battery location

[JULES ROBINSON]

Hi All,just bought my first boat, an O'day 39, so I'm new to boat maintenance.my batteries just went dead and doing some research I find thatit is not advisable to place batteries in hot places such asan engine compartment. in my oday 39 they are in the enginecompartment in front of the engine. any suggestionsof where else I can put them on the oday 39. I hear trojan golf cart batteries are good choice but since they are tall I am limited as to where I can put them.any help would be appreciated.thanksCap Jules

 

[ed21]

Probably not the cause

I doubt it heat in the engine compartment killed the battery. I would check your charging system to make sure it's putting out enough amps. Check all battery connections for tightness & corrosion. Make sure something is not draining the battery when you are away. A switch can isolate the battery. Bilge pumps can do it if you are away for a while. Get a second battery only for engine starting. At least you'll be able to start the engine to make electricity. Keep your battery charged. That may mean a good dockside charger to keep the battery topped off if you don't run the engine enough.It's recommended not to discharge below 80% of the capacity for best battery life.  Be sure to maintain battery. Check electrolite on a regular basis.

 

[Lynn H. Ogden]

Battery Question O-39

I have an O-39 as well. My house bank of batteries is in the starboard cockpit locker. The bank consists of four golf cart batteries, as you mentioned, mounted on a shelf installed above the bottom of the deep locker. The engine starting battery is in the space in front of the engine. I have had no problems with heat effecting the battery. The prior owners had all their batteries in the engine compartment without problems. Because of the space needed for the four golf cart batteries, I moved them to the cockpit locker.I wouldn't worry about them being in the space provided.

 

[JULES ROBINSON]

thank you both for you inputmuch appreciated.

 

[john knowles]

Battery for oday 39

I have had good luck with trojan L16H (tall 6v).I had just enough room to put 2 side by side in the origional battery compartment along with a 12 volt starting battery (the long way aft of cooling water through hull). Yes! it is a very tight fit. I did cut out some of the origional tray so the batteries would sit flat. This allows a large house battery (420ah) w/o going outside the cmopartment. It does get hot and the efficiency may take a hit but I'm happy to have the batteries where they are>