There Has to Be a better Battery

[Deep C]

Nowhere in the bilge to stow it or even set it... The engines are less than five inches apart, the center bilge is steep deep v and no room between all the transudcers and through hullls. In the back nothing bigger will fit. The run down is expected after four months so that doesn't bother me. Its the shoddy build of these batteries. If they are gonna build a unit that delivers that kind of juice they should make the unit tough enough to take the heat.
There is one place I see that I coud go to say a 31 series or even possibly 4 D beasts that is above and outboard of the engines... The glass work would be a nightmare though...

[ADDfishing]

I had a very VERY similar problem... but we couldn't figure out what was consuming power like you say your bilge pumps are. Turns out it was a bad ground cable. We were going to put new AGM's on the boat. After a lot of research, we realized they excelled more often when used constantly, such as commercial conditions and the likes of the coast guard. So we thought we would simulate constant use with an onboard charging system. Lucky, before we made the investment in the batteries, a little diagnostic testing with a volt meter revealed that the ground cable from the ground stud to the batteries was indeed bad, and no matter how much we ran the motors, the batteries just weren't getting charged. So, for $25 from the local autoparts store, the 16' cable was replaced and problem solved. For added insurance, we did add the charging system and it was a great move. We now can hook a Honda 2000w generator up to it so we can shut the motors down while fishing and also keep them in tip top shape while at the dock. Hope this helps.

[Deep C]

Like I said... THe drain doesn't alarm me. I disconnected that center pump last year. Withe the plug out the level doesn't get too high but man does it got to smelling shitty after a few months of standing along with the mosquitoes that find their way in there....
Those flimsy ass terminals are the problem. A battery that does the work of a monster really needs to be built like a monster. Instead it would be like a chainsaw engine souped up to put out a hundred horsepower. Apply the pressure and they break like a toy.
If you punch through a thousand amps trying to light hard cranking diesels heat builds up. Lead is soft and gets softer. That stainless bolt that they use as a terminal gets pretty well shaken in a diesel enviroment, in the tropics and running hard. That same bolt eventually breaks loose from the lead and you get the problem I have...
Headed back down with the grinder of death and this wont be an issue any more today... I just love all those sparks near batteries under deck...

[captcl]

Deep you dont have to mount solar panels.I use one of the bigger solar chargers on my mako there is plenty of wire from charger to battery to put it almost anywhere. Checked the output with adigital meter on a cloudy dayand still around 12 vdc. I have 28 series gell cell batteries that would be found in a small enmergency back up system combined with the charger they have been great!Cold cranking amp ratings on batteries can be bs, cold cranking for how long? If you get a portable solar charger you want be sorry and your dc system will be sharp all the time.

[Avenger]

Possibly a stupid question here, but do your battery switches allow you to parallel the two batteries for starting? If you did that you'd pull less amps through each terminal, thus less heat.

The other option is to change the way your cables connect to the battery. Switch to something more robust, or easily replaced when it fails.

[Reeltitanium]

Deep much like yourself I'm connected to Nascar,brother-in-laws family owns a cup team,and the batteries they are using look like a lawn mower battery. I know they have good life,good CCA and can take similar abuse and still perform very well.Let me know if you want to try one ad I'll get you one at my price.

[Deep C]

Busted out my cutter. Tore my knuckles to pieces getting in position then in three seconds had that bugger cut free...
West marine comped me a new set again. Amazing how well they respond to a sweaty guy covered in grime and bleeding all over there floor carying a melted battery. We sat and talked with their battery manager and he agreed that the 24 series 1000amp ones just arent rugged enough to handle their own power. One day, I'm gonna work on my plan to put a second set of bats a full sized set in the one place they could fit... Just gonna be a load of glass work...
The newer Albies have a huge space to put all kinds of goodies but the older ones didn't.

[Reeltitanium]

Brother in law says the 1000 CCA Batteries are the following Size: 5.25 wide x 9.75 long x 6.875 tall and obviously made for extreme operating enviroments and can be installed in any position including on-end or upside down! I've got two in my rock crawler and they are mounted on end and get exposed to extreme heat (Headers) 2 years old and they are still cranking no problems.

[Deep C]

That sounds like they'd fit. I got the new set in right now but for down the line that could be a player. What kind of green do they go for? It would sure as hell beat lugging that 8d again... That tendonitis I had early in the summer was gone til I moved that lump...

[Reeltitanium]

I'll check seems to me they were $200 per and I'm sure there is a dealer near you in Fla.