Al & Michele's Catalina 34

"Kindred Spirit's" Wiring Diagram

GOAL:
Battery switch always on #1 house battery bank (when on board), alternator charges to that #1 house battery bank first then thru the Combiner to the #2 engine battery.
The Freedom 10 charger, when plugged in at dock will charge directly the #1 house battery bank and thru the combiner to the #2 starter battery.
If the engine battery should become discharged, then the battery switch could be set to both and the engine started with all the batteries.
Benefit: 110 volt to make coffee for those brisk mornings.

Equipment Required:

Freedom 10 Inverter / Charger
West Marine Combiner
Four Batteries (House)
One Battery (Engine)
Original Battery Switch
Original Alternator, 55 amp

1: Disconnect alternator wire from starter sol and bring up to common on battery switch with house feed.
2: Disconnect starter power wire from back of battery switch (was with house feed) and place on #2 side of switch so it is directly to the #2 starter battery. Could add disconnect further down the line.
3: The #1 on battery switch still goes to the #1 house bank batteries. Connect Freedom 10 directly to house bank batteries.
4: Connect West Marine Combiner between the #1 house bank batteries and the #2 starter battery.

To Bob Martin
Sunset #1229
Sorry the wiring diagram has some small lettering on it. Next time I will know better. Just learning all this new technolgy stuff.
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These are both 100 amp fuses. Both plus and neg say fuse. Maybe some one can help use out here, I may have that wrong?????? Sitting here and visioning what I did without the boat in front of me is tough.
<<200 amp fuse type??>>
It is a SeaFuse holder from West Marine ($19.89) and a Mega fuse 200 amp ($8.19) with holes on two inch center to fit the stud connectors on the fuse holder.
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I maxed out $ wise and have not upgraded my 1986 55 amp alternator that is on the engine. So it has an internal regulator and still does a fine job but if I run the batteries down it will take a LOT of engine running to fully charge them. I do not worry about it alot because I keep the boat pluged in at the dock while I work during the week "to afford it." With the Freedom 10 Inverter as a charger I have fully charged batteries by sailing time.
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I should have called this the ALL position. The DP at this position is the distrubition Panel that has all the 12v boat items that draw all that power.

Adam writes: That looks real good, I have been courious about a system like this.
How many amp hours is this bank? Do you have large demands?
Do you need speacal charging or can your motor top it off well enough?
We have no shore power and just a yanmar 11hp, do you think this can keep a bank like that charged?

Thank You
Adam

To Adam
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With the four 6 volt golf cart batteries you don't add the amps when you combined them to get 12v but you do add them when you connect the four together at 12 volt each set, so if each 6 volt golf cart battery is 220 amp hrs, you get a total amp hour supply of 440 amp hrs. Plus if I need more I can add the engine battery. (I used Dunop GC-2, 6v, 220 amp hr batteries)
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No but I may in the future so it was the first step. I also added the Freedom 10 Inverter mostly as a battery charge when plugged into the dock. My only draw on the battery bank at this point is all the distribution 12v system on the boat, a 110v coffee maker (very important), maybe a hair drier for the Admiral if we go to shore to eat. We have no AC or refrigeration.
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We motor one half hour to get to good sailing areas so that is a good start and we plug in at the dock over the week. I still have the originional 1986, 55 amp alternator on the engine. If I ever run the battery bank real low it will take a long time with that alternator. I am doing one step at a time. The wiring was the winters project as you see from the wiring diagram.

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