[C320-list] Starting Battery

[catalina at thehares.com]

Hey Paul,

It should work fine.  The wires that might be on the forward battery  
terminals are:  (Sorry this got longer than I anticipated)

Fwd 4d GROUND:
1) A large BLACK ground wire connecting to the other 4D ground terminal
2) A smaller BLACK ground wire going to the Windlass ground

Fwd 4d POWER:
3) A Large RED power going to the battery selector switch
4) A smaller RED power coming from the battery Charger.
5) A smaller RED power going to the Windlass breaker

The general idea here is to jumper the pair of 4Ds in Parallel. (+ to  
+) and (- to -) The Grounds are already connected by a short jumper.   
You just do the same thing with the Power terminals.

Then on the forward 4D: you remove the wire going to the selector (#3  
above) and the Shore Power wire (#4 above) and connect those to the  
power terminal of the starting battery.

For the Negative terminal of the starting battery, you simply need to  
add a short FAT jumper over to the Negative terminal of the forward 4D  
to complete the task.

So you end up with:
===================
* A single large house battery bank that will provide a few more  
usable Amp hours than when using them individually.  The battery  
selector position that used to select the AFT 4D is now the "House"  
battery.

* An emergency Starting battery that can be selected by using the  
selector position that used to be the FORWARD 4D.  This is now the  
"Starting" battery.

* Normally you can just leave the battery switch selected to "House"  
and use the house bank to start the engine, and run the world.  If the  
house bank won't crank the engine because it's too run down, just  
switch to the Starting battery and start it up.  It'll be fully  
charged since it's isolated from the house bank.  Switch to ALL when  
motoring to recharge the house bank and top off the starting battery.

NOTE: The Shore Power Charger will charge both the house and starting  
battery *automatically* whenever you're plugged in regardless of what  
you do with the selector switch since it bypasses the selector switch.

My Recommendation is to add a Blue Seas ACR (my preference) or battery  
combiner that will automatically keep the starting battery charged  
whenever there is a charge source on the house battery.  Then, for all  
intents and purposes, you just leave the selector set to "House" and  
the starting battery is automatically maintained both when motoring  
and when plugged into shore power.

It's a great upgrade to add a Link 2000 monitor or digital volt meter  
on the panel to keep an eye on battery voltages.  The analog meter on  
the panel is really useless. :)

I would also suggest an automotive AGM starting battery.  An Exide  
Orbital or something similar. They can be mounted in any position,  
charge very fast and don't leak.  Don't make the mistake of getting a  
combination deep cycle/starting battery for this, this is important.

BTW, my starting battery is sitting on a shelf I added in the space  
just forward of the forward 4D.  I think there are pictures of the  
shelf on the website.

Cheers!
-Jeff

PS: Feel free to give me a call on my cell anytime if you just want to  
chat about details or alternatives.  (603) 490-9624


Quoting Paul Adison <pjaarch at verizon.net>:

> I love the idea of this but does this really work?  I have (3) wires
> running to the terminals on the forward battery (#2).  I don't know
> what they all are.  The wiring diagram only shows 1 wire to each
> terminal.  Don't I have to isolate only the wire from the switch to the
> new starting battery?  Then I can run the 2 4D batteries  in parallel
> as mentioned below.  Another friend of mine ran a new 4D from the port
> side and ran it parallel to battery #1.  Very simple.  My boat lists to
> port and I don't want to add any more weight to the port side.  I would
> love to know the answer to this.  I feel that I am missing something.
>
> On May 26, 2010, at 8:39 PM, Robert Seastream wrote:
>
>> One of the simplest solutions comes from Jeff Hare.  Presuming your  
>>  batteries are under the starboard settee, place whatever  
>> 'starting'  battery you purchase in the space forward of those  
>> batteries.   Disconnect the leads from the battery furthest forward  
>> (battery 1,  I think), and connect those leads to the 'starting'  
>> battery.  Next,  buy two heavy gauge battery cables (3 feet or so),  
>> and parallel the  original house battery 1 to battery 2.  The end  
>> result is that  you'll have a 'start' battery on position one of  
>> the battery  switch, and have both 'house' batteries on position 2  
>> of the  battery switch.  I put black tape over switch position 1 as  
>> a  caution that it wasn't to be used as a 'house' battery.
>>
>> Bob Seastream
>> Intuition # 906
>>
>>
>> On May 26, 2010, at 4:51 PM, jpmesa at aol.com wrote:
>>
>>> Ours is under the starboard sette the area (middle) next to the   
>>> holding tank.  We also have an extra battery switch so we can   
>>> separate the starter battery from the main system when we are at   
>>> anchor.  John     Holokai 2
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Sam & Suz Weston <ssweston at embarqmail.com>
>>> To: C320-List <C320-List at Catalina320.com>
>>> Sent: Wed, May 26, 2010 12:43 pm
>>> Subject: [C320-list] Starting Battery
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm considering adding a starting battery to complement my two   
>>> D-4's.  Could
>>> omeone help me with the placement of the battery and the   
>>> connection process ?
>>>
>>