Adding a bus bar across battery switches?

[bsmith15]

Adding a second house bank to my O361. In doing so I will be adding another OEM battery switch. I would like to use the load side of the switches and parallel switch as the DC + distribution point. I was thinking of having a brass plate made at a machine shop then mounting it across the nuts of the three switches across the load side. When I was in the Navy, I saw similar configurations in aircraft. The alternative is to use 2 1/0 AWG wire to make the connections between each battery switch and parallel switch. Operationally it would allow either house bank to energize the bus, or turn on the parallel switch to use the starter bank to energize the bus.

My question is this counter to any ABYC standards?

TIA for answering.

-bgs-

 

[Ron20324]

I doubt it is counter, but it is what I did- in a way. We had such metal bars all over the place in the telephone central offices where voltages could reach 178.

Since the capacity of the additional (one engine 24, two house 31's) is double what it used to be, I upped the size of that "buss bar", but mine was cable. I, too, considered a slab of metal, but it would have to be treated the same as the tinned wires to inhibit corrosion. Consider the amps of two of the batteries, then use a larger-than-OEM cable made of something that will handle it. If you do the bar, consider loosening the screws that secure the switches so when you tighten down the nuts, they and the bar will sit square on the studs. (I assume you have the one switch per battery setup like my B323?) Then tighten down the mounting screws. If doing the bar, perhaps this would be a good time to drill and tap some holes to attach other wires?

 

[Ron20324]

BGS, are you saying you will have three switches for three batteries? Is there yet another one for the battery negs? I wonder about the "parallel switch"? My B323 had two pos switches and one neg. I took the neg switch off the bulkhead and put a third pos in there. The neg one seems to be a waste and noone can give me any real reason why it's there. It is, at best, something a thief might not look for if trying to steal your boat.

 

[bsmith15]

I did the same thing. Used the original negative switch to parallel house banks and starter bank. Yes there will be three switches for three seperate banks. Two house, and one start. Adding the second house bank switch and an additional one for the inverter. So a total of three that I want to run the bus bar across: House 1, House 2, and Parallel. I think the negative switch is to meet European standards. You will also notice the DC circuit breaker panel feeders have fuses on both the positive and negative cables.

-bgs-