Winterizing - battery care?

[backman]

Since I replaced all 4 batteries this spring I'd like to properly disconnect, remove and store the boat's batteries as opposed to leaving them connected and slowly draining all winter long.

Main on - hatch up - disconnect and remove batteries.

Now what - how do I power up the boat to lower the hatch; then in the spring power it up again to open the hatch and put the batteries back in?

[Little Dandy]

I have a short pigtail harness I wired up that has a cig plug on one end and battery clips on the other. I used a fused Marinco cig plug and am using a 15 A slow blow (15MDL) fuse.

Plug the cig plug into your 12v outlet, turn on the Main switch and lower the hatch. Works great.

[Bullish]

I like Little Dandy's idea better....but if you want a manual method, there is a manual lever near the resevoir infront of the port side fish box. This will allow you to operate the deck manually.

[lrc]

hatch

If you manually raise it, you better have two big guys and two hefty support poles or a third guy sitting in the cabin to throw the valve once you open it.

That hatch is a "strainer" to open for two people.

I too built the cigarette lighter (Marinco) adapter to open the hatch.

[backman]

Manual - out of question in a seaway

When I was in Panama the Coral Star was fishing Albermarles and Pursuit 28's each of which had the same hydraulic hatch. For safety sak since their boats were always breaking down they had disconnected the hydraulics and mounted a couple cleats on the face of the hatch lip.

Put a loop of a dockline through the cleat; wrap the other end of the line around the hardtop support and haul away. It seemed a very sensible arrangement to me.

[Pequod]

Are you storing the boat at a yard or at your house. If you have a smart charger leave them in the boat. Temps won't matter as long as you periodically charge them.

[backman]

In a yard which is under reconstruction - I prefer to be far from the dozer's, cranes, etc. which effectively means no power all winter long. Leaving the batteries connected to drain out in the cold is a bad idea; I'd rather disconnect them, even take them out and store them and then use one of them and a pigtail to get them back in in the spring.

[TwinFin]

One question

I always wonder about on these threads recommending plugging a 12V battery into the 12 v output at the helm is how much current will be drawn by the hatch lift vs the current rating of the wires running from the back of the output connector. Don't get me wrong, I understand the idea and the fact that others have used it but it would be nice to get some specs posted up here on the output wire rating so we really understand the risks - if any.

[Little Dandy]

I've been using the pigtail spring & fall for three years now. The fuse supplied with the Marinco plug blew once on me (start up current). I replaced with a slow blow fuse with somewhat higher rating. If I were running this continously, or the wires were hidden from view, I would "engineer" it. But since I'm only using it for spring commissioning and fall winterizing, and the actual on time is probably about 5 seconds to raise/lower the hatch enough to get at the batteries, I'm not worried. The pigtail shows no signs of getting warm. The wires to the 12v accessory plug in my dash show no signs of getting hot either.

My boat is put away for the season now, but can anyone check the hydraulic pump that runs the hatch and see if there is a current rating on it? I'm pretty sure the 28 & 25 use the same pump.

[outriggers]

A simple solution to the battery problem is to buy a couple of solar panels off Ebay and they will keep your batteries up all the time not just in the winter. There are quite a few different ones very reasonable listed all the time. I guess if you have snow pile up in the boat it might be a problem. They could be placed in front of the helm against the window. I plan to purchase a couple of them to take care of mine. I keep the boat on the NC coast so it's not too big of a problem there.

[TwinFin]

Hatch Pump

I took a look at my hatch pump today (2004 CC2. Here is the info on the pump:
Parker Hydraulics - Oildyne Division
Minneapolis, MN
model is 108 AM S 32-CLL-3V-10-10-Y

After some searching I found a pdf on the Parker website that provides specs.

http://www.parker.com/oildyne/cat/english/01_108SeriesPowerUnits.pdf

There is a chart showing flow rate, pressure, and current draw. If I interpreted the model number correctly, the pump does draw a lot of current (like 20 - 46 Amps, though it is only at 12 volts and we don't run the pump for more than a few seconds at a time). V*I = Watts, so it looks like the dissipation would be at least 240 watts (12V, 20 Amps) and as much as 550 watts (12V, 46 Amps). I once had my batteries drawn down while my boat was off shore power, in the yard, because the fridge kept running. The way I first noticed the batteries were drawn down was trying to raise tha hatch. It raised but traveled slowly - so I know the pump does draw a lot of current.

I still don't know what the ratings are on the wiring behind our helm stations leading to the 12 V outlet but it seems to me that by plugging a 12 V battery into that outlet we would be pulling more current through that wiring than what it is intended for (ie cell phone charging).