[C320-list] Start Battery

[Brian/Carol McLamb]

Hello Mark.  Welcome to the 320 family!  I did this a few years ago and it has saved my bacon.  
The starter battery is mounted in the forward section of the same couch that the 4 D is located.  First a pad must be constructed to mount the battery box and battery on so it is secure.  I have it as #1 on the battery selector with the others as #2.  In order to have enough power to maintain this addition the alternator was sent out to be beefed up so the output was adequate for the new configuration.  I believe if you search the 320 website under owners and, or technical section there will be a string with pictures of this that others have done.

Brian McLamb s/v Serenity # 1075
Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 14, 2016, at 4:59 PM, Mark Cole <boatnboot at q.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello!
> 
> I’m new to the group and this is my first post.  My wife and I just bought a 1993 320, hull #8, and enjoyed sailing her this summer, but now it is time to tackle a few upgrades.
> 
> Has anyone added a start battery to their boat?  I currently have two 4D house batteries but no dedicated start battery.  We want to spend about half of our cruising time on the hook so I would feel a lot better with a start battery. The boat has a relatively new Xantrex charger that will handle 3 separate batteries so I think I’m good there.  The engine (Perkins M30) fires right up if I’m still plugged into shore power and the charger is on, but takes a long time to start and turns over slowly if starting from the batteries.  The 4Ds are a few years old and I’m about to go through an equalization process with them, so maybe that will help…  Any suggestions on the installation?
> 
> Thanks for any info!
> 
> Mark Cole
> Fiddler’s Green
> Tacoma, WA