I have two group 4D 12 volt house batteries connected in parallel to run all the boat electronics, refrigerator, lights etc. My starter battery is a regular automotive/marine 12 volt. It has no connection to the house batteries. My question is, if the starter battery ever went dead, could I run a set of jumper wires from the house to the starter battery?
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Paul & Wendy Keyser
"First Light"
Rye NH
2005 C36 MKII #2257
Wing, M35B
(null)
I would imagine you have a battery switch on your panel. Marked #1 and #2 and All. Place the switch on all should combine all batteries, house and starting batteries that accomplishes what you would be doing with jumper cables and safely.
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Mark Holzmann
"Hawkwind"
Sail #1246
Rose City Yacht Club-Portland OR
Thanks for your response Mark. Three years into our C36 ownership, we are still learning about her.
I have three battery switches. One says "1, 2, or Both". That's for the house batteries. The other is a rotary position switch for the engine battery. And then I have a plastic key switch next to both rotary switches. It has an on / off position. To send power to the starter motor- I need to turn on the both the engine rotary switch and and the key switch. I can leave the house batteries off. If I switch on the house batteries and leave the engine battery rotary switch and key switch in the off position, no power goes to the engine when I push the starter button at the helm. I will experiment with the key switch to determine if that will send house power to the engine. I'll also play around with a volt meter. In addition to the primary + and - leads, all the batteries have additional (2-3) wires connected to the positive terminals. One concern I had about jump starting the engine was feeding current to places it shouldn't be going and damaging some electronics or the regulator...especially with all the extra wires.
Paul & Wendy Keyser
"First Light"
Rye NH
2005 C36 MKII #2257
Wing, M35B
Paul just because you have a batt switch 1, 2, all does not mean that the "all" position includes your eng batt. I just rewired our boat because the PO had... well I can't begin to explain or understand what they did. Now we have our house bank wired to the 1 2 all switch on DC panel that runs all ship functions. I also have a 1 2 all switch for my eng batt where the engine batt is 1, and I have a pos cable coming from my house batt #2 to eng batt switch 2 so that I can bring a house batt on if my eng batt fails. One other thought, I wonder if you have a charger capable of multiple types of batteries? Not sure what type of batt your two group 4D 12 V house batts are (Gel, AGM, lead acid?) I have AGM for my two house and also my eng batt. I was told mixing not good? Good luck!
Mike and Nikki Willis
1996 C 36 #1570 "Slip Away"
MK II - Tall Rig - Winged Keel
Fremont, Ohio
Paul
To answer your question about jumping your house batteries to engine battery. I see no problem doing that as long as you jump positive to positive and negative to negative. I would use the Pos and Neg on one 4d.
I agree that you should "bug out" your cabling and switches. Seems strange that you couldn't combine all banks.
You never know what a PO has done and why.
Chuck Lennox
97 MKii Ventura Ca
Island Girl Hull #1611