Battery Switch Amp Install Help

[Wrecked Rooster]

Okay, I have the holes cut for the speakers. Speaker cables ran to the battery compartment. Ready to do the second battery switch setup and find a place for the amp. On the battery setup, are y’all just gluing, or sticking an external panel to the factory one that’s already there? See pics. Also, I’m wanting to isolate just the starter/ignition to the main battery and everything else to the second battery. Not sure how to go about doing this.

Here’s what I am thinking on the amp and I’m down for suggestions. Thinking of installing L brackets into the bottom of the floor (see pics) and adding the white plastic panel in the same pic. Then mount the amp to it. Is drilling down into that “floor” okay? Thoughts on this setup?

Could setup the amp horizontal but wouldn’t be able to access gain, htz, etc where vertical (see pic) would allow for accessing that and more room for a second amp if necessary.

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

My boat came from the factory with the same brand of switch you have there, but a two battery setup. 3 total switches, a starter, a main, and a emergency parallel. I would get that same brand of switch, idk what it is off the top of my head, as they actually connect together via those slots on the outside.

Disconnect the battery and take that switch off of the wall, back should pop off. There should be two (or one of you got a single engine) wires that runs back to your starter. I would leave that connected to your current switch. On my boat all the other items on the boat get power from a single accessory power cable, it looks like yours is the same. I would move that accessory power cable over to your new switch, along with your amp power cable (don’t forget a inline fuse) and run your second battery to that second switch. That should isolate your “starter” battery to just the engines, and your house battery for all your accessories. Dealers choice if you want the emergency parallel.

Highly recommend getting a battery charger for when the boat is parked. Amps drain the batteries down if your listening at anchor for awhile, and the staters on these motors won’t charge them back up. Learned that the hard way.

 

[212s]

On the battery setup, are y’all just gluing, or sticking an external panel to the factory one that’s already there?

You should have room to put the second switch right there on the same panel.

Also, I’m wanting to isolate just the starter/ignition to the main battery and everything else to the second battery.

That should work, starter cables on the "start" switch, everything else on the "house" switch.

Is drilling down into that “floor” okay?

Should be ok - that's the deck above the hull with some space. Just put in screws long enough to fit the bracket and deck, maybe 3/4 or 1" in case something is routed below.

 

[212s]

Amps drain the batteries down if your listening at anchor for awhile, and the staters on these motors won’t charge them back up.

That's a common misconception. The stators can put out about 28 amps each above 3500 rpm on the 1812cc engines, with some loss to run the engine and electrical systems so roughly 18 amps to charge up the batteries per engine if you're not cranking tunes on the way back. On a twin engine, you could have about 36 amps to charge up. Granted during short runs back to the slip or ramp for five mins, no it won't charge up your batteries if they're heavily drained. But few boats would have the amperage to do that, even a big V8 with the torque to drive a 70 amp alternator will not charge up both batteries in 5 mins if heavily drained. Given time though, a lengthy run back say 30 mins or more, you should be able to recharge the batteries with our boats. Most days I'm 15 mins or more away and my two group 24 batteries are usually fully charged when I get back - although I don't drain the house heavily and blast tunes for hours on end, maybe down to 70% typically. Anything less than 12.0v and you're below 50% which means you're damaging the batteries. At this point you should be starting the engines to charge up the house.

Having said that, it's a good idea to have an on-board charger to make sure they're fully charged when you get back, and more importantly to maintain full charge while sitting idle or slipped. When I get home for the day, if I don't think the batteries are topped up, I plug in the charger overnight. I don't leave the charger plugged in during the week sitting in my driveway though - no need as the batteries will not lose enough in that week to affect anything. By the time I've idled at the dock while parking the truck, the batteries are fully charged and ready to float and play tunes.
YMMV

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

That's a common misconception. The stators can put out about 28 amps each above 3500 rpm on the 1812cc engines, with some loss to run the engine and electrical systems so roughly 18 amps to charge up the batteries per engine if you're not cranking tunes on the way back. On a twin engine, you could have about 36 amps to charge up. Granted during short runs back to the slip or ramp for five mins, no it won't charge up your batteries if they're heavily drained. But few boats would have the amperage to do that, even a big V8 with the torque to drive a 70 amp alternator will not charge up both batteries in 5 mins if heavily drained. Given time though, a lengthy run back say 30 mins or more, you should be able to recharge the batteries with our boats. Most days I'm 15 mins or more away and my two group 24 batteries are usually fully charged when I get back - although I don't drain the house heavily and blast tunes for hours on end, maybe down to 70% typically. Anything less than 12.0v and you're below 50% which means you're damaging the batteries. At this point you should be starting the engines to charge up the house.

Having said that, it's a good idea to have an on-board charger to make sure they're fully charged when you get back, and more importantly to maintain full charge while sitting idle or slipped. When I get home for the day, if I don't think the batteries are topped up, I plug in the charger overnight. I don't leave the charger plugged in during the week sitting in my driveway though - no need as the batteries will not lose enough in that week to affect anything. By the time I've idled at the dock while parking the truck, the batteries are fully charged and ready to float and play tunes.
YMMV

I drain my house down pretty hard, 30 minutes back to the ramp won’t recharge it, I also think I damaged mine early on not having a charger, and not getting a full recharge on the way back to the ramp. Sandbar we hang out at is to shallow to run the motors at anchor without sucking up sand.
I leave mine on the NOCO 24/7 when not in use, some sort of black magic science supposedly to extend the battery life, or so I hear.

 

[Seno]

Think about adding an extra power switch (added 4th switch, just for my lighting & GPS (boat came with House, Start & Combo). Switch was less than $20 on Amazon. If your going to add a bunch of stuff, a fuse block is a good idea to isolate everything and make it cleaner. Personally I didn't want to tap into anything factory incase of warranty issues down the road and everything I added was protected independently. If you have a bunch of stuff in 1 place it makes it much cleaner.

 

[RobbieO]

Think about adding an extra power switch (added 4th switch, just for my lighting & GPS (boat came with House, Start & Combo). Switch was less than $20 on Amazon. If your going to add a bunch of stuff, a fuse block is a good idea to isolate everything and make it cleaner. Personally I didn't want to tap into anything factory incase of warranty issues down the road and everything I added was protected independently. If you have a bunch of stuff in 1 place it makes it much cleaner.



View attachment 173485View attachment 173486

Agree...I added bus bars, and additional fuse panels as well. The one in the helm worked out great.

 

[Seno]

Agree...I added bus bars, and additional fuse panels as well. The one in the helm worked out great.

Wow, you must have a ton of electronics. I read somewhere that the breaker is supposed to be right by the battery. The explanation was If something "Arc's" you want the power stopped by the battery not running across the boat where it can become red hot and cause all kinds of grief. It seemed a bit far fetched but kind of made sense....

 

[RobbieO]

Wow, you must have a ton of electronics. I read somewhere that the breaker is supposed to be right by the battery. The explanation was If something "Arc's" you want the power stopped by the battery not running across the boat where it can become red hot and cause all kinds of grief. It seemed a bit far fetched but kind of made sense....

There is a breaker at the battery for the power at the helm. All my loads are small. 3-20 amps max. No heavy loads. Power points, satellite radio, wireless charger etc.

 

[Seno]

There is a breaker at the battery for the power at the helm. All my loads are small. 3-20 amps max. No heavy loads. Power points, satellite radio, wireless charger etc.

I saw the 100AMP max in the picture and thought you had separate lines going to each.

 

[kgower]

Getting ready to do same. Started audio upgrade last summer, then moved unexpectedly. Trying to bring my brain up to speed and get this done.

 

[RobbieO]

I saw the 100AMP max in the picture and thought you had separate lines going to each.

I’ll have to recheck . You may be right.

 

[Wrecked Rooster]

Finally got the dual battery install done. Thanks to @HangOutdoors for a lot of help getting this part done. Left some room in the top left area to add additional amp breakers.

 

[HangOutdoors]

@Wrecked Rooster Very clean.

 

[Wrecked Rooster]

@Wrecked Rooster Very clean.

Thanks! You set the bar for sure. Thanks again for all the guidance. Nice when you turn the key over and everything works. Need to do some meter readings to make sure everything is isolated but I’m sure it’s just fine.

 

[HangOutdoors]

@Wrecked Rooster I was looking at picture and I could be wrong, but do you have a breakers between the ACR and the Switch or do you have the ACR wired down to the batteries? The bottom of the Picture was cut off so I couldn't see.

My thought process was that I wanted the breakers before the switch and ACR so that if there is a high draw it would trip before it got to the other components. I think I am saying it right. Although it may never matter with a 100amp breaker. So in essence I put the breakers on the cables that go directly to the batteries. It made more sense when I thought it out. What are your thoughts?

I believe you are also missing a negative from the ACR to the Negative buss bar with a 1 amp fuse.

Really like the Bus Bar.

 

[platinum00]

What is the logic behind the breakers between the ACR and Batteries. You don't have those breakers from the actual load source, switch to battery, so what's the point? Does the ACR introduce risk of a short?

 

[HangOutdoors]

@platinum00 You are correct. The key with the breakers is they should pop and cut batteries from everything. Breakers, I believe, should be as close to the battery as possible and also be before anything with a load. So before the switch, electronics, and ACR.

 

[Wrecked Rooster]

@HangOutdoors
@platinum00

Attached is a diagram that came with the ACR and dual battery switch. I called blue sea twice and spoke to different people asking them the same question and they both suggested to run the fuse on the ACR only (I think 60 amps is more realistic) but not to run it between the switch and batteries. Especially the starting battery. Saying you don’t want breakers between the battery and starting system because it could flip them if the draw hits the breaker threshold and would prevent you from starting. I doubt our boats actually pull over 100a when we try to start them, so you should be fine.

Basically, they said there is no reason to add them except for the ACR like shown in the diagram. But I’m new to all of this and am just going off what they told me. I added the 1A inline fuse on the negative line from the acr as well. Didn’t capture it in the pic. Nice catch!

**edit: I have the breaker between the battery and the ACR. Then there is another cable from each battery going to the switch. Just like the diagram.

 

[HangOutdoors]

@Wrecked Rooster IMHO, FWIW, I would personally change that setup. Our engines do not draw like a typical outboard or inboard. They gave me the same spiel, and I talked to them multiple times, as well and I ran it by some Marine Electrical Guys, whom are quite familiar with our Yamaha boats and they preferred the breakers as close to the battery as possible so it would take the batteries out of the loop in case of high draw. When they do have multiple breakers for whatever reason in other boats where they draw more on engine start they will increase the breaker size but still have each battery with its own breaker as close to the battery as they can get them. We can start our boats with mini motorcycle batteries. If starting them is popping 100 amp breakers you probably shouldn't be running the boat at all till that is figured out.

If you short a wire you want them breakers to pop and take the batterie(s) offline. There is most certainly a good reason to add them to prevent fire or system damage, so I cannot agree with them on that either. It appears that the way you have it set up as well as the picture, if there is a short or other electrical problem there is nothing stopping a draw from the batteries till either components fry or wires catch on fire as long as that switch is on. It may never come to that, but a fire while you are off shore or wires melting and you cant run the boat, is a pretty bad spot to be in.

At the very least, keep it the way you have and put two more breakers in between the battery and the switch for safety. You could move the 100 amp ones down to the Batter to Switch cables and buy a couple of smaller ones for the ACR.

One more thing is that our stators don't put out as much as other types of engines alternators, etc. So having fuses inline with the ACR is somewhat pointless since charging will never come close to anything but minimal amps.

Of course you should do what you feel comfortable in doing.