Leoma batteries

[JD-MDR]

While waiting for my reverse gear and v-drive to come back from the shop(volvo mechanic said they look ok. It seems like someone put the wrong seals in it he V-drive) I tried to add a battery but it got way hot I think its too old and was advised not to use it with my newer batteries so I disconnected it. I installed the new switch and the blu seas auto charge relay kit. Im going to focus on cleaning up this mess. Behind the wood panal is a pos and a neg bus bar and in the upper right is another pos bar. That one is connected to the instrument panel and wire harness. When I moved the panel inside I just pulled the whole harness back across the engine to the stbd side. Here is a photo of what I have to work on. I hope I can make it better. The install instruction says not to mount the ACR directly above the battery. I called support and asked how close was to close and the guy told me the only reason he could think of for that was that fumes might make corrosion faster and that as long as I have good ventilation it should be ok.

[hilbert]

Batteries at different points in their life have different charging characteristics.
This is even more true for batteries that are not the same brand and don't even think about mixing different battery types like AGM with Lead-acid.
Doing so will likely lead to overcharging, undercharging or both with your batteries.

It is kind of feast or famine for battery charging with the stock alternator and the economy chargers on most boats.
Generally, the engine does not run long enough to fully charge the batteries, as their absorption rate declines as they charge.
When the engine does run for a long time, the batteries are slightly overcharged by the alternator supplying a voltage higher than the battery manufacture's specified float voltage.
Lead acid batteries have been around for a very long time and are the most forgiving. Most economy "marine" batteries are not deep cycle, despite manufacturer's claims.
Best bang for the buck in lead acid batteries are golf cart batteries, which actually have thick plates designed for deep discharges. These are generally 6 volt batteries, so it takes two in series to supply 12 volts.
With lead acid batteries, one needs to check the water level in each cell and occasionally add distilled water (I've only needed to add water two times a year, Spring and Fall). It looks like it might be inconvenient to add water with the placement of your batteries as pictured.

My original intent was to have the alternator, battery charger and solar charger all feed into a house bank and then use an ACR to charge a separate engine starter battery.
In the end, I opted to keep things simple by have only a single house battery bank of 2 golf cart batteries of ~ 240 amp-hours.
With continuous solar charging, this should be adequate for both engine starting and my other needs.
This will also avoid the issue of less than optimal charging for dissimilar batteries and possible complications like ACR cycling ( https://www.bluesea.com/articles/527).

I moved the batteries to the cabin side of the bulkhead for better access:

[JD-MDR]

Wow. Looks so nice and clean. I want mine to be like that. I went and looked at it again yesterday. I have on both batteries positive terminals, a wire to the voltmeter, a wire to the charger, a cable to the battery switch and a cable to the ACR .There are also plenty of wires on the neg terminals, battery charger, bus bar neg. and ground to engine. There are probably more. These are just what I can remember from my house. There are a million wires going to the bus bars. The harness is about 10 ft. too long. It runs back and forth. I guess that so they can use it anywhere on the boat depending where they want the panel to be. That is probably a job for when I gut the boat interior. But I may never do that. I removed my third battery but since i made a nice shelf for it I may get three new batteries when I'm ready to sail off. It's not so bad to check the water level .These batteries will lift and pull out enough for that. I guess it is a little hassle. I have to undo the straps and probably remove the third battery out of the way. Maybe I shouldn't get a third battery. Do I need to have those big fuses on the pos cables ? I'm getting too much stuff and too many cables and wires in there. Thanks Jonathon

[JD-MDR]

I'm loosing sleep thinking about this. I think to make my batteries more serviceable I will take that third one to the recycling place. Then start getting all the wires off the battery terminal so I can slide them out easily to check water more often. I think I will get a big bus bar for all neg wires except one on each battery. I think the charger can also go the the neg bus bar and the positive wires from the charger maybe to the cable on the battery switch. I would appreciate any suggestions. Then I will only have two cables on the batteries one to the ACR and one to the switch and the one neg cable. I still have a small wire on each positive battery terminal that goes to the volt meter on the distribution panel. I wonder if there is another place for those. There are a million schematics on way to do this. It's confusing. I have a 200 amp breaker between the distribution panel and the bus bar. I don't have the fuses on the pos cables from the batteries.

[hilbert]

I'm loosing sleep thinking about this.

Michel de Montaigne said centuries ago, "My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."

I prefer having a fuse block on the positive battery terminal. Without a fuse before the main bus bar, there is greater risk of an accidental short circuit of the battery.

Charging wires should be close to the batteries to avoid voltage drops. It is common to connect the negative wire to a main bus bar.
The positive wire should be fused. Sensor wires will have greater accuracy when connected directly to the battery (they should be fused close to their connection with the battery).

My main positive bus is above the battery box. I constructed it using a silver plated solid copper bar that I purchased from McMaster-Carr.
The main negative bus is just visible in the top left of the picture. The solar MPPT charger is connected to these bus bars, but it has voltage sensors wires connected directly to the battery.


In this picture, you can see that there are two small sensor wires with fuses connected directly to the positive terminal. One wire is for a battery monitor and the other is for the solar charger.

[JD-MDR]

Thanks Jonathon. BlueSeas tech support is getting back to me. I sent them the photos and will get better photos this weekend. I'm gonna try fix this up as nice as possible. Hopefully everyone isn't laughing at me. I have to laugh sometimes when I see my jerry rig stuff next to your guyses awsome work

[hilbert]

John, don't sell yourself short. I'm impressed by the boat work that you are doing and your sailing.

Most boaters wouldn't consider refurbishing their 30 - 50 year old electrical system.
When they do make a change or add something, it is often with inappropriate material (twist caps, solid copper home wire, etc.) and/or poor workmanship and no documentation.

The electrical system wasn't much to start with. This was Cape Dory's "negative bus" behind the electrical panel:


As you make incremental improvements, it will become more reliable.
Perhaps more important, you will understand how it has been put together and be able to quickly identify and fix problems.
I usually add labels to terminals and keep a binder with wiring diagrams.

For electrical supplies, I order from https://www.genuinedealz.com/.
Mike has been helpful, has competitive prices and doesn't charge shipping or sales tax (In appreciation, I try and combine stuff in as few shipments as I can).

[JD-MDR]

I have that bus also I disconnected most of them and went to a bar. Should I put one of these fuses on both my batteries? I'm ordering stuff now.https://www.genuinedealz.com/blue-sea-s ... minal-fuse. I was thinking of getting two of the fuse blocks and two 200 amp fuses

[hilbert]

I installed a fuse block on the battery terminal and would again.
They come in two sized of 1/4" and 5/16" (which I think is a more common battery stud size).
You would need two, one for each of the batteries that are connected in parellel.

I calculated my maximum current draw at about 100 amps and am using a 125 amp fuse.
Hope I got that right, as these fuses are pricey.

[Jim Walsh]

This may be helpful. It has fuse size recommendations among other things.
https://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/battery_fusing

[hilbert]

Jim, another good article from MaineSail. Wish I had read it earlier and sized the fuse as recommended in the article.

In a pinch, the terminal fuse housing can be removed and the cable will still reach the battery terminal.
There wouldn't be a fuse on the starting circuit, but then again there wasn't one from 1976 through 2011.

[JD-MDR]

Compass Marine says 250 amp for small diesels. So I guess I should order two 5191 terminal fuse block and two 250 amp fuses?? It's all getting too confusing for me. I thought 1Ga wire was the same as 1/0. I have mixture of several different sizes. Why do you have to use distilled water in the batteries? When I was a kid working at a gas station, we had special dispensers for filling the battery water but we only filled them with tap water.

[Jim Walsh]

Compass Marine says 250 amp for small diesels. So I guess I should order two 5191 terminal fuse block and two 250 amp fuses?? It's all getting too confusing for me. I thought 1Ga wire was the same as 1/0. I have mixture of several different sizes. Why do you have to use distilled water in the batteries? When I was a kid working at a gas station, we had special dispensers for filling the battery water but we only filled them with tap water.

Because tap water has minerals in it. Distilled water can lengthen the life of an expensive battery.
With battery cables the attached photo may help with relative size.
I replaced all my cables this spring and moved up to 1 AWG. The original cables were in use for 35 years and were 4 AWG.

[JD-MDR]

Thanks Jim. I might change all mine also. Not till I understand what I'm doing. I saw that it's a lot cheaper if I buy the wire and solder the ends on myself. I found some tutorials on wire sizes etc. online. I'm still getting accustomed to using the internet.

[Jim Walsh]

Thanks Jim. I might change all mine also. Not till I understand what I'm doing. I saw that it's a lot cheaper if I buy the wire and solder the ends on myself. I found some tutorials on wire sizes etc. online. I'm still getting accustomed to using the internet.

I used Ancor marine battery lugs and crimped them on. I also added a piece of heat shrink tubing for a neat installation. The store at my marina let me use their crimping tool. It’s an easy job as long as the crimping tool has handles of two feet or greater length.