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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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johnsonp
Admiral

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USA
606 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/09/2005 : 01:53:15

Did someone relocate the batteies?
paulj #719

Edited by - on

Jeff McK
Captain

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USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 07:15:44

Paul,

Can you give us a little more detail

I've given up telepathy for Lent.

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 07:49:08

If owning a pre-owned 250, the battery may be moved from the aft compartment. Many owners seeking to put the 250 better on her lines, moved weight forward and with the battery always a pain to service in the aft compartment, it was a logical move with the single drawback that it worked well there for an electric start outboard.

It is my understanding that current production has now also moved the battery out of the aft compartment.

Some, like myself, left the group 24 battery aft, adding additional capacity forward in the V berth locker to help boat balance and ease servicing.

My choice to support cruising, was to add two six volt golf cart batteries to the V berth but that is way overkill for most needs. Those two batteries are 140 lbs.

For most use, a single group 27 would work fine.

Edited by - on

Jeff McK
Captain

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USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 13:47:51

Arlyn,

If they moved the battery in the 250, it must have happened VERY recently as I did not hear anything about this at the fall boat shows.

My WK boat was built in August 2004, and the battery is mounted in the aft compartment. A forward mounted battery would help with fore-aft trim, but If you have an electric start outboard, you're going to need an awfully long cable run from under the V-berth.

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 14:26:42

Jeff, I agree and think it reasonable to leave one group 24 battery in the aft compartment if an electric start motor and add all further capacity forward.

It seems that someone reported Catalina making a swap of battery location... but I could have dreamt it.

Edited by - on

Jeff McK
Captain

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USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 14:52:18

I just spoke to Catalina tech support. The person I spoke to was out on a new 250 last week & says the battery is still in the aft compartment. Furthermore, they were not aware of a plan to move it forward anytime soon.

Paul: Now I'm curious as to what prompted your original question.

Edited by - on

johnsonp
Admiral

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USA
606 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 17:05:36

[quote]Originally posted by Jeff McK
 I just spoke to Catalina tech support. The person I spoke to was out on a new 250 last week & says the battery is still in the aft compartment. Furthermore, they were not aware of a plan to move it forward anytime soon.

Paul: Now I'm curious as to what prompted your original question.

Well I guess I left out some words.
My boat slip is now in San Francisco Bay, Ballena Marina, 90 miles away, so I just can't run out and look and design and dream, know what I mean.
I'm having a hard time with seeing on what I'm doing back where the existing battery is.
I want to put 2 batteries up front and elimimate the rear battery.I would like to know how to route the wiring. I can remember how the existing wiring goes to the master panel, in that little crevice running fore and aft, but how to get the wiring down to the forward hatch area is my concern.
Thanks
paulj

Edited by - johnsonp on 02/10/2005 16:59:22

mday
Navigator

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197 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 17:54:36

paulj,

Take a look at http://www.catalina25-250.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7573 and the post from Charlie (sterngucker). This should give you some good visuals.

Max

Edited by - on

arlingva
Navigator

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USA
116 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2005 : 18:52:29

Just put two group 27s under v berth. Ran cable under starboard settee. Not a difficult run or pull

Bill

Edited by - on

sterngucker
Navigator

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USA
169 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2005 : 02:20:24

I never really found a viable path from the cable run along the liner down to the starboard settee. I ended up with about four inches of cables showing from the liner straight down to the inch wide settee seat back top where I drilled a hole for each cable. I have yet to creatively cover them. It's kind of surprising to me that I'm the only one that notices them. I know there must be a better way to route them but I couldn't find it. I'm not going to change them now but maybe a solution will help someone else. Any solutions?

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Dkn420
Captain

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USA
298 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2005 : 02:41:40

Jeff: The battery on #727 is located in the v-berth, came that way from the factory...I don't know when they moved it back to the stern, again...Dan

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Jeff McK
Captain

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USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2005 : 09:34:56

Dan,

This is the first I've heard of one with the battery there as a factory install. Is the water tank under the v-berth as well?

Edited by - Jeff McK on 02/10/2005 09:38:55

Jeff McK
Captain

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USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2005 : 09:51:47

Charlie,

What about taking some white PVC conduit & cutting it in half lengthwise? It would be a bit of a challenge, but should be big enough to cover the cable. A few metal straps (the ones shaped like a C with one screw hole tab) to hold it down ought to work. You could paint them white so they would be almost invisible.

Edited by - on

Dkn420
Captain

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USA
298 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2005 : 13:00:13

Jeff: The water tank is behind (to the stern) the battery. It would be under the seat that is facing the stern. Dan #727

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Jeff McK
Captain

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USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2005 : 12:36:06

Dan sent me some good photos that do show the battery placement forward of the water tank under the v-berth. It would make for a nice retrofit as it's on the centerline & would help trim the boat effectively. It looks like you would have to add a small fiberglass platform to mount the anchor plate.

Exact placement would be dependent on where your speed & depth transducers are located, but as there is a fair bit of clearance in that area you have some flexibility.

Dan: If you can come up with a way to post them here, see if you can reduce the image size a bit.

It sure looks easier to work on than the aft compartment arrangement. Now I wonder why Catalina went away from this setup?

Edited by - on

frog0911
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1349 Posts

Response Posted - 02/12/2005 : 22:52:30

Jeff, in earlier discussions with my dealer I asked the same question, especially since the 250WK sits stern low anyway. That is why some have added 200-300 lbs. in the v-berth to level the boat. The response was it is only done that way on 250's with inboard engines which is what's in Dan's boat.
I am trying to figure a way to add two golf cart batteries in the v-berth, but I have an additional problem of height available due to the addition of a second water tank for the General's shower water. The thing it did do is add another 106 lbs. forward which settled the bow 1 1/2 inches. I figure if I can get the batteries there also it should bring the bow down just about right. I thought about doing it like Charlie, but I am not sure it would drop the bow any since the location is at the forward keel position.

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Dkn420
Captain

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USA
298 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2005 : 11:43:36

Jerry: I didn't realize the battery placement was because of the inboard, but thinking about that it makes sense...thanks for the clarification...Dan #727

Edited by - on

Jeff McK
Captain

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USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2005 : 17:35:56

I completely forgot about the IB option.

Still, it's a nice way to help with fore-aft trim. Installing another factory battery tray (or equaivalent) forward of the water tank & speed & depth transducers should do the trick.

Frog: Two questions on your "ballasting" method. If there is a link to a previous post on this I can't locate it.
1. What did you use for ballast material?
2. How did you secure it so it wouldn't shift (really critical as having it shift & shear off my through hull transducers would be extremely bad).

Edited by - on

frog0911
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1349 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2005 : 23:52:38

I have not used ballast yet, but there was a thread were it was discussed. Some of the ideas I remember were, sand bags, bags of crushed stone, concrete in pvc pipe and rebarb in pvc pipe. I don't remember how they secured the pvc pipe ones, but the sand and crushed stone conforms to the shape of were you put it and doesn't move.

Edited by - on

528
Navigator

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USA
181 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2005 : 07:32:20

I mounted a second battery just behind the wet locker wall. First I scribed in a small platform that sets above the bilge hose. I also split the aft berth trim panel so that you only have to remove a couple screws to remove the aft bulkhead in the future. I then secured the platform through the head locker bulkhead and through the aft berth trim panel. Run the nylon hold-down strap between the trim panel and platform before securing, then mount battery box. I used a set of jumper cables to run with the bilge hose to the factory battery box, first clipping the aligator clamps and then mounting appropriate copper lugs. I chose this location to move some weight forward and decrease the cable run length. I feel it provides decent access without robbing "highly useful" space. Sorry, I don't have any pics.

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2005 : 08:36:52

A reasonable plan to deal with adding batteries is to leave the one group 24 in the aft compartment to handle the outboard starting (hook outboard directly to it). Additional batteries are then house bank batteries and won't be relied upon for starting and therefore don't need the heavy wire. #10 wire is sufficient for the run from a V berth battery and the power panel or AB swith.

My AB switch is on the aft bulkhead as well as a triple fuse block which fuses, the line to the power panel, the macerator pump and the cockpit power plug. The outboard is hardwired to the group 24 battery. I did not like that the line from the breaker panel to the aft battery wasn't fused very near the battery.

There is also another triple fuse block at the additional battery in the V berth. One fuse protects the line going to the AB switch, another fuses a small inverter and the third at the moment is free but could be used for any purposes where power panel switching weren't important, like cabin fans or additional lighting.

Both fuse blocks are relatively easy to access with of course the only drawback, the need to carry fuses.

A possible drawback, which I don't see as a problem is charging the house bank from the outboard means having the AB swith in the both configuration so both banks will be charged simultaneous and because of voltage drops, the group 24 will control the regulator of the motor's charging circuit and therefore the V berth battery may be slightly undercharged. I note infact a tenth of a volt variation between the two. Is it a problem? It's worked for me for several years. To counter this slightly, when charging from the solar panel, the AB switch if often set on just the house bank. The solar panel plugs into either cockpit or cabin DC plugs.

Edited by - Arlyn Stewart on 02/14/2005 08:38:21

Ben - FL
Admiral

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880 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2005 : 18:03:36

Arlyn, where did you mount your solar panel? I have a 15w but have not found a place I am comfortable putting it. The Magma grill and outboard take up a lot of the space I would otherwise put it.

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 02/15/2005 : 13:00:04

Ben, my solar panel is a large 32 watt aluminum frame model and hasn't been easy to deal with. The first thing one of these things needs is tennis balls fitted to the corners to make them friendly.

With the tennis balls, the panel will sit either on a cockpit seat of will lay on top of cabin without causing any damage.

When cruising, it gets hung from starboard life lines on some pivoting hangers. Can't find a pic...

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