Novice Battery Question - 30' Hunter

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Brianthomas

.
Jul 30, 2011
6
Hunter 30 1979 Sausalito
I recently purchased my grandpa's 1979 30' Hunter and have what should be a simple battery question.

It has a 2 battery bank, and I was trying to replace the old batteries today. I ran into an issue when installing the new batteries - the battery furthest from the opening has a positive wire running to the boat, but the negative wire isn't connected to anything and pulled out in my hand. I didn't check where (and if) the other end was connected anywhere when I disconnected from the existing battery. The wire is about a foot long and has two battery connector eyes. The battery closest to the opening has a positive wire connecting to the boat and a negative wire connected to the boat.

Question - does the negative wire for the back battery connect to that battery, then the other end connect to the negative end on the front battery, then the other negative wire that runs somewhere to the boat also connect to the front battery?

Sorry for my stupidity, any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Dalliance

Dalliance

.
Oct 6, 2007
1,142
Hunter H30 1982 Chicago IL
Nothing stupid about it. You've got it. The negative side of the batteries is connected in series...and grounded. The two separate positive wires should go to a main battery switch. It's usually red with a black knob and four positions; OFF, (battery) 1, ALL, and (battery) 2.

By the way, in case you don't already know, the Hunter sailboats made between 1974 and 1983 where designed by John Cherubini, of the Cherubini yacht building family. It's a classic. There is a separate section here for the Cherubini Hunters which you will find very helpful.

Congratulations, you've got a great boat, and we were all novices at some point.
 
Last edited:
Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

.
Feb 26, 2004
23,055
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Brian, while you're at it, you might be interested in these:

Basic Battery Wiring Diagrams This is a very good basic primer for boat system wiring: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6604.0.html

This is another very good basic primer for boat system wiring: The 1-2-B Switch by Maine Sail (brings together a lot of what this subject is all about)
http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=137615

They come from this "Electrical 101" topic I put together:

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5977.0.html

Congratulations on your new boat. Good luck.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top Bottom