Official 1980's Weekender/Sundancer 300 thread

Hello all, I have a 1986 300 sundancer and was wondering how ymany batteries do you guys have with similar boats. Mine has two and was thinking it should have one more. Any thoughts? ???
 
I have 3. One starting, one house and another for the genny.


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I'm running with four.
 
Three blue tops, on house/Genset one for each engine
 
Does anyone have a "battery wiring for dummies" diagram? I've found schematics but am not an electrician so it's hard to make heads or tails of original arrangement to compare to current and decide whether to change anything.

Three batteries, three bank charger, two switches. After some voltmeter checking, we believe the battery charger does not run through the switches, which sounds like a good thing based on comments in this thread and elsewhere in the forum.

One battery starts the port engine, but it doesn't seem to run anything else. I like that. The other two seem to be tied together, as we get starboard start and house juice no matter whether switch is in position 1, position 2, or position both. (Just now realized we didn't test which starts the generator.)

We had one instance this season where we ran the two-battery setup so far down that the starboard engine wouldn't start; emergency start switch did its job, though, so all was well. My goal in asking for a simpler diagram is to work our way to separating house/starboard engine batteries to avoid that risk in the future.

TIA!
 
dwna1a said:
yes! I'm surprised there isn't one there already
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I haven't had a big boat very long, but I'm already in the "nothing surprises me anymore" camp because I've seen kooky things right and left. Some people (including me at times, I'm sure!) should have their DIY cards revoked!
 
Trfgirl, that would spook the stuffing out of me! What other work did the PO do?
 
dwna1a said:
Trfgirl, that would spook the stuffing out of me! What other work did the PO do?
Click to expand...
It's more learning from others since I was hanging with boaters before I had my own. (Not to mention driving a '71 Corolla that was an automatic transmission but that every mechanic in middle TN insisted was a standard, because that's what it says in the parts book. I don't care how it came off the assembly line, people--I'm tellin' ya what it is TODAY! I mean, know I'm a girl and all, but I do know the difference!)

One example: wiring on a friend's DA was so jacked up she couldn't tell what was running what, and was having to plug into friends' generators and/or jump start any time she was away from shore power for a prolonged period. (She has no generator.) She was going through batteries like crazy....and the best the mechanic could do was start the process of elimination. She's in much better shape than she was, but frustrated that it isn't easy to just set things to original.

On our boat, we've been lucky. So far we've found cut wires to the manual switch that activates the aft bilge, wires for which we can't identify a purpose, disconnected exhaust hoses that resulted in CO alarms (thankfully before major risk to health/safety), and a little uncertainty in our battery wiring to house/engines/genny. The owner before me had removed the drop-down bench seat, as well, which should have been a piece of cake to re-install. After much sweating and gnashing of teeth because we couldn't get it right, we realized the piano hinge had been reversed--that just hadn't occurred to me, First Mate, or the six other people who were in the line as we were doing the project....most of them more seasoned that us!

I consider myself extremely lucky though--it's possible mine was owned by the same person from original purchase through 2012, then bounced to just one other before I got it.
 
I'm very lucky. I got Seahorse from a dealer who took very good care of her while he had her and the PO is a member here. All the books I've looked at shows that both the WE and DA of our years have a battery switch, I'm not saying yours does just saying what the old books show. All WE's or DA's that had a Genset have three batteries, two cold starts for the three engines and one deep cell for the house.
 
dwna1a said:
I'm very lucky. I got Seahorse from a dealer who took very good care of her while he had her and the PO is a member here. All the books I've looked at shows that both the WE and DA of our years have a battery switch, I'm not saying yours does just saying what the old books show. All WE's or DA's that had a Genset have three batteries, two cold starts for the three engines and one deep cell for the house.
Click to expand...
thewetexpress said:
Nope no battery switch, all my previous smaller boats had them. But not this one , I was shocked it only had two batteries
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Sounds like somebody got creative or desperate in redoing yours! Have you checked the ER for evidence of bubble gum and chicken wire, too?
 
just follow the wires from your charger to veify they are going to the battery and not the switch. u should also have one battery that is feeding the bilge pump with no switch involved
 
Does anyone know offhand what size breakers are at the helm for the motors? Not at the boat right now, and can't get there until next week, but want to order one.
Thanks
 
Re: Batteries/Switches.
Mine is set up with one battery connected to the Port motor that does nothing but start that motor. It didn't have a switch to turn it off/on when I first got the boat, but I added one a couple of years ago.
I have two batteries connected to the Stbd motor and they are on a battery switch that has the option for Battery 1, Both, or Battery 2. Either (or both together) will start the Stbd motor, and run all of the 12 volt stuff on the boat.
The only things that will run with that switch set to the off position are the bilge pumps.
I generally run the boat with that switch in the both position, then when I get to where I'm going (generally on the hook), I put the switch in either the Battery 1 or Battery 2 position. My thinking is that if I should run the battery down when sitting on the hook, I'll still have another good battery hooked to the Stbd. motor.
The other back-up plan is the "Emergency Start" toggle switch on the dash. It is connected to a solenoid in the bilge.
When depressed momentarily it will jump start one motor using the battery from the other.
I think my set-up is pretty much original from the factory with the exception of the extra battery switch I added for the Port motor.
I have been considering adding a second battery to the port motor and just hooking it up to the windlass since that draws so much power, but I've held off because I don't want to take the chance of draining that side.
 
JVM225 said:
Re: Batteries/Switches.
Mine is set up with one battery connected to the Port motor that does nothing but start that motor. It didn't have a switch to turn it off/on when I first got the boat, but I added one a couple of years ago.
I have two batteries connected to the Stbd motor and they are on a battery switch that has the option for Battery 1, Both, or Battery 2. Either (or both together) will start the Stbd motor, and run all of the 12 volt stuff on the boat.
The only things that will run with that switch set to the off position are the bilge pumps.
I generally run the boat with that switch in the both position, then when I get to where I'm going (generally on the hook), I put the switch in either the Battery 1 or Battery 2 position. My thinking is that if I should run the battery down when sitting on the hook, I'll still have another good battery hooked to the Stbd. motor.
The other back-up plan is the "Emergency Start" toggle switch on the dash. It is connected to a solenoid in the bilge.
When depressed momentarily it will jump start one motor using the battery from the other.
I think my set-up is pretty much original from the factory with the exception of the extra battery switch I added for the Port motor.
I have been considering adding a second battery to the port motor and just hooking it up to the windlass since that draws so much power, but I've held off because I don't want to take the chance of draining that side.
Click to expand...
The setup you describe appears to match mine. So you manually create a house battery and a starboard start battery, which is what we've been considering. Maybe we can create a new habit next season; we'll still run the boat over winter, but probably not often enough to get solid in the routine.
 
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