wyldchyld01

Hi all, Just read this post, be careful re parallel or serial connections. Choose which is best for your application. In relation to drain on both, in this case the charge of both will balance out. Also if different sized batteries are used they will never fully charge the larger when on both. You could use both parallel and serial, serial for a one starter battery, one/two or more in parrallel for house applications for example. your diagram doesn't look too bad but re legal reasons (man don't want to hear that your boat went up) can't say yay or not, wiring size you've heard about. Take up one of the guys on their offer if you need help. It's not hard and you've probably got it done by now, still thought i'd let you know. Brenton

cheers for that vision21

Hey all, Isn't there something in NSW about the weight of the vehicle being more than three quarters of the weight of the thing being towed or similar, I know I haven't gotten it completely right but you get the drift. What has been said about the capacity of the engine/drive train and breaks, traction etc all true and good points. Brenton

lol, netic sorry i hope i haven't skewed your poll as i had to choose outside sydney (which i hoped to mean not anywhere near any of the places listed, mid north coast wasn't an option Brenton

i'm with you randall, i honestly don't know how they assign the numbers or if it's a bit like cars, you know just a badge. But i can concur that the bigger numbers generally indicate higher capacity, saltist 40 apparently is the same hardware as the 50, just larger line capacity. same goes for the spheros i just bought, the 12000 is the same but the 14000 has more capacity. maybe someone from wattos (i think i've noticed them post occasionaly lol) could help us out a bit more Brenton

sorry to half hijack, but how do you know if it's a good place to try for live bait like yakkas, small reef system, overhead clutter like boats or something Brenton

mate, if you can do dorado2's suggestion, follow it i say, much more easily achieved than you think and useful if you want to work on the trailer in the future, if not truck then at least four wheel drive tyres (and if you have one like us then you should be able to get your old ones when you change down the track). netic is probably right at that weight (no fuel, empty her out etc lol) and a few mates should be able to lift it. wish i had that problem, on a last post i thought ours weighed all up a tonne, but after getting it done on a weigh bridge i found out she's 1.8 and no way can we be doing that lol. Brenton

Jason, Thanks mate, didn't know that about treated wood. Would you use polyester or epoxy resin. The reason i ask is because i was looking at using a "northane" 2 part polyurethane paint rather than flowcoat over the finished glass piece and don't know if it will attach to poly resin (but it's much cheaper than epoxy lol). Mind you i don't know if it will water seal the piece as well as flowcoat. Cheers for your input Brenton

hate to post this guys but my spyware and security won't allow me to go there because it may leave harmful content on my machine. sounds like fun though, not enough fishing things online lol Brenton

Hey all, Well we got the boat from the mechanic after the 10hr service. Excited . Found, after jumping in to put things back in place ready for a flick tomorrow, that somehow they have broken the battery selection switch off the sideshelf to which it was previously screwed . The wood didn't look so good after the epoxy paint started to flake off and i'd been toying with the idea of repairing it, first major glassing project was going to be a hard-top (flat and easy lol), it looks like it might need to be this side shelf. It is really only two pieces of wood nailed together in an L shape. Base 2.5mtrs long x 140mm wide x 25mm thick, side 2.5 mtrs x 90mm x 25mm but i can't see anywhich way that they have attached it to the hull. unless they've used a strip of wood epoxy glue and the paint holds most of it. any advice would be good, maybe what a good material (wood) to use would be, it's a fibreglass boat and needs a little tlc (see above mentioned epoxy, that stuff just cracks and flakes). i have a fair bit of diy experience(prefer to do it myself, i know how it's done then lol). Do i glass over the whole shelf (made off the boat) and then attach it, or do like they seem to have, and attach the base only and then nail the side to it and don't worry about glassing it? Toying with the idea of not leaving it as one little shelf running along the inside but expanding it into a cupboard or rod rack, wouldn't mind suggestions on this line either. sorry for the long post, look forward to your responses before i take it in for them to have a look at repairing it on monday (at least their trying to do something) but it may not be worth it cheers Brenton

Majed hey, Depends ultimately on what you wish the batteries to do for you and how they are to perform that role, you can either 1.set them up in parallel or 2.serial (3. would be a combination using something like a switch). 1. parallel means that effectively you are running the same current but have increased the capacity of the draw (or time it takes to go flat), 2,3, or as many batteries (of same size eg 12 volt) can be set up this way. it allows you basically to say have two 75amp hr batteries for a 12 volt system, totalling 150 amp hours but still pushing out only your 12vlts 2. serial, when in series the total amp-hour capacity of the two batteries together remains the same as the amp-hour rating of either one but the output volt-age is doubled. in our above example we would still have only 75 amp-hours but would now be pushing out 24volts. 3. probably the most common setup found in runabouts, 1st single battery on isolator switch (which allows connection to another battery in parallel or the second battery to run individually), using this idea i would suggest if possible, one battery to start the engine and the other (or other two) to run the house gear/lights/sounder etc when the engine is switched off. The work isn't so tricky, laying lines etc isn't hard but getting the size gauge of the wire right (and not negating your insurance), wiring the gear up correctly so you don't blow all electrics once switched on etc can be fun. A good book i would recommend (cost me 80) is "Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual by Nigel Calder" Hope this helps Brenton

sorry, slight side highjack, just wanted to say thanks to netic, man i've been looking for these sorts of maps for ages to help plan trips, cheers man Brenton

cheers all, was def going to take more than needed lol, taking the 65 and of course 80 full from the ballpark everyone has suggested, 145 ltrs is ok i think, might load the 25 just to be sure, usually only two of us in the boat, gear and us 300kg max, including 40kgs fresh water in extra tank, both batteries etc, the boat itself is about a tonne all up (yeah heavy deep v half cab) ocean conditions, etc i understand, we regularily travel the distance up and down the coast (it's a fair distance from north solitary to split and south solitary islands and then down to nambucca south of us) so we have a fair idea, over the distance so far we reckon it's about 40ltrs but it seems way way too little compared to the older merc 135. one 80ltrs usually does us for 2 trips and before it was almost empty after one 13km run. cheers all, thanks for the help Brenton

Hey Raiders, We have an FAD offshore here at coffs and i've been there a couple of times, having just read the dollies post and with my new reel it got me wondering if i can run out there soon. Prob is we have a new engine on the rear, it's in for it's 10hr service today, yamaha 150 saltwater series 2 long legged thing, 2 stroke oil injected. we have already seen a massive increase in fuel savings since the last 130merc but i don't want to head 20ks offshore in an 18ft grp boat and find running out of fuel occurs. underfloor is a custom 80ltr odd tank, we can also put onboard a 65ltr, 50ltr and a smaller 25ltr thing that i use for the creek tinny. could raiders maybe post how much fuel they use roughly when heading to their FAD (which is how far roughly?), i might be able to wack in the extra 65 only or even only 25ltr. we haven't fully finished testing it's distance ourselves as the guy that built the underfloor tank didn't install a fuel gauge measure (yeah i know, work out his thinking ) anyway, any help you might offer would be good, cheers all Brenton

Hard to choose, but for me the best is the one that catches me the fish at the time lol B