House Battery Install

Well last week over turkey day weekend we left the dock and our port alternator quit working.  This cuased us to return to the dock for the weekend and as always happens to me on the holidays, you can't find the part anywhere.  I ended up ordering it from an outfit in Tennessee.

We also decided this would be a great time to install our 2 banks of house batteries.  The banks will be 4ea-6Vdc golf cart batteries or 8 batteries total.  You tie two batteries in series to achieve the 12Vdc you need, then you tie the four groups in parrellel for the house banks.  I found the batteries at Costco for about $98 each.  I also bought a battery isolator and switch, so I can charge the house bank from the alternators.  Spent about $300 on wire and other items to make it all possible.  The Battery boxes cost $75 each.  I found out wire is expensive. The total cost to redo this was about $1800.

The main reason for this set up is because the previous owner had the engine start batteries as the house batteries too.  Bad situation becuase if you drain your start batteries, you can't start your engines.

Old Setup.  The white case contains 2-8D batteries

The one with the red top has one 8D.  These are all start batteries for the engine.

 

This is the battery isolator.  This allows me to charge all the batteries while the engines are running.

This shows the battery isolator all wired up.  The red switch above the main engine disconnect allows me to charge the start batteries together or separate.

Closer look

With the red box out of the way, two new battery boxes are added.  Each box holds four 6Vdc golf cart batteries.

I still need to buy 4 more batteries.

Close up