info there. group 31s would not be enough to turn the cats over unless you pair up two in parallel. this doesnt save space but it does allow you to more easily move 2 batteries instead of 1 large.

you could add another 8D down centerline. i assume u have one there now and the other in front of the port motor.

[witeagle]

justin

go to boatdiesel and read up...tons of info there. group 31s would not be enough to turn the cats over unless you pair up two in parallel. this doesnt save space but it does allow you to more easily move 2 batteries instead of 1 large.

you could add another 8D down centerline. i assume u have one there now and the other in front of the port motor.

I have an 8D centerline and one infront of the port engine. The lift bracket is in the way to add another centerline from what I can see. I will re-measure again and see if I can slip a battery under the bracket....

I was thinking there has to be a better place. Leaving the 8Ds and the Genset starting battery in place, adding a pair of 31 house banks would be my ideal setup.

[irishrogue]

i would think that you could slip group 31 s under the hatch lift bracket. our bracket is mounted to the stringer all the way at the top so sliding a battery under would be easy. i think this is the best place since it is on centerline and low in the boat.

we are removing the port battery and putting both starting batts on centerline so that we can correct a slight port list. we will build a platform over the centerline batteries to stand on. we are planning to do 4 group 31s - pairs paralleled as starting/house batteries - you actually get more cranking amps than with a single 8D although you get less amps/hr i think. we actually dont run off the batteries much anyway. installed 4 led spreaders and an led underwater light so our night chunking amp draw will be much lower...

[witeagle]

Is this the planned setup:

2 grp 31's in parellel used for starting
2 grp 31's in parellel used for house / backup starting

[irishrogue]

wit

hmm...isnt the boat wired to start port on port and stbd on stbd? the par start switch combines both port/stbd to start either motor.

if yuo rewire both motors to start on port battery bank, raises the question - do 2 group 31s have enough capacity to start 2 motors in a row? i m guessing yes but you might want to check on boatdiesel. if rewired could you still par start them to include the stbd bank?

[witeagle]

Right now both engines are on seperate 8D batteries with a par switch if needed. The par switch just runs a simple solonoid that jumps out a pair of + leads coming off the battery switches.

Technically it can be rewired to start both batteries and there should be more than enough juice to start both engines from 1 battery as long as you don't crank them at the exact same time. Then in the event of a starting battery failure you can par with the house bank. This isn't the setup I would want but it could be done.

What I really want to do is leave the starting batteries alone and add two house bank grp 31's.

If I can get them centerline after of the other 8D i'd be happy.