www.iFourWinns.com

Bill -- I hadn't thought of putting in the blue ice packs in the frig. We don't use the freezer, what can you possibly put in that thing. When on the hook we keep the frig between 1 and 2. I am going to get a couple new batteries and go from there. The generator is a nice insurance policy.

_________________
__________________________________________

2004 268 Vista "Satisfy My Sol"

No, just respect for international intellectual property rights.

Time and again, knock-offs end up being inferior, often dangerously so. Whether it's outright dangers due to inferior workmanship, or more subtle things like lead poisoning.

I'll go with having decent support and legitimate business practices any day. Saving a couple of bucks isn't worth supporting criminal behavior.

_________________
-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Well, I guess I'll chime in on the batteries (not touching the Generator debate ... ).

Most of you are talking about Group-27 batteries. I am (and have been, on the prior 245 Sundowner) using Group-29s. A couple of Group-29s, in parallel, for your house batteries ... is only a few dollars more than using Group-27s and you have an upgraded Amp-Hour rate. I use the WalMart Group-29 units (at about $85 each). They are rated the same as the Interstate Group-29 and I have had great success with them. In fact, most of the Maxx (the marine line) WalMart barrteries are made by Johnson Controls (also Delphi and Exide, as well), who are HUGE in marine batteries.

Remember, if you want the best life from your deep-cycle batteries, you can't just drain them until they're dead. You don't want to go past 50% charge before recharging ($75% is even better ... for long, many cycles, life). This is where using more than one battery makes economic sense. Sure, you could run that single battery for maybe almost as long as I could run the dual set (to a max of 50%), but you'll be replacing that battery long before mine would be ready for replacement.

_________________
Gordon Arnold
New Hampshire

2003 268 Vista ..................................................................Prior: 97 245 Sundowner

_________________
Brett DiMichele

I guess you have to go with whatever you're comfortable with.

FYI, Kipor is the leading brand of genny's sold in Europe and supplied portable power for the worlds highest mobile phone station on Mt Everest. It will service mountaineers and the 2008 Beijing olympics. They are also quickly becoming a major brand in North America.

Good performance, quality built, great service.... and inexpensive.
Thats good enough for me.

Pay the price for Honda if you wish.

Pete

_________________

"ROCKHOUND"
2005 Vista 298
Georgian Bay, Ontario.

It's a dang shame I had a huge reply typed up and it did not post and I lost it. I am on vaca and posting from my blackberry.

M3 I am not fighting just having a level headed discussion.

Pete, I can easily post links to honda threads where they have 1000+ hours on eu2000i's so we know Honda has the longevity.

If you want to recommend Kipor that is fine. But I can also post the reasons to buy the real deal and Kearny pretty much covered it.

In the end, it's all good.

_________________
Brett DiMichele

Absolutely Brett... I totally agree. Honda makes an A1 product.
All I'm saying is that I personally chose to go with Kipor. I think the deciding factor was that up here in Canada, the Honda 2000 was $1895.00 CDN so you can see why I went with the $650.00 Kipor. So far 300+ hours and no problems.

That's it guys.... have a great weekend.
I'm outta here and headed for the boat.
Cheers,

Pete

_________________

"ROCKHOUND"
2005 Vista 298
Georgian Bay, Ontario.

Pete,

Understood! Have a great and safe weekend on the boat! (Maybe I will go out Sunday once I get back from the OBX)

_________________
Brett DiMichele

I'm getting in on this discussion late but better late than never. We have experienced several occasions this year of severe battery drain while on the hook. However, we're not doing an overnighter. Yesterday was especially vexing - the fridges and stereo were running and after about two to three hours, the stereo automatically shut off and the low voltage alarm started chirping.

So after reading this thread, I guess my questions are: should I look at installing extra fridge specific batteries like Admiral Kearney did or just run my generator? I'm also wondering if I damaged the batteries and how I can check them.

_________________
2006 348 Vista
"some days you're the bug and some days you're the windshield"

Running the batteries dead a couple of times isn't going to ruin them. It's not good to do this long term, but the occasional depletion isn't too much to get worried about. I'm no battery engineer though, and I'm sure there's some website that directly conflicts this advice. I'm just going on experience.

Cranking the radio up drains a lot of power. Same deal with the fridge. It might be fair to say the design of the setup using only one battery is less than ideal. But then again what I hear from other boaters is they run their gensets A LOT more than I would've expected to run mine. I'm guessing it's more a matter of my being hesitant to run the thing all the time. But the others look at me like I'm nuts (not that I haven't seen that look before). That and they advise making sure there's a load on the genset during this process. Not to just run it for recharging the batteries (which would take forever anyway). But to keep the AC running along with the fridge and other accessories. Apparently it's "better for the genset" to have it operating under a decent load.

What I'd really like to see would be a design recommendation from Four Winns about how to "best" add more batteries.

_________________
-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I run two 27 deep cycle batteries in series for when I am on the hook. I also have a Kipor 2000. I used it last season without any problems. One of the boats I was rafted with had a Honda. Same noise levels from both. I paid less money because, although I do love the Honda name, I am not payong extra for it. I can run the ac all night if I wish. The battery drain is pretty minimal. I keep the fridge on 3, run a fan all night on a small 400 watt inverter to move the air around and run the stereo pretty much all day and night. The batteries have yet to go dead on me. I run the genny in the am to make coffee and breakfast, heat the water in the tank and top off the batteries. I try not torun the genny to much though. Although it is quiet, it still makes noise.

I bought two new group 27 deep cycle batteries last week and installed them before the weekend. I was able to stay out all day, with the refigerator on 1 (with two ice packs) and ran the stereo all day with out issue.

Question? What position do you keep your battery switch on... ON or Parallel?
I have just kept my on ON.... There is another option for Emergency Starts... Which I would think would be the same as Parallel....

_________________
__________________________________________

2004 268 Vista "Satisfy My Sol"

We lasted about 5hrs on the hook, in the Florida sun, and with opening the refrigerators quite a few times for lunch/drinks. Has any one tried solar powered cells to keep the battey charged on the hook ?

_________________
07 Tiara Sovran 4300
07 338 Vista - SOLD

I started to look at them as an option. A SeaRay at our slip has solar panels built into their bimini...
I haven't had a chance to talk to the guy to see how well they work.

I was out from 11 to 8 this weekend with just the refig running with no problem.

_________________
__________________________________________

2004 268 Vista "Satisfy My Sol"