Moved batteries

[beancounter]

Streamfixer I guess you boat in fairly smooth water always. I would still be concerned about the weight being mounted so high.Down in the floor would be much better. Also your wire sizes sound way too small My guess is with the roundtrip length runs you are making you need at least #1 probably 1/0 size wire. Be careful you don't fry one of those skinny cables and cook your ride. I echo what others say about going with agm batteries. They are much better for vibration prone mountings. Hope you don't take this as criticism only helpful suggestions as I see safety issues here.

[StreamFixer]

Beancounter

This forum is set up for exactly the purpose of being able to share opinions without giving or taking offense.  I appreciate your comments and concerns. 

The wire sizing was done by a fellow who wired boats professionally until he retired about 2 years ago.  Now he does so for friends 'unprofessionally'.  He 'consulted' with me on this one from Phoenix AZ.  4/0 AWG from batteries to switch, 6/0 to the motors.

StreamFixer   

[beancounter]

I guess I was just confused because you referred to #4 and # 6 gauge wire in your reply #8 in this thread and now you say you used 4/0 and 6/0. I used 2/0 to move a battery forward and that is some heavy stuff. Looks like a red and black garden hose almost and heavy as crap too. I encourage you to check what you got there but 4/0 and 6/0 is very uncommon and I doubt from your pictures your wire is that big. Just want you to be safe but a big difference in 4/0 and 4. Looks like good work and a lot of thinking and I guess I should shut up now.Good luck.

[StreamFixer]

Beancounter

You are correct #4 & #6 AWG wire. not anything  /0   

StreamFixer

[beancounter]

Well I don't know about your electrical guru telling you 4 or 6 gauge is sufficient for a run to your cuddy. You are getting a good bit of voltage drop not to mention your wire is gonna heat up when you are cranking your motor.If you check the table for voltage drop and the length of run you are making which is measured roundtrip I would guess you need 1/0 cable more or less but I can guarantee you 4 or 6 is not gonna cut it. You may never have a problem but you could have a hard starting motor one day and crank for a bit and melt a wire. Also you will not be getting full voltage to your motor. Bigger cable is the way to go. I got mine from Genuine Dealz and I believe you have aguy Gregs Wire or something like that up your way both will make em the length you want and crimp and heat shrink the lug size you need as well. Not a fortune and safer and more juice to your starter.

[Grizzle]

Streamfixer how did the move affect your ride?  I like your install location and the shock table.

[StreamFixer]

Griz

Ride better than expected.  As noted in earlier posts I went from a 88 hp 2 s to a 115 4s last year, added trim tabs, then added another 30# switching out kicker. 

Had to do something or be really stern heavy.  The battery move has helped a lot.  The Jury is still out on wire sizing.  I suspect I should have listened to Beancounter but had all ready ordered the cables.

Had a cranking problem, however the wire only became warm, not hot.  We ended up jumping the two batteries with success. The battery had not been recently charged either. 

Then I was also using screw down lugs instead of the usual post connections.  I am going to try it again with charged battery and post connections early next week.  I'll be reporting back then about the wire size questions.

The platform got a fair work out and seems to be performing well.

StreamFixer

[beancounter]

Hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts good. Hot wire bad  :biggrin: Sorry couldn't pass that up. You can use that small diameter wire for something one day be safe and get some fat wire if things got warm cranking you definitely need it. Not to mention on cold days you don't want that voltage dropping.

[Danno]

I was on SFF's Arima when he was having starting problems. We did a lot of cranking on his 115hp and I had him check the wire temp numerous times to look for the primary sign of lost voltage due to too small of wire. I think he's fine. I double checked his calculations using the BlueSea chart for wire sizing. The hard part was finding information on what the starter amperage draw was.

[StreamFixer]

We had some problems starting the main first time out.  #4AWG from batteries to starter, about 15 feet.  I was using 3/8 flat lugs at the battery posts secured with wing nuts.  Had to jump the two batteries to get things to go.  It had been a while (several weeks) since I had charged either battery.  The wing nuts got really HOT during the process.

Put a charge on the batteries and changed flat lugs to automotive type lugs.  Need a wrench to change from one battery to the other.  Went out last week and no problems.  Works like a champ.  When the rest of you are getting ready to move batteries this can be an example that seems to work.

StreamFixer