Replacing batteries and ensuring correct wire connections

[baz]

Hi:

My MY2010 R-25 Classic has almost 6 year old 4 factory stock lead-acid batteries which are in need of replacing.

There's a ton of wires connecting these 4 batteries and my concern is when reconnecting the wires that I reconnect them correctly and as they were before changing the batteries.

My thoughts are for ensuring I reconnect the wires correctly are...

1) Take a photo of all the wire connections before replacing the batteries so I have a guide later.

2) With 4 batteries there are 8 terminals that wires connect to; I intended to label each wire indicating which battery/terminal(-ive or +ive) it attaches to.

Questions:

1) Before starting to disconnect the wires from the battery terminals, what circuit breakers, shore power connection, etc should I turn off and/or disconnect to avoid damage to the boats electronics ?

2) Can the new batteries simply be installed without me having to ensure they are charged fully ?

3) Should the batteries and wires be installed in a particular order; that is, engine battery first and its wires, followed by house and thruster batteries and their wires ?

4) Should all the new batteries first be installed before reconnecting any of the wires ?

5) Given there are so many wires with some being small gauge and other being very large gauge, it's going to be a devil of a job to have them pushed aside to allow the new batteries to be laid down and installed without the wires interfering.... any thoughts on how to keep these wires out of the way while placing the new batteries down into the battery hold ?

6) After all 4 batteries have been installed and wires secured to their respective battery terminals what then is the correct procedure to ensure all has been done correctly ? If circuit breakers have been turned off is there a proper sequence for turning them back on ?

7) What would be a final check to ensure the batteries and wires have been installed correctly ?

BTW.... I do not like messing with anything electrical. However, I believe my DIY skills are sufficient for doing this battery replacement. :lol:

Any advice is most welcomed.... thanks. 🙂

 

[PhilR]

When disconnecting batteries, I cable tie each group of wires and label them. It's a good idea to keep a photo of the battery setup on hand as a backup.

Phil

 

[baz]

Oh... I like the 'cable tie' technique which will be far more efficient than labelling each and every wire. Thanks. 🙂

 

[nzfisher]

You might put the leads in clear plastic bags (heavier the better) as well as zip tie them to keep them from shorting when pulling out the batteries. Short of a forklift pulling them out, be careful of your back.

 

[Brian B]

When I pulled my batteries the first time I had the same thoughts, like don't mess this up. I numbered each battery 1-4 and made a diagram of their location under the battery hatch. With a sharpie write on each wire the battery number and + or - As you disassemble them cable tie each group and tag it as previously mentioned.
Take a picture before you start the process to refer to later. Yes it will be difficult to keep the wires out of the way and get the new batteries in place, I would get all the batteries in place before connecting any wires. Keep battery switches off and as long as wires don't make contact with the wrong posts you shouldn't have any problems. The positive posts on the new batteries should come with a protector on them, keep them on until you are ready to make connections. . I believe a new battery should be close to fully charged.

 

[knotflying]

A) make sure shore power is disconnected and inverter is off
B) turn off all main switches
C) take a picture
D) Join the wires together for each terminal with a zip tie and mark where it goes
C) get a terminal block and eliminate as many connections to the house batteries as possible.

 

[Nellie Too]

What I do is make a diagram of the batteries showing the + and - connections and identify with labels on the cables which batteries they go to. This worked well with our electric car which has 10 batteries in two compartments.
Bob

I hope all is well with you and Gill

 

[baz]

Herb/Willie did send me Email the other day asking how's Gill. Thanks for asking.

Gill is not getting better and her balance and stiffness gets worse every day. She has fallen badly at home several times over past few months and it terrifies me finding her laying on the floor with a large pool of sticky blood under her head.... Have had to call 911 twice now to get her to the ER quickly. Thank goodness my 911 people are close by as they get to my doorstep before I hang up the 911 phone call. It amazes me how much blood can come out of a cut scalp... lots of blood vessels in that area presumably.

Gill seems to like falling against inside wall corners with embedded metal, and I now have several wall corner dents to repair.

At this point I'm thinking Gill's days on the boat are in the single digit numbers, with zero being the number. 🙁 I'll have to 'gen up' on running the boat solo at times... although that has it's negatives if I also lose my balance or whatever. I'm thinking of asking my doctor for advice on navigating Laxey in solo mode. Calling 911 from the boat does not appeal to me. I wonder if any TugNut member has ever had to do that and what the experience was ?

 

[baz]

I have a question for the electrical gurus here....

The other day I was at the boat and decided to crank the engine over and it was a strained engine cranking and then just several chugging sounds without the engine turning over. OMG I thought...

I went to the battery compartment and all look as it should. I then started checking the liquid levels in the 4 batteries. All were fine except for the engine battery which was down to the plates. Hmmmm, that must be it.

So I topped up the engine battery with distilled water and just for the heck of it, topped up all the others. This took me around 15 minutes.

Now went back to the helm and just out of curiosity I decided to crank the engine again thinking it would not startup as before. Much to my surprise, it did and cranked over quite vigorously.

How could this be given 15 minutes ago the engine battery was kind of 'dead' ? Surely it could not have charged up so quickly, but maybe someone else here can say why... 🙂 Thanks.

 

[Spinner]

Hi Baz, re calling 911 from a boat... I would think about calling the coast guard instead. There are two benefits: everyone can hear, and possibly assist if they are close by, and, the coast guard can get your position and get to you.
Sorry to hear that you will be boating solo....

 

[dorill]

"the question as to why after 15 minutes the engine started". I suspect that in your checking of the water level of each battery bank you 'moved' some of the battery cables just enough to make a now solid connection that allowed the circuit to be made. I would go through each connection, clean the contacts, then retighten each. Also check the engine ground, down on the hull bottom in the engine compartment and assure that is still tightly connected and free from corrosion. (I had a loose connection there that caused intermittent starting issues that drove me crazy until someone asked me if I had checked it...DUH!). hope this helps.

 

[walldog]

Herb/Willie did send me Email the other day asking how's Gill. Thanks for asking.

Gill is not getting better and her balance and stiffness gets worse every day. She has fallen badly at home several times over past few months and it terrifies me finding her laying on the floor with a large pool of sticky blood under her head.... Have had to call 911 twice now to get her to the ER quickly. Thank goodness my 911 people are close by as they get to my doorstep before I hang up the 911 phone call. It amazes me how much blood can come out of a cut scalp... lots of blood vessels in that area presumably.

Gill seems to like falling against inside wall corners with embedded metal, and I now have several wall corner dents to repair.

At this point I'm thinking Gill's days on the boat are in the single digit numbers, with zero being the number. 🙁 I'll have to 'gen up' on running the boat solo at times... although that has it's negatives if I also lose my balance or whatever. I'm thinking of asking my doctor for advice on navigating Laxey in solo mode. Calling 911 from the boat does not appeal to me. I wonder if any TugNut member has ever had to do that and what the experience was ?

Glad you are still around. Sorry to hear about Gill's health issues, we were worried about you guys. Maybe a larger boat will make her more comfortable. Good luck.

 

[joempo]

Baz,
In addition to Dorill's excellent advise, if your boat still has the woven copper ground strap connecting the engine block to the ground point, replace it with a ground cable the same gauge as the cables connecting the batteries. Also, check those connections on a regular basis as the engine vibration will cause them to loosen.

Sorry to hear about Gill's health issues. Robyn and I enjoyed meeting her at Fisherman's Terminal a couple of years ago and hope to cross wakes with you again.

Joe