www.iFourWinns.com

Agreed 100% Bill. Question- will the tv's operate on battery? Is there a factory installed inverter? Haven't
discovered a manual for it yet so I'm guessing no.

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V475
Chris Craft Catalina 23 w/ 300 G2
Previously-V338, 248 Vista, H210

We are So not getting 10 hours, not even close. More like 5-6. I don't know what converter feature you guys aretalking about. Can you explain?

TV operates on AC OR DC.

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2008 Four Winns V358 (T 6.2L Merc Bravo III's with DTS and SeaCore)
2006 Sea Ray 340DA
2006 Sea Ray 320DA
2005 Maxum 3100 SE

Don't know off-hand but I pick her up Friday (Sunny & 85 in upstate New York all weekend!) and will let you know. As promised, I'll also post a shot of my second house battery which was just installed. As I have mentioned before, the house battery that was installed when I took delivery was a group 27 cranking and should have been a group 31 deep cycle. By the end of the season, I would lose juice while fueling up if I didn't power down my electronics, so it was totally fried as Bill mentioned. I'd be curious if yours was at least a deep cycle.

Don't know which TV's are used on the 338 but mine do.

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

The charger also acts as an inverter taking 110 volts AC shore or generator power and turns it into 12vdc. I don't know how much wattage it converts in this fashion. But it seems to be enough to power whatever 12v devices are onboard, while still also charging the batteries. The highest drain device is the fridge but it runs from AC when that's present. I've never tested to see just how long I can run from the batteries. Nor have I checked to see how long it takes to fully recharge. I know get enough running time to not care, and there's typically been enough time back at the home marina on shore power to never worry about recharging time.

When I wrote 10 hours that was about what I could expect if (and ONLY IF) I didn't make much use the fridge. That is, I didn't open and close it, pretty much not at all. This from a typical 10am departure until around 8pm at night. With usually no more than about 2 hours of running time on the main engines. The genset only being run for long enough to mix up frozen drinks and then to run the microwave for dinner prep (probably no more than 15 minutes total). So that left everything else running off the battery. To me this wasn't sufficient. Now with the addition of two 6v batteries in series I can pretty much depend on getting a whole weekend running off the batteries.

When I speak of 12v devices that's usually just the lighting and the stereo at a middle volume. Along with the TV and DVD at night for a movie, then the chartplotter overnight for anchor watch. I don't run the TVs during the day. Nor the chartplotter unless it's to check weather pending more travel.

I still try to be as stingy as possible with regards to the fridge. I even added a fan to the back of it, as keeping the compressor cooler helps keep it from running longer. The fan apparently cools it enough to offset the power required for it.

Igloo MaxCold coolers are THE BEST at keeping things cold. I've had a cooler full of beer sit in the cockpit for 4 days and have ice floating in the still cold water. After a party here I had one keep cold for a WEEK AND A HALF, granted with 60F outdoor daytime temps. A generic cooler of the same size lasted 2 days. On the boat it's just easier to allow guests to dig around in the cooler rather than deal with the power drain of the fridge.

Some folks run their gensets a lot more than we do. Were it quieter I suppose we'd run it more too. But the vibration/resonance of it just annoys me too much. Adding batteries and being power-frugal has been a worthwhile compromise for us.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

The factory installed TVs are 12vdc. I have a 120vac TV/DVD combo unit that I run off an inverter. I've not yet made a permanent install of the power setup for the TV/DVD. I'm probably just going to attach a small inverter to the back of the TV. It only needs 63W and the smallest inverters I've used are 100W. Alternatively I might figure out a way to mount the inverters at the two locations I'd likely use (the forward berth and the radar arch). This to avoid trying to integrate an inverter for the whole boat, or just selected parts of the AC circuits. It's also easier to find and wire 12vdc power, as opposed to running AC wiring and outlet boxes (safer too).

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Just back from an amazing, three-day splash weekend. It was like instant summer with sunshine in the 80's. She actually looks better than she did when she arrived on the truck last year - I resisted waxing in the first season per the dealer's recommendation. My detailer did a stellar job and my mechanic got all of the mods done. I'll get to those shots of the new galley thru-hull soon, but I'm happy to report it works perfectly. From the engines to the A/C to the genny, everything fired up perfectly. The one exception was no flow from the hot water heater. After a lot of poking around, my friend who was helping me troubleshoot pulled out the copper fitting that houses the check valve for the heater and sure enough, it was locked up. He put a drop of oil onto it to lube it up and voila, problem solved.

Steven - my battery charger is the Charles 5000 SP Series.

As you see in the shots below, the second house battery that was added fit perfectly just forward of the port engine seacock. Only a green bonding wire had to be moved from where the battery tray now sits. To my surprise, the batteries provided per Four Winns for house & engine were blue top Optimas which is fine by me as I've always read good things about them, although the amp hours are not rated quite as high as what I thought I would be getting. I'll be very interested to see how long I can keep things going with the two batteries and will report back. My only question - which may seem stupid... when I am on battery power with a full charge on both house batteries, should the DC volt meter in the salon read an even 12 volts? I got so used to my old battery discharging that I never saw it at 12. I assume it is never higher when not on shore power but I thought I would ask.


More to come...

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

Nice work! Be sure to secure those wires. Don't leave them just resting there. You want everything secured into place so it doesn't rub. The wave action will eventually cause things to rub through. Either the wire or whatever it's touching. Just a few zip ties should do it.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Good job, Sierra. I'm assuming I should be able to replicate this installment on my 2006 V348. Did you simply connect the 2 batteries together - pos to pos and neg to neg or is there more wiring involved? Where did you purchase battery and how much? How is tray mounted? Any other considerations?

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

I would assume so rjrose. If you have that same space free there is no reason it shouldn't work. As I mentioned, there was a wire that was simply moved and tacked down on the side of the platform.

That's it. Keep the cable runs as short as possible.

The batteries were actually from Four Winns making good on the fact that the boat was delivered with a group 27 cranking battery for the ship's systems when, per the factory, it should have been a group 31 deep cycle. I had my mechanic simply get a second house battery duplicating the one that was being provided as a replacement. To my surprise, they were the Optima Blue Tops instead of Interstates. Because they are smaller than the standard group 31's, the existing battery tray had to be shimmed to keep it from moving around. He ordered a properly sized tray for the battery I added. I haven't seen the bill yet, but the battery, Optima's D31M is $200 at Amazon.

I didn't look too closely (the mechanic installed it) but it appears to simply be screwed into the platform.

Only that if you are going to do it you should replace your existing house battery if it is not new and buy a pair that match. You don't want to mix and match old and new and different types.

I would be happy to investigate further or take more pix this weekend if you have any more questions!

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

This may have gotten too buried in my above post - any thoughts?

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

A fully charged battery (nominally 12v) should be around 12.6 volts with no load. When it reads 12.0 volts it close to discharged. Right after you charge a battery it will read even higher until you put a load on it or the surface charge dissipates. While the battery is loaded, the readings will be lower due to internal resistance.

It hard to get accurate readings of charge state using voltage because voltage varies with temperature, load and battery construction. Plus boat volt meters are usually junk.

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2008 V358 Two-tone Blue V/P Dual Prop 320 HP
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

Finally in the water for 2009, actually my earliest launch ever.

Of course I had my annual bonehead move, annual PITA broken thing and new this year a leak in the fresh water system.

So to avoid a bonehead move, make sure the drain on the water heater is closed before you try to fill the fresh water system. At least the starboard bilge is clean now and the bilge pump got a good test. Does anyone know if fresh water will hurt the gas fume detector? It got dunked with very clean water for a few minutes.

My PITA broken thing is a half broken float switch in the shower sump. The switch worked in the up and on position but when it fell it never went all the way off. So the pump motor runs full speed when the float is up and half speed when down. Luckly that was a quick and easy replacement. I'm guessing a little water left in the sump froze and damaged the switch.

Finally I learned how to get to the fresh water pump. Thanks Bill. I had a little water running out from that general area. After the disassembly of the bulkhead, I found the clip that holds the water pump flange on had fallen off. Making for a little leakage. Now I just have to put that bulkhead and drawer back together.

All in all not to many headaches to be back in the water.

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2008 V358 Two-tone Blue V/P Dual Prop 320 HP
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

jr - Glad to hear you're back in and the problems were not insurmountable!

My fume detector was frequently going off starting in the middle of last season and there were never fumes present. When I got the boat back a few weeks ago there was enough water in between the stringers where the fume detector is to completely submerge it. It is now clearly shot as it goes off anytime there is power to the helm main. I disconnected it in the bilge (easy disconnect) and will probably relocate the replacement. The problem is, you want it low as fumes will sit in the bottom of the ER.

As far as yours is concerned, I am told they are notoriously faulty because they are so sensitive. If there was even a small amount of oil in the water I am told it could cause a problem. Because of the way it is wired, I believe it will alarm if it has gone bad as mine did (but check the manual to be sure).

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

I looked into this further and while there's nothing specifically about the affects of a dunking, here's how to test your sensor per the fume detector's manual:

The manual's note on placement of the sensor:

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

Thanks Sierra I'll have to borrow a lighter and try it. The water was very clean, straight from the tap.

Is it usual to leave the water heater drained for the winter as oppossed to filled with antifreeze? All my pipes were filled with pink stuff but the water heater and water tank were empty. How did they do that?

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2008 V358 Two-tone Blue V/P Dual Prop 320 HP
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH