Just had the air starter on the Cat 3306 replaced with an electric starter. Wasn't paying the attention I should have, was away from the boat, and the Cat Dealer installed a 24V starter, and I imagine it's a done deal. My house bank is a large group of Trojan batteries wired for 12 V, my Inverter/charger charges & uses 12 V. My gen set starter is 12V. The alternator will be a Leece-Neville 12V. Ugh!! Any ideas? Do I get a 12-24V transformer for charging while underway & a 24V charger for dockside? Do I shoot my other foot? Scuttle the boat? What do you think? Embarrased, Mark Andrew "Black River" Holland, MI 56' steel, circa 1955

My last boat had a 24 volt LectraSan, while the rest of the boat was 12 Volt, if you bank two 12 volt batteries to make the 24 volts all you need is a charger that can do both 12 volt batteries at one time, in other words, you get either a two bank 12 volt charger or 2 separate 12 volt chargers, the one mine had was designed to keep more than one 12 volt battery on a bass boat charged up. Someone else on the list may know how to wire the 12 volt alternator to charge both batteries while underway? I'm sure it's no big deal. So, if you have the space, you only need to set up a bank of two 12 volt batteries dedicated to starting the engine, since they should never get drained hard, you don't even need deep cycle batteries. Cole Mark Andrew wrote: > Just had the air starter on the Cat 3306 replaced with an electric starter. > Wasn't paying the attention I should have, was away from the boat, and the > Cat Dealer installed a 24V starter, and I imagine it's a done deal. My > house bank is a large group of Trojan batteries wired for 12 V, my > Inverter/charger charges & uses 12 V. My gen set starter is 12V. The > alternator will be a Leece-Neville 12V. Ugh!! > > > > Any ideas? > > > > Do I get a 12-24V transformer for charging while underway & a 24V charger > for dockside? Do I shoot my other foot? Scuttle the boat? What do you > think? > > > > Embarrased, > > Mark Andrew > > "Black River" > > Holland, MI > > 56' steel, circa 1955 > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawlers-and-trawlering > > To unsubscribe or modify your subscription options (get password, change email address, etc) go to: http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/options/trawlers-and-trawlering > > Trawlers & Trawlering and T&T are trademarks of Water World > Productions. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

Did the Dealer not check that the starter worked? I would think that the dealer would stand behind there work. Phil Reynolds The Sally Ann 42 Hershine SDMY Alameda Ca _________________________________________________________________ Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_012008

> -----Original Message----- > ......... if you bank two 12 volt batteries to make the 24 volts all you > need is a charger that can do both 12 volt batteries at one time, in > other words, you get either a two bank 12 volt charger or 2 separate 12 > volt chargers....... Look out with that! Most "two bank" chargers are nothing more than a single charger circuit, with all negative leads bonded to the same negative buss, and two diode isolated posts from the same positive buss for the two batteries. Since they use a common ground, if you connect that to two 12V batteries in series, be prepared for instant and serious fireworks! If you look at page 2-8 of the Xantrex Truecharge 40 battery charger (http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/462/docserve.asp), you can clearly see the common ground used for it three outputs. Kevin

There is a technology called 'Series / Parallel Switches' which will connect two batteries in series while being 'used' to get 24v, then when 'off' reconfigure to parallel the batteries to allow connection to 12v for charging. Have seen these speced for Bow Thrusters (e.g.: http://shop.torresen.com/ships_store/index.php?p=details&mfc=VETUS&sku=BPSP&frm=g ) (but do note this item will not carry the current needed for a starter). It also seems that some light trucks did this as well, perhaps can find a unit that way. But given the cost to the unit, plus the need to add a 2nd 12v battery I would think that just having the correct 12v starter installed would be the way to go. The installer is taking no responsibility here? -al-

The series paralell switch has been around forever. They are great when they work. They are expensive.? They are a wiring nightmare if you don't understand them. They even controll the destination of the alternator output. IMHO I'd get the 12volt and wire it with the appropriate sized wire. Rodger ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com

"Mark Andrew" <msandrew@chartermi.net> writes: >the >Cat Dealer installed a 24V starter, and I imagine it's a done deal. My >house bank is a large group of Trojan batteries wired for 12 V, my >Inverter/charger charges & uses 12 V. My gen set starter is 12V. The >alternator will be a Leece-Neville 12V. Ugh!! > >Any ideas? Yep. Two ideas. First, are you sure you want 12 volts for your inverter? If you have not yet bought the inverter you might want to investigate. Second, Analytic Systems makes "any input - any output" chargers. You can get a 120 VAC charger for 32 volt batteries, 24 volt charger for 48 volt batteries, etc. You need a 12 volt charger for 24 volt batteries. Here's a link: http://www.analyticsystems.com/products/bcd305.htm This should do just what you need. Scott Welch FirstClass Product Manager www.firstclass.com Those who make no mistakes rarely make anything.