Adding a 2nd Battery

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OH! THAT is why use use a sealant. I was assuming you glued the tray down AND used screws. Not to seal the holes from water...Great idea :cheers:

New boat is not seadoo, so there is PLENTY of room to work in it. Even getting to the stereo, steering, and dash gauges is as simple as laying a life vest on the floor (for my head) and laying on my back.

No more tight spaces or working hanging over the seat upside down. :hurray::hurray::hurray:
 
scooper77515 said:
OH! THAT is why use use a sealant. I was assuming you glued the tray down AND used screws. Not to seal the holes from water...Great idea :cheers:

New boat is not seadoo, so there is PLENTY of room to work in it. Even getting to the stereo, steering, and dash gauges is as simple as laying a life vest on the floor (for my head) and laying on my back.

No more tight spaces or working hanging over the seat upside down. :hurray::hurray::hurray:
Click to expand...


In all honesty anytime I work on these in the engine bay I almost always pull the hatch/deck lid by removing the 6 bolts and struts, then you have all sorts of room to work on them, the sk like I have is very nice as the amp can be mounted inside the front storage compartment. Anytime you drill through fiberglass if you can its a good idea to seal the holes, I am actually removing all my fixed cleats and adding pop up cleats, they will all be sealed with 3m removable sealant, the worst thing to deal with is fiberglass/gelcoat blisters on any boat big or small. This is my first seadoo boat that I will be doing this kind of work to.
 
When you stop the boat and use your radio for a few hours, what setting do you have the switch on? Or do you just keep it set to "both batteries" constantly, and never worry about it?

My Challenger 1800 doesn't have a battery switch... so I will need to find a place to mount one. And hopefully I have enough room in the engine bay for another battery

Nice writeup, thanks!
 
In my boat, currently the radio/amp and starter are all hooked up to a single 325 CCA battery. I am adding a second 550 CCA battery that I will use for starting the engine. But will switch to only the 325 CCA to run the radio when we are beached.

Both will be on when running to charge them. Switch to small battery at beach. So bigger battery never gets drained from radio.
 
For anyone that may want to do this to a twin engine 1998, 99, 2000, Speedster, you may find this helpful. The bolt/screw holding the ignition/spark plug wire box down took a 10mm socket for me.. I just spent around 30 mins. in that blind spot trying different sockets, until I found one that fit!
 
RFoster do you remember what your factory battery switch brand was? I am looking to replace the factory switch in my 230 for a dual battery switch like your install. I want it to fit in the factory location. Currently mine is a BEP 701s panel mount the best I can tell. I have found the dimensions for the BEP switch but can not find one for the Perko equipment. I have been looking at the perko 8512DP switch as the replacement I just want to make sure it will fit in the factory recessed location. Thanks!
 
Im not sure how i missed your question. Anyway, my factory switch was perko, same as the new one. It was the same size and swapped right in.
 
Here's the stuff I'm going to order for 2nd Battery:

Battery Switch...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GUEST-2111A...667?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c4008b3b

Cobra Inverter cable same as RFoster
http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-CPI-A40...60872463&sr=1-1&keywords=cobra+inverter+cable

Battery Tray from ebay using RFoster link

Nail Glue from the local Store...

Battery from Sams club:
Duracell® AGM Deep Cycle Marine and RV Battery - Group Size SL34MAGM
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/durace...p-size-sl34magm/prod3590225.ip?navAction=push

OR

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/duracell-marine-battery-group-size-27dc/prod3590231.ip?navAction=push


Now, I need to find a way to hide my bills from wife... She's already counting my Speaker/Amp bill (waiting for all the goodies to reach at home before I post a pic)
 
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I bought the switch and never got a chance to do installation...all the stuff is sitting in storage. But if I remember it correctly, I confirmed with 2010 C180 owner before I bought it.
 
All water craft should have at least two (2) batteries. Been boating many years and had all kinds of watercraft and if it had one battery, I always added another one for backup. Just bought a Sportster and that will be my first project.
 
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I am kicking around the idea of a second battery OR just a portable battery jumper pack. Subs and amp will only be used while driving and if floating I would have the amp turned off.
 
It's nice to have 2 batteries. With the smaller boats we had, and before the kids came... it wasn't as big of a factor. But, the Islandia has a lot of power uses. (radio, fountain pump, fresh water pump, lights, inflating tubes, ect) I put a brand new Die-Hard Group 27 in it after the engine rebuild... but if we were out floating/swimming... after a couple hours, I will get a low power warning. The engine can still start... but it's nice to reach down, and flip the battery over to a fresh one.

I did my double battery this past spring... and it was well worth the money. (under $200 to do. Switch, cables, battery and box)


http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?62621-Second-battery-in-a-Merc-powered-Islandia
 
I added a on board charger/maintainer and plan to get a battery jumper box. I plan to add a amp to power 2 subs and tower speakers and will only use it while driving and turn it off while beached. If it does drain the jumper box will be good enough for now.
 
If you wanna add an amp and 2 subs I would highly recommend adding the second battery. Even while running, i think it can put too big of a drain on the stock charging system trying to keep the battery up.
 
when running are you using battery 1 & 2 OR is your boat only running on battery 1 and 2 w/ the amp is not attached to the charging system at all? That is another option I am thinking of is adding a stand alone 2nd battery with a on board charger just to run the amp for the day. Any thoughts?
 
pwgsx said:
when running are you using battery 1 & 2 OR is your boat only running on battery 1 and 2 w/ the amp is not attached to the charging system at all? That is another option I am thinking of is adding a stand alone 2nd battery with a on board charger just to run the amp for the day. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I have both batteries wired to the switch. Then everything on the boat is hooked to the switch. so EVERYTHING is using what the selector is set to. I use #1 to start the boat. I leave it on#1 for a bit to let it charge up, then i switch it to both. I leave it on both. Then if I plan on sitting and listening to music, i turn it to #2, which is a deep cycle. I can use the system for hours off of it. Then when im ready to go home I set it back to #1 to get the boat started. Then once started i turn it back to both so it can charge #2 back up. I had my last boat wired the same way and it never failed me in 4 seasons.

If you are going to go through the trouble of adding a 2nd battery...why would you not want it tied into the rest of the boat? You never know if #1 might fail or you might have a problem. Always nice to have that 2nd battery capable of running everything.
 
1320INC said:
Took boat out for first time yesterday with dual battery setup. It was AWESOME!!! Ran the radio for hours and hours, turned on the bilge just before we left the beach and ran the engine blower for quite a few minutes before leaving. All of the previously mentioned things I was scared to do after running the stereo for awhile with a single battery set up. I am a bit of a worrier and it was a nice relaxing day. This is a MUST DO mod for anyone.:cheers:
Click to expand...

I could not agree more on the dual battery setup. Ours is setup so that the engine will put a charge on both batteries, but I would never rely on it for the Deep Cycle.

We can usually run all summer by throwing the charger on the Deep Cycle a couple times. This summer with two amps, I have actually drained the Deep Cycle to the point that at least one amp would cut out. That was the indication that it needed to go on the charger overnight. But, we never had to worry about the AGM cranking battery! Of course, this was while we were on vacation and running the stereo for many hours day after day. The system worked perfectly.

Nice right up Foster, as always!
 
Dammit guess I will add that to the list this winter :) . I read though its not recommended to switch batteries say from 1 to 1&2 while its running. Any thoughts?
 
hi, i'm about to try this project myself on my 1997 challenger 1800.... a quick question, were do you get the panel for perko switch?
 
Some boats come with a switch... and I think you are seeing pictures from those boats.

I'd say the best place to find one is on ebay.
 
Dr Honda said:
Some boats come with a switch... and I think you are seeing pictures from those boats.

I'd say the best place to find one is on ebay.
Click to expand...

Doesn't that seem really odd that some came with and some came without? It's true though. So many don't have the switch, and many don't have an hour meter. I guess we were real lucky to have both in ours.

I like the way ours is setup with the simple on/off perko. We don't have to choose battery 1, 2 ,1+2. It's either all on or all off. I would like our stereo to keep it's settings though. GRRRR!
 
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