Batteries

[glwestcott]

I've had four golf carts on a epoxied wood shelf bolted into the original battery box in my 1994 C34 for 10 years.  I also added another battery for engine start by building a box on the starboard side near the water tank.  I've changed the batteries only once since then.  Did a trip to Hawaii with two weeks out and only motoring to chage since it was a race and three weeks back.  Only needed to run the motor every three days to keep the fridge happy.  We played lots of tunes, ran the SSB and weather fax, and generally wasted electricity through the whole trip.  IMHO golf cart batteries are great.  They are light and easy to swap out when you want to and are very cheap to buy at various locations.  I also run a higher output alternator that was a bolt on replacement with a smart charger.  Also have a big freedom inverter so the blender doesn't have to be 12 volt.

[Jon Arck - Past C34IA Commodore]

hi, Bob

The original batteries on my 1997 C34 Mk II lasted only 3 years, and I replaced them with Interstate.  6 1/2 years later, they're still holding a charge without a problem (they're tied-together in parallel as a house bank, and I use a separate Group 24 battery for starting).

The next time around, I may convert to the six volt batteries.

Regards,
Jon

[captran]

check the following link from the projects page.  http://www.c34.org/projects/projects-electrical-system-upgrade.html    I printed out the pic and took it in when I bought my trojans and the related cabling.  I bought the battery boxes at the local Napa, cut them down and disgarded the tops and the 6 or so inches I cut off.    The boxes came with the tie down straps which I screwed into the plywood first, then screwed down the boxes with washers on the low part of the battery box so theres no chafing.  I put a few small pieces of 1x2 pine in a few places to keep the spacing for cooling.  I do have a pic on the lap top but not on the desktop, but it looks very similar to whats pictured on the link above.  It was easy, and I'm no mechanical wizard.