Battery setup for twin engine boat

Boat Design Net. Hello all, I have a project boat I have been working on for 2 years and I have come to the point where I have to install batteries.

I have twin Yanmar 6LY2's and a genset. I have a genset I will install in the future but for now the only source of charging is the 60 Amp Yanmar Alternator.

The VSR cluster has a parallel for both starting batteries, but I will also add an electric solenoid to parallel starting and house batteries. Any ideas or suggestions? ChrisN67 , Nov 13, Normally you keep start batteries separate.. And whats a gen set for?

Charging the house bank? Normally an additional , single ,dedicated engine driven high output alternator and naturally a battery charger for dock use does the trick. For generating limited AC , an extra pair of extra house batteries and a combo battery charger dc ac verter does a fine job on a small boat. And keep an eye on those Optima high output batteries. They seem to put out so much power during a start, that the terminal on the battery is overwhelmed. Twice Ive had Optima battery terminals fail after one or two years.

By fail I mean the terminal stud physically becoming detatched from the actually battery. Perhaps its a design or manufacturing flaw?

For shoreside start bank charging Ive had good luck with dedicated Perhaps skech out your propsed installation and post. Seems to me to be complicated. Thanks for the response. The blue seas cluster basically allows each alternator to charge the respective starting battery. The idea is to charge starting batteries first. Ya Ok Makes sense. Guess it works!! Perhaps for daytrip type of boat its the inteligent way to go about it.

I see various Smart charging. I believe Balmar sells one. You might swing by their website also Victron and Mastervolt to check out their thoughts and system layouts. I prefer dedicated sytems for robustness. Not really an issue for day tips and generaly having fun. A good detail on boats with sensitive electronics and a big load placed on alternator charged service and house battery bank combos is to protect your delicate electronics from overvoltage, voltage surges with dc to dc converters Not expensive.

I have two totally independent systems one for each engine, each side has two batteries four in total each side has an isolator switch so one battery on each side cannot be discharged when moored.

As most of the systems are replicated on v light, heat, fridge tv ect I don't need constant charging when moored with shorepower. Seems to work. Joined 17 Sep Messages Location Nottingham.

MYStargazer New member. Joined 5 Jan Messages 1, I'm planning just such a twin-engine system. I recon the first step is not to include a confusing off switch, but instead have all battery banks leading to bus bars, in a water-resistant box, with a clear cover, and labelling so you can at-a-glance what's what.

Each bank 2 x 12v for my mostly 24v setup has it's own simple on-switch. It's taken an age to figure out previous owners' spaghetti Joined 28 Jan Messages 11, Location Lochaber. I have a twin engined boat with two batteries, one starts both engines, does the lights, bilge pump etc.

The only thing that seems to be attached to the other battery seems to be the port alternator! I wouldn't recommend this setup but at least I have a fully charged battery to start the engines when the starter one is flat which given it does everything does happen, no I didn't wire the boat. Robg71 New member. My old sunseeker has two banks. One does just the port side engine. The other does the rest, with a battery combiner solenoid.

I quite like this on a small boat. My domestic and stbd bank is Ah, 2x 12volts. Engine start battery is a single Ah. At the moment I am assuming hat one engine charges one battery and the other engine charges the other. What is wrong with your existing setup? I quite like the fact that running your house battery down still leaves you with a working starting battery that you cant accidently run low using accessories.

Joined Dec 19, Messages I normally do not like to direct a person from one message board to another one but in this case I think it will do some real good for you and won't hurt the sponsor of this page at all. It will show you exactly what to put where for a very well thought out and rational system. Thanks for in info, i'll follow up on your suggestion. I guess the idea is that both motors will charge both batteries. Joined Oct 31, Messages I have a 2 bat 2 motor 2 switch set up similar to the diagrams.

I could be wrong but the schematics show 2 connections to the motor: starter and alternator. Is that always the set up two wires to the motor?

His boat, which I believe is a 29' Scout, is heavily loaded with electronics but has adequate charging capacity I believe he is running a pair of hp. The schematic he has put together is so nice that about all you have to do is print it and laminate it as a wireing diagram for your boat - he even went so far as to color code it.

The guy really did a nice job.