H31 Battery location
I had two group 27 size batteries over the shaftbehind the transmission also. The previous ownerhad put them there and they didn't fit correctly,weren't fastened down and sitting at odd angles.I think his intentions were good in replacing thesmaller group 24 batteries to the larger batteries,but they just didn't fit right. When I got the boatI found out that the water heater was bad and the diesel tank was contaminated so I pulled the waterheater and the diesel tank out through the sinkcabinet and made a new plywood floor for the cabinetthat also runs through for the water heater. It turnsout that the space for the water heater is perfect fortwo group 27 batteries in the plastic battery boxes. It's fairly low in the hull and a little farther forward.I think that instead of putting a hot water heater back in,I'm looking at the "instant" hot water heaters. It will becheaper then the water heater and save weight. I just won'tbe able to heat water through the exchanger with the dieselout at anchor. I don't care about heating water away from the dock anyway. As for the diesel tank, I put in a 3 gal.portable tank in the aft lazerette and have a spare 2 galcan for spare fuel and to fetch more fuel. I then re-routedthe water tank filler hose where the diesel fill was.Since I took out the water heater, the 18 gal. diesel tank all the way aft and relocated the batteries, the stern sitshigher in the water and is balanced. I can actually hearthe water coming out of the exhaust now when I run the diesel.