Adding Additional Batteries to an E37
Date: November 5, 2001 Paul: I have a 1981 Endeavour 37--Sojourner--that is Plan C with the v-berth forward and port aft stateroom. I currently have an isolated starting battery and two 12 volt house batteries totaling 210 amps under the aft berth. I am planning to add two more 12 volt batteries to the house bank to increase the house bank to 420. My question is where to put them. I am contemplating building a box in the starboard locker and placing them there. Any ideas? Thanks.
Date: November 5, 2001 Hi!
Date: November 5, 2001 Paul, p.s. What makes your E37 configuration a "C" plan? How is it different from the "B" plan? I think I have the same configuration as you but mine was referred to as a "B" plan. I know there is a big difference between "A" and "B" but I was unaware of a "C" plan. Thanks for the help.
Date: November 5, 2001 Alan, Date: May 11, 2003 I too placed my batteries in the aft bilge well when I installed refridgeration and placed the fridge unit where the batteries initially were. Now I worry about the accumulation of hydrogen when I'm charging. I go thru the bother of rolling up carpeting and opening the the floor hatches a crack during charging time. Am I over cautious?
From: Alan Mealka amealka@tsd.k12.tn.us
From: Captain Mike capnmike_s@yahoo.com
I have an A-plan E-37, and the original battery box, which is very small, is located on the Starboard side under the quarter berth. Needing bigger capacity, and also to counterbalance a tendency of the boat to list slightly to Starboard, I built a shelf by fiberglassing in a board athwartships under the Port side quarter berth, middle section, where the holding tank is. This nicely accommodates a 4-D size battery athwartships as well as another group-27 battery, and I have just run the cables thru the bulkhead wall there and across the engine room to the battery box, to connect with the batteries there. I have used a couple of heavy pieces of metal plumbers strapping and screws to secure the batteries in place. This works well, and helps balance the boat too. Hope this helps!
From: Sam Densler sdensler@mac.com
Before I make a recommendation, please clarify your configuration. Is the starting battery under the aft quarter berth with the house bank? I didn't understand if you meant "isolated" to mean electrically or its location. What I would recommend (similar to my configuration) is to relocate the starting battery to the starboard locker and place all four house batteries co-located under the aft quarter berth. That way you can isolate the starting battery and also keep the cable lengths short between your house batteries. Chapman's has a great section on batteries if you are interested. Best of luck.
From: Chris J Land endvr37@juno.com
We just sold our 1982 E37 "Moonstruck". She was also a C plan. Not many of those made. We lived aboard with our 2 children for 2 years and cruised the southeast USA and south to the Virgin Islands. She turned out to be a much better boat than I originally thought she would be. As far as batteries, I moved our starting battery to the area under the sink in the galley. The locker here is so large that you barely noticed it in the back. We used a group 27 size for this. We then placed 4 Trojan T105 "golf cart" batteries under the berth in the aft stateroom in the middle of the 3 storage areas. I think this was the factory location for batteries. I contemplated adding additional batteries but the 4 turned out to be enough. If I had added more, I would have put 2, or maybe even 4 more of the Trojans in the very aft section under the aft berth. Good luck!
From: Gene Rohloff gener@execpc.com
