Tug O War - A Sundowner 32 Page

Here is a diagram of the original plan. This was modified here and there as I went along and decided to do things a little differently. It now reflects the correct configuration.

You'll have to click on it and get a big one to read it. GIF files don't shrink gracefully.

I had a solar panel that the previous owner had bolted to the top of the pilothouse. I wanted to use it with a rail clamp to keep the batteries topped off while I was away. That way I could disconnect from shore power when not at the boat.

I moved the house bank all the way aft to the "basement" (that's what I call it) under the aft cockpit instead of the engine room where they were. It is much cooler where they are now, and hopefully will need less topping off. In the engine room, I mounted a separate starting bank made up of two parallel Optima AGM's. I now have 660-plus amp-hours for the house bank, and nearly 2000 CCA for the"starters".

On the left is the new house bank (6 golf carts), and the picture on the right is the starting bank (2 optima 900's).

I had to glass in some platforms for each bank. These are epoxy-covered wood glassed to the hull, then painted.

I found some 2/0 welding cable on Ebay that I used for the long runs from the batteries to the new panel (below). I got 60ft for $40! That was a steal.

I soldered, sealed, siliconed and heat-shrank (not necessarily in that order) every lug that I put together with it. Hopefully the corrosion will stay out.

The house bank feed goes up and along the side decks running through two individual SCH80 PVC pipes - one for the positive lead, and a separate one for the negative. The starting batteries are now located right next to the engine.

On the right here is a picture of the battery leads exiting the PVC conduit and going over to the new main panel.

Here's how the main panel turned out. One picture has text labels on everything and the other is the original. It was a little tight once I started putting things on the panel, but it fit!

Connections from the main panel go to the new 135A alternator,

and to the Link 200 controller.

Results
I have been running now for 6 months with plenty of power and no problems!