jrmccoy
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2015
- Messages
- 86
- Status
- OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
- Hatteras Model
- 53' MOTOR YACHT (1969 - 1988)
Gentlemen,
Haven't posted in a while, but am back to work on Maggie Mae.
Following the guidance of the best and brightest on this forum, I installed an outback 3232 inverter on my 1980 Hat 53'my with all the 32v legacy stuff intact as far as main alternators, starters and some other items. Have been delighted with it, and has functioned beautifully as a whole boat inverter for nearly 3 years
Setup is:
Have Two (2) 4 x 8v=32v banks....one bank is Interstate Batteries, and one is Napa Batteries...each bank less than 2 years old. The banks are set up to be charged by the main alternators while underway...and that works perfectly well even on longer days. I have a 1/2/1+2 switch on these banks.
Ok, so to the part that is going to make the senior members shake their heads, and makes me blush to tell it, but I'm not going to sugar coat it...I let the batteries get low on water over the summer when I was away from the boat, and I forgot to check on them before going out. Well, I did check the outback mate to make sure I had good voltage before we left, but that didn't cover my problem. Further, my genset is in pieces in the basement (subject for a different post) and so until I get that sorted I've got no way except the mains to recharge the banks.
So, set up on the hook Sunday for what was (until I tried to leave) a great day. The inverter does what its supposed to do and shuts down with (normally) enough juice to start my mains, but in their water depleted state, they didn't have the guts...either banks (including bridging them). In short I was dead in the water. After suffering the humiliation and anger of my situation, and waiting 3 hours for Tow Boat US...I PROMISED myself that wouldn't happen again.
So in pursuit of that goal, I went out and bought a 3rd bank of Bad A Trojan T-890's, and have a box all set up for them in the basement....but (here is the stupidist part of all)...I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them. have a general notion that I'm going to add these into my bank mix and until I get my genset back up (meaning new genset with most recent quote $28,000 yes that's thousand), it's the inverter that's going to have to do the heavy lifting.
So, my first thought is to isolate them, but then the mains wont recharge them and I'd need a switch that would be 1/2/3/1+2+3 etc. which I've never seen and don't think exists. Another thought is to add them to one of the existing banks, making an extra large 8 battery 32v bank (somehow) but then I'd have a monster 8 battery bank, with two different brands of batteries, and one 4 battery bank, and the alternator would have a hell of a time with the big bank maybe? Any of the configs I come up with seems to have a problem or problems.
The obvious solution with a genset would be to find a way to use all the banks on the inverter and recharge with genset (started by its own battery) as needed. I am working on the solution to the genset. I'd say that is realistically 6 mos away. One of the ideas I have is just turn the inverter off when I go on the hook...the refrigerators wouldn't go that warm over 3-4 hours, I'd still have water with 32v pump onboard, but wouldn't work very well if I wanted to stay over night.
So what would you guys do in my situation?
Haven't posted in a while, but am back to work on Maggie Mae.
Following the guidance of the best and brightest on this forum, I installed an outback 3232 inverter on my 1980 Hat 53'my with all the 32v legacy stuff intact as far as main alternators, starters and some other items. Have been delighted with it, and has functioned beautifully as a whole boat inverter for nearly 3 years
Setup is:
Have Two (2) 4 x 8v=32v banks....one bank is Interstate Batteries, and one is Napa Batteries...each bank less than 2 years old. The banks are set up to be charged by the main alternators while underway...and that works perfectly well even on longer days. I have a 1/2/1+2 switch on these banks.
Ok, so to the part that is going to make the senior members shake their heads, and makes me blush to tell it, but I'm not going to sugar coat it...I let the batteries get low on water over the summer when I was away from the boat, and I forgot to check on them before going out. Well, I did check the outback mate to make sure I had good voltage before we left, but that didn't cover my problem. Further, my genset is in pieces in the basement (subject for a different post) and so until I get that sorted I've got no way except the mains to recharge the banks.
So, set up on the hook Sunday for what was (until I tried to leave) a great day. The inverter does what its supposed to do and shuts down with (normally) enough juice to start my mains, but in their water depleted state, they didn't have the guts...either banks (including bridging them). In short I was dead in the water. After suffering the humiliation and anger of my situation, and waiting 3 hours for Tow Boat US...I PROMISED myself that wouldn't happen again.
So in pursuit of that goal, I went out and bought a 3rd bank of Bad A Trojan T-890's, and have a box all set up for them in the basement....but (here is the stupidist part of all)...I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them. have a general notion that I'm going to add these into my bank mix and until I get my genset back up (meaning new genset with most recent quote $28,000 yes that's thousand), it's the inverter that's going to have to do the heavy lifting.
So, my first thought is to isolate them, but then the mains wont recharge them and I'd need a switch that would be 1/2/3/1+2+3 etc. which I've never seen and don't think exists. Another thought is to add them to one of the existing banks, making an extra large 8 battery 32v bank (somehow) but then I'd have a monster 8 battery bank, with two different brands of batteries, and one 4 battery bank, and the alternator would have a hell of a time with the big bank maybe? Any of the configs I come up with seems to have a problem or problems.
The obvious solution with a genset would be to find a way to use all the banks on the inverter and recharge with genset (started by its own battery) as needed. I am working on the solution to the genset. I'd say that is realistically 6 mos away. One of the ideas I have is just turn the inverter off when I go on the hook...the refrigerators wouldn't go that warm over 3-4 hours, I'd still have water with 32v pump onboard, but wouldn't work very well if I wanted to stay over night.
So what would you guys do in my situation?
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I think once they drop another 25%, that will be the end of lead-acid, but of course, the lead-acid will just drop 25% as well.
