CD 25 Dual motor 12v upgrade

Greg,

I sounds as though you may benefit from being able to accurately track your power usage and recharge data.

On my CD22 (Naknek) I had a Xantrex Link 1000 installed and it gave me all the data I needed. Regrettably the Link 1000 has been discontinued.

It appears that Xantrex has replaced it with the LinkLite or LinkPro units:
http://www.xantrex.com/power-products/p ... nitor.aspx

Best,
Casey
 
Last year I went through all of our devices and did some calculations on how much power we needed before I started shopping for the new house batteries. I was a bit conservative knowing the largest wildcard consumer would be the wallace. If we are out for a few days or more anchoring and the weather is cooler than planned, we may want to run the wallas even overnight and that has some power demands.

I looked at and considered a fancy electonic monitor package for my batteries but decided it was not really necessary, and I would rather relax and enjoy the boat than babysit the batteries that much. We have a digital meter with alarm on the house bank and a portable meter for checking anything else. If you know what you are doing with a good meter, it is pretty simple to keep the system healthy.
 
We have one Honda 90 with 16amp output and 2 Kirkland deep cycle batteries. We often stay out for 2 or 3 days with the occasional 5 day trip and have never had shortage of power. I have an ACE pot puller we use to retrieve 2 1000 foot lines with 3 pots each, and usually don’t run the motor. At the end of a pull I will start the engine with same battery, always keep one fully charged.

At night we have the cabin lights one-old incandescent-and keep the GPS and fish finder on all night; the Wallas also runs continually often 24hrs a day in the spring and fall except when we go to shore.

So just wondering what is your power requirements? We are usually 30 to 60 miles from the nearest Boat Habor and never worry about our batteries running low, has never happened. The Kirkland marine deep cycles have a 3 year 100% return warranty, and cost way less then AGM or Optima batteries.

I guess if we had a TV and Microwave tied into a convertor or something like that then perhaps we’d need more juice; that's not likely to happen anytime soon for us.
 
I use the kirklands for both of our starting batteries and they have been great so far. We also run a GPS during the night but it is a small unit with alarm and doesn't pull much power. We do have a Microwave with inverter and a toaster we like to use. We also normally carry a charger for an RC boat and car to refill our Lipo and Nimh packs that do take a fair amount of juice for 20-40 minutes at a time. We generally have an eccess of power but as you noted that is a nice thing to have.

Why do you run and fishfinder/transducer during the night?
 
Aurelia":1nqdpvuu said:
Why do you run and fishfinder/transducer during the night?
Click to expand...

I use the sonar for my anchor alarm and leave my GPS on so when the anchor alarm goes off I can see where my position is. During late May through Early August it never really gets dark at night so I usually turn off the GPS, I have separate units. At least once or twice a year the anchor alarm goes off for good reason and I have to get up and move the boat or take in some anchor line..Never fails. We anchor up in new spots a lot and depth alarms are most useful especially when we are tucked into a bite in some remote location. The GPS charts here in Alaska especially Prince William Sound are not that accurate so you really need to survey you’re sounding before choosing a new anchorage; wind direction coupled with 12 foot tidal change adds to the mix.

It all makes for an adventurous weekend for sure.
 
Cruised 40 miles up to Everett over the weekend with Wallas blazing, radar, chartplotter, and vhf running and stayed the night at Jetty Island. Basically started with full charge then ran the Wallas all night plus charged two RC car battery packs, one portable Vhf radio, ran led lights and a couple of small devices and the batteries were down about 5 % in the morning. Plenty of juice left for the toaster and we really love toast with our eggs and sausage.

We could actually run up a tank of hot water on battery power but that is what the EU1000 generator is for.

Power is no longer an issue for Aurelia!
 
One thing I do is monitor alternator voltage on my RayMarine C-80 NMEA 2000 interface, and it will also give battery voltage with the key on but engine not running. The Lowrance I had on my 22 had a voltage readout that looked at the house side since that is how I powered it. I've never used a Garmin, but if there is a voltage readout, that would be something I would monitor. I have toyed with wiring a digital voltmeter into the battery bus behind the helm to watch my house batteries. I haven't fully understood why everyone charges so much for a battery monitor when for the most part it is nothing more than a voltmeter the best I can tell.
 
I do have a digital meter with alarm connected to the house bank and an analog gauge on each of the starting batteries and that has worked well for monitoring activities and charge level. I don't have a unit to monitor amps used but I don't plan to keep track that closely. That was the reason I scaled a bit beyond out needs...so I wouldn't have to watch in all the time.
 
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