stuffing a battery box

"I am now thinking of using the 2 31 deep cycle dual purpose batteries as house power and getting 2 27 inch starting batteries for the engines - thoughts?

I do have a 3rd starting battery for my generator"

While having more battery power is a good thing. For the way you seem to boat I would go with that set up, do you your 2 week trip and see how it goes before investing in a lot of extra batteries. You would seem to have plenty of redundancy with that set up as well.

Or you could move the 31s to start batts and get 4Ds as house batts. The 4Ds would fit in the 8D boxes while being lighter to handle.
 
quote:
Originally posted by flightconn

quote:
Originally posted by Billylll

Mike I noticed you mention you have a 57' boat ubder your profile. If this is true I can't imagine 2 31 series batteries being enough to do much of anything on a 57' boat? What was this battery box and the old batteries in it used to power?
Bill

Click to expand...


Yikes, what was I drinking that night? 57 was my age, the boat when I bought it was 42 feet, then when I measured it it became 39.5 if I don't count the bolt on swim platform, then when I checked the water line it is 37 feet. The batteries I took out were 24's, I thought I was making a big move going to 31's.

The boat is mostly used for day trips out to a nearby town or to anchor play music and swim, then as a floating condo, at the dock at night. We do plan a 2 week trip up the west coast of Michigan this year but will only be anchoring out a night or two.

I am now thinking of using the 2 31 deep cycle dual purpose batteries as house power and getting 2 27 inch starting batteries for the engines - thoughts?

I do have a 3rd starting battery for my generator

Thanks,

Mike

Click to expand...

Wow you got me there Mike but I don't drink. I guess a pair of 31's are ok for the house bank. That gives you about 105-115ah's of usable current at the 50% discharge rate. I guess if you have gas engines and a generator addig the 27's would be ok but if it were me I would keep all the batteries the same size and chemistry type.
It also depends on all the variables, type of lighting (non LED vs. LED), Refrigeration (12vdc or 110vac), entertainment equipment and other equipment you would normally run when the engines or genset are off and for how long. Personally I think you can never have too much battery AH's on a boat your going to spend time on the hook with unless you like running the generator.
Bill
 
quote:
Originally posted by Billylll

quote:
Originally posted by flightconn

quote:
Originally posted by Billylll

Mike I noticed you mention you have a 57' boat ubder your profile. If this is true I can't imagine 2 31 series batteries being enough to do much of anything on a 57' boat? What was this battery box and the old batteries in it used to power?
Bill

Click to expand...


Yikes, what was I drinking that night? 57 was my age, the boat when I bought it was 42 feet, then when I measured it it became 39.5 if I don't count the bolt on swim platform, then when I checked the water line it is 37 feet. The batteries I took out were 24's, I thought I was making a big move going to 31's.

The boat is mostly used for day trips out to a nearby town or to anchor play music and swim, then as a floating condo, at the dock at night. We do plan a 2 week trip up the west coast of Michigan this year but will only be anchoring out a night or two.

I am now thinking of using the 2 31 deep cycle dual purpose batteries as house power and getting 2 27 inch starting batteries for the engines - thoughts?

I do have a 3rd starting battery for my generator

Thanks,

Mike

Click to expand...

Wow you got me there Mike but I don't drink. I guess a pair of 31's are ok for the house bank. That gives you about 105-115ah's of usable current at the 50% discharge rate. I guess if you have gas engines and a generator addig the 27's would be ok but if it were me I would keep all the batteries the same size and chemistry type.
It also depends on all the variables, type of lighting (non LED vs. LED), Refrigeration (12vdc or 110vac), entertainment equipment and other equipment you would normally run when the engines or genset are off and for how long. Personally I think you can never have too much battery AH's on a boat your going to spend time on the hook with unless you like running the generator.
Bill

Click to expand...


I really appreciate everyones comments and help. I think for right now I will support the batteries and see how they work for the way I boat. My plan is to start both engines on position 1 and use position 2 as the house battery. If I get into trouble I can use the generator (or the generator battery to start the engines) then head back to port to add more batteries. I think the only thing I will be running is a couple lights and the radio. The person we bought the boat from had replaced the fridge with a 110v so I won't be draining battery for that but will have to run the generator once in a while to keep the beer and brats cold.

Mike
 
Sounds like you have a plan Mike. The worst that can happen is you add aditional 31 series batteries. As far as lighting you might give interior LED lighting some thought. They draw about 1/10th what a standard bulb draws and can be brighter, it is a different kind of lighting it takes some geting used too. Too bad you don't have a dual voltage frig, but that's another way off topic.
Best of luck.
Bill
 
Originally posted by happyhour

I used a couple of short pieces of large PVC pipe as a spacer. cheap quick and readily available
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That's what I would use. . . . you could either stand them on end if the right size, or lay the piper horozontally and cut to length.
Click to expand...
 
If you buy cheap plastic battery boxes for each battery, you can set them inside the larger box and use foam without being concerned about acid leakage affecting the foam. Any acid will stay inside the plastic boxes.
 
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