Battery placement

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Battery placement

Postby Clyde » Thu Nov 05, 2015 4:21 pm

I use a small electric fishing motor for "auxiliary" power. The 12v battery is heavy but to make it easy to carry back and forth to my home to recharge it I place it at the stern as close to the transom as it will go. What are other options for placement and if forward, how do you wire it?
Clyde Starr
DS1 #11354
"Downsized"
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Re: Battery placement

Postby TIM WEBB » Thu Nov 05, 2015 10:57 pm

When I was running a troller for a motor, I mounted the battery box in the cuddy just forward of the mast, and ran fat (as in 00 gauge car audio) wires back to the stern behind the seatbacks. This prevented excess voltage drop between battery and motor.

The stern is not the best choice for battery placement, as you want to keep weight back there to a minimum. The Honda 2 I run now still weighs less than a battery/troller combo would in the stern. Even though I went to a self-contained outboard, I left the wiring in place (no real reason to remove it, and some future owner might want to go back to a troller), and left the battery in place because I also have several other 12V systems that I still use. One of them is a cigarette lighter socket that I have mounted to the first stringer forward of the cuddy lip on the inside cuddy roof. I use this one the most, far more than the two on the battery box itself, for everything from charging GPS/VHF/cell phone to powering the 12V stove and kettle. I also use it for the trickle charger that I keep plugged in while the boat is not in use. Never have to remove the battery from the boat that way. Pics in my gallery if you'd like to see the setup ...
Tim Webb
1979 DS2 10099 The Red Witch
(I used to be Her "staff", in the way dogs have owners and cats have staff, but alas no longer ... <pout>)
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Re: Battery placement

Postby GreenLake » Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:51 am

Agree with Tim on battery placement, except that with an older DS1 I don't go as far as moving the batteries into the cuddy.

I use a motor only occasionally - there are many occasions where it's both unlikely that I'll need it and where there are enough other boats or sailors around that I don't absolutely need it for dire emergencies (the advantage of sailing on a crowded lake). In those cases I won't even bring one. Even if I bring it, I only mount it if I truly expect I'll use it.

Therefore, I place the batteries in a place where I can remover them. For my vintage DS1, that place is in front of the seats on either side (yes two, ever since one of them died on me, years ago, I use two for backup and/or extended range).

At that location, I can still lean over from the outside to retrieve the battery (or to put a charger on it, depending on how I plan to use the boat next).

I extended the short cables that were on the motor with heavy gauge wire (can't remember what, but I looked it up at the time based on voltage drop). The local boating store lent me their crimper for the time it took to put proper shoes on the cable in the parking lot. Definitely a must to have a proper connection - otherwise stuff overheats. The cable is not installed permanently, but I push it in the space under the side deck, where it is out of the way. The cable is long enough to reach either battery without having to go diagonal. I simply screw it onto the battery terminals as usual.

I would get (somewhat) better boat trim with the batteries even farther forward, but my setup works for my needs.

I sail at times without any motor and batteries, at times with batteries in the boat, but the motor kept in the cuddy, or with the motor actually hooked up and mounted at the stern. (Very occasionally do I sail with only one battery).
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Re: Battery placement

Postby Clyde » Sat Nov 07, 2015 5:43 pm

In front of seat seems a good idea. Knew the weight aft wasn't good. I do try to avoid taking the motor and battery.
Clyde Starr
DS1 #11354
"Downsized"
Clyde
 
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:19 pm
Location: Lake Norman, NC

Re: Battery placement

Postby talbot » Mon Nov 09, 2015 4:21 am

There is of course a thread on this. Some of us have not only put our batteries IN the cuddy, but UNDER the cuddy. This involves cutting a hole in the cuddy floor between the center board trunk and the mast, installing a battery box that rests on the hull of the boat, and runnng cables up the mast, across the cuddy roof, and aft inside the tanks.

The advantage? The battery is not only forward, but low, providing 50lbs of ballast to the boat. Also, it is out of the way. Besides the motor being plugged in all the time, if you do a lot of night sailing or overnight coastal trips, it's nice to have fixed running lights, a GPS display that can be on much of the time, and the ability to charge VHF and cell phone. If none of those advantages apply to you . . .

The wiring, fuses, breakers, etc. take time and money. A 50lb battery is a pain (literally, as in your lower back) to install and remove from inside the cuddy. You have to install a charging circuit for a solar panel, because you will want to charge the battery in place. So I'm not pushing the fixed-battery approach. But if you are interested, there are lots of discussions about the details: Wire gauges, connectors, where to (and not to) cut, etc.
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Re: Battery placement

Postby GreenLake » Mon Nov 09, 2015 6:51 pm

DS1 and DSII may lend themselves to different approaches, because of the different cockpit and cuddy configurations.
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