[C320-list] Starting Battery

[Jeff Hare]

No problem. Send me a draft and I'll review it. ...in case I lied somewhere along the way.   :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Burti <clburti at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 14:33:43 
To: <C320-List at catalina320.com>
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Starting Battery

Hey Jeff,
Any objection to my editing this into a tech article and stealing any photos
that I can find off the website?

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 1:29 PM, <catalina at thehares.com> wrote:

> 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 ?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
>
>


-- 
Chris Burti Farmville, NC