Add-A-Battery

[BobGinCO]

This is how I did it.

The box is a Carlon (Model E989NL) 8? X 8? X 4? Junction Box, from Lowes

The strain relief's are Halex ?? (Model 27693) and ?? (Model 27697) ACC Non-Metallic Strain Relief Cord Connectors from Home Depot

Throw in two Blue Sea ANL fuse holders with 100 Amp ANL fuses, and a 4-position terminal block with cover for all the ground wires.

If I were going to do it again, I would probably use the Carlon 12" X 12" X 6" box.

 

[mtjbrown]

Re: Add-A-Battery

looks nice, does it charge both batteries at the same time? or is that what the switch is for?

 

[BobGinCO]

Re: Add-A-Battery

Yeah, that's the best part. When the motor is running, it charges both. Then the house circuits discharge ONLY the house battery, leaving the starting battery untouched.

Let's see if I can attach the schematic.

 

[coastalrichard]

Re: Add-A-Battery

That's a fine looking piece of work, Bob. What did it cost?

 

[BobGinCO]

Re: Add-A-Battery

That's a fine looking piece of work, Bob. What did it cost?

Yeah, hmm...Let's see...

Add a battery - 140
case - 30
2 anl fuse holders 52
2 anl fuses 36
bus bar 24
bus bar cover 4

That's $260, so maybe $300...plus the cost of a battery and battery box!

 

[mtjbrown]

Re: Add-A-Battery

Thanks for the schematic, Bob! It occurred to me while sitting on the pontoon listening to the stereo, it would be nice to have the confidence of a second battery.

 

[Old Screwball]

Re: Add-A-Battery

I kinda did the same thing, poor mans version. I installed a second battery, tied both 'hot' sides together, and ran the ground sides through a standard light switch. Switch on, batteries are 'paralleled', both charge. Switch off, start battery is isolated from the circuit, all electrical (non motor) runs from the house battery. Cheapo Wal Mart battery (lawn tractor size) 30 bucks. Standard light switch, electrical box, and cover plate about 5 bucks. Todays stock car radios can run for days and not kill a battery. I run 2 high volume low pressure air pumps for tubes and other floats, and a 5gpm, 40psi water pump ( great, giant squirt gun) from the 'house' battery.

 

[newbie4life]

Re: Add-A-Battery

Coulda used this last night -- made it to the water, started the boat, it started slow -- made it to our cove destination, went to come in and radio killed the starting battery... Cove that we use is close to the landing, so there's not much chance of the engine EVER charging the battery... you idle out of the boat landing, hit full throttle for 20 seconds, and shut it off.

Fortunately, used Trolling Motor to get us home, (yeah, I could have used one of the trolling motor batteries to start, but didn't feel like ripping everything apart under the front seats to get to them.) put the charger on the battery overnight.

I like your $30 lawnmower battery idea, Screwball. Smaller, lighter, etc.

 

[btroy]

Re: Add-A-Battery

GREAT idea Old Screwball!

this will work, if I had it to do over again I would do it this way as well, as it accomplishes the same thing just with a manual flip of the switch.

I have opted not to use the battery disconnect switch as it is really not required unless you always want to disconnect all loads when you leave you boat. In that case the radio programing is history.