40 sedan bridge forum

My boat's battery setup is a single port side starter, and a dual starboard side setup, wired in parallel for the house. (I think). I would like to add a 4th in parallel to the port side single, to match the other side with dual batteries. That extra battery would run that starter, and increase the capacity to install an upgraded pair of amps, about 1200 watts, to keep it off of the house circuit. Has anyone done this? Is this a simple plug and play as far as the battery isolator goes and the charger? Works on one side, shouldn't it work on the other?
 

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My boat's battery setup is a single port side starter, and a dual starboard side setup, wired in parallel for the house. (I think). I would like to add a 4th in parallel to the port side single, to match the other side with dual batteries. That extra battery would run that starter, and increase the capacity to install an upgraded pair of amps, about 1200 watts, to keep it off of the house circuit. Has anyone done this? Is this a simple plug and play as far as the battery isolator goes and the charger? Works on one side, shouldn't it work on the other?

Hi Drafter. Not sure if I would do that... if u run the port dual batteries down with your amp, u will not be able to start the port engine and I think the emergency switch works only from the port to starboard to start the starboard engine, but I could be wrong...

By the way, i love the floor u put into your boat. I’m in the process to put the same Plasteak flooring in like u did, just in teak and holly. Really ecxited to get it done :)
 
Thanks Juergen, post pics of your floor, and don't hesitate to let me know if I can help in any way. I've put a lot of thought into which battery to combine off of. A friend added his to his genny battery to eliminate a possible starting issue. The emergency switch should start either engine by combining both sides into one, I would think.
All of my upholstery came out on Saturday to be recovered. Attached are a few pics if anyone has ever been curious as to what was behind their couch. I was finally able to find the "rum hold" behind the starboard side couch with the one panel that lifts up. (pic attached) Disregard the pic of the previous owners wiring under the starboard couch that consisted of an orange electrical cord.... He ran power and video cables from the engine room to the forward berth to an inverter so that he could watch TV on the hook without the genny. His orange extension cord was drilled through my couch base, so I cut it. All of that is coming out for a number of different reasons. I have still yet to find an AC outlet for the factory TV to plug into the forward berth cubby. I don't know if it has been removed or in a weird spot. So if anyone knows or has a picture of theirs, I would love to see it.
 

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Drafter - I know we have different boats, but I pulled out a drawer in my fwd stateroom below the closet, and voila - against the hull was the AC outlet for the TV. So look everywhere you can access...
 
Carter is right. The hidden outlets powering appliances and such are as follows: behind each TV, in the compartment behind the sleeper sofa (powers the house vac) behind the fridge (powers fridge and microwave), under/behind the galley sink (powers the coffee maker) under the bridge steps (powers ice maker or fridge)
 
After working the whole weekend on putting my new floor in (still being sore) , I got most done in the kitchen and salon but it's still work in progress. I'll keep y'all updated...
 

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After working the whole weekend on putting my new floor in (still being sore) , I got most done in the kitchen and salon but it's still work in progress. I'll keep y'all updated...

That looks awesome! I dig the compass rose, and like how you took the joint for the stair removal out of the equation. I wished I would have figured something out for that. I hate that joint... Are you going to put new pull latches in for the hatches? I spent some money on nice Perko's because they would be exposed, and then saw some knockoff's that looked identical at Wholesale Marine for 1/3 of the cost.... If you're not doing it already, you could leave the clean look that you have, and just push them up from underneath by crawling through the lazerette hatch when you needed to access the engines from the salon.
 
That looks awesome! I dig the compass rose, and like how you took the joint for the stair removal out of the equation. I wished I would have figured something out for that. I hate that joint... Are you going to put new pull latches in for the hatches? I spent some money on nice Perko's because they would be exposed, and then saw some knockoff's that looked identical at Wholesale Marine for 1/3 of the cost.... If you're not doing it already, you could leave the clean look that you have, and just push them up from underneath by crawling through the lazerette hatch when you needed to access the engines from the salon.


Thanks Drafter :)
I wanted to avoid this joint, I just moved the laminates all the way to the end of the stairs, now when u pull the stairs back the laminate is kind of hanging in the air but how often r u removing the stairs.... I did the same by the sliding door, I pulled the laminate flooring from the hedge all the way to the back, so I don't have a joint there as well. (lid still opens, had to do some German engineering ;))
As of right now I'm not planning to put the pull latches back in, I had already the SS pull latches but it looks so much cleaner without it.
How r u going to do your trim around the edges?
 
I tried to put mine in tight enough to not need trim. There was no trim from the factory vinyl floor to the vitricor wall in the galley, and I liked that clean look. I did keep the carpeted toe kick under the sink cabinet that you can't really see.
If I were to go with trim, I would definitely loose the carpeted base boards and do something like a small flexible quarter round that I could match closely like this:
http://uswoodflooring.blogspot.com/
For the stair nosing, I used the plastic trim piece that Plasteak sells. Don't love it, but I can live with it...
Their stair nosing trim is 3/4" Our stair treads are 1" thick, plus the 3/16" thickness of the flooring. I ripped some panel down to glue to the nose, and then put the plastic trim over that to cover the joint.
I left the edges raw and sanded them smooth on the dinette step and floor under the table.
 

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I tried to put mine in tight enough to not need trim. There was no trim from the factory vinyl floor to the vitricor wall in the galley, and I liked that clean look. I did keep the carpeted toe kick under the sink cabinet that you can't really see.
If I were to go with trim, I would definitely loose the carpeted base boards and do something like a small flexible quarter round that I could match closely like this:
http://uswoodflooring.blogspot.com/
For the stair nosing, I used the plastic trim piece that Plasteak sells. Don't love it, but I can live with it...
Their stair nosing trim is 3/4" Our stair treads are 1" thick, plus the 3/16" thickness of the flooring. I ripped some panel down to glue to the nose, and then put the plastic trim over that to cover the joint.
I left the edges raw and sanded them smooth on the dinette step and floor under the table.

I didn't get this tight, my plan is to either rip off the carpet from the trims and rap it with vinyl ( I did it on one piece, u can see it in the pic from the kitchen floor) or use 1" diameter rope as trim to have more the nautical look..., not sure yet.
For the stair nose I'll go with the aluminum trim and I think I'll put a nice radius into the top stair on the kitchen side, so it fits better to the rest... but we will see. I'll keep u updated with my progress.
 
AF6D83AF-0BB6-4A14-AF3D-4B491B2EE1D0.jpeg
I finally finished the full flooring replacement with all plastic. Vinyl flooring finally went down over the factory engineered maple floor. I put new trim around the hatch area (unstained red oak coated with satin poly) and sanded the red stain out of the step down edge and coated it with clear satin poly. You are looking at $63 of material right there.

That's it for upgrades to the boat. Pretty much got her where we want her after 4.5 years of ownership. Now I'll sit back and watch the cool stuff Drafter and the rest of you are doing.
 
Jeeze. You guys are all stepping up your game! I thought I was doing well with updates to my boat. Not so much anymore. ;)
 
I see where my 2000 400DB has 350 gallons of diesel with 333 usable. Anyone know how that breaks down per tank? Trying to figure out how much additives I should put in each side.
All I see in the owners manual is the total capacities.
 
Jeeze. You guys are all stepping up your game! I thought I was doing well with updates to my boat. Not so much anymore. ;)
Ha! Most of mine is my wife's idea! I'm just her personal laborer! I've told her that this Saturday is "amplifier" Saturday... That one is pretty much just me... I ordered 2 amps this week to replace the ancient factory 240 watt Clarion that's trying to push 10 speakers and a sub up hill. I picked up a used 6 channel 600 watt RMS JL off of EBay for the 6 outside speakers, and a 600 watt RMS 2 channel Kicker for the sub, and adding a second sub, that I'm going to mount on the opposite starboard side of the helm. All of my speakers have already been replaced with new JL stuff. The previous owner had already dropped in a decent Fusion deck a few years ago. Nothing like cutting a 10" hole in your fiberglass to make you pucker. I've "toyed" with adding (2) 6 1/2's facing rearward somehow in the transom for when we're getting our float on. Most of the new boats incorporate them. I'm not seeing a great location for them, and doubt I'll do it. I would like to see if anyone else has done something similar, or even pics of other 400DB stereo installs that are a little more than stock. I don't need to be the party cove DJ, but would like great sound bumping down the lake at 10 miles per hour with friends enjoying a beverage.
 
Well that took a while (3 evenings)! I just finished reading the entirety of the 124 pages of conversation. You folks are indeed an amazing community.

My wife, 4 year old daughter, golden retriever, and myself are planning a few years of southern cruising starting this coming fall. We are Canadians (eh) and own a seasonal business that is open from May until October. We have cruised a bit on charters in the Abacos, Bahamas and want to explore the Bahamas more. I'm also a small tour-boat captain up here in the summer months.

We have been working away at our requirements for a boat for a few months now. The specific requirements (i.e. The dog has to be able to get on and off the boat easily and be able to get everywhere on the boat) has led us to the Sea Ray 400 Sedan. This forum put us over the top and we are 99% sure this is the boat we're going for.

First, thank you for all of your posts. It is really inspiring. When making a big purchase like this confidence is important. You folks gave us a lot of that! Just knowing that this forum is here to help is a major boost. It also sounds like the boat is generally well built.

A few specific questions to start:

1 - Does anyone have any information/suggestions/experience with larger dogs on their boat?

2 - Has anyone installed solar panels (hard or soft) to keep the generator time down? We want to be on the hook/mooring a lot and want to keep the noise to a minimum.

3 - Does anyone live-aboard their boat? Some long-term stay advice for the boat would be really appreciated.

4 - Does anyone know of or have any well-kept 400s for sale? Looking for diesels and can pretty much do anywhere on the east coast.

That's it for now but I'm sure this is just the start. Thank you so much!
 

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