Knowledge is Power!

Electrical work scares me. Instant unknown death. When I bought this ship it had 3 deep cycle marine batteries, similar to the battery in your car. 2 to power the cabin and 1 to start the outboard motor.

*sidenote: i’m sick of capitalizing words, please deal with my grammar.

these 3 batteries were shot. they were acid batteries that needed to be refilled with distilled water, couldnt hold a charge, and who knows how old they were. (slight research showed 6+ years for the starter battery and 4+ years for the cabin batteries) they needed to go in the trash.

i love craigslist. i find steals all the time. i found a man in northern san diego selling a porta bote (whole other amazing story) but he also sold me 2 massive AGM batteries. They are made by NorthStar (NSB-M12-210FT) These go for well over $600 each brand new and last almost 20 years. they have a fiberglass core that wont crack or spill, and doesnt need distilled water added. pretty much the battery of the future. i stole these for $150 each and they are only 4 years old. He threw in a solar panel charge controller and 12ft of thick gauge wire too!

2/20/12 – 2/22/12
so the project consists of ripping out the old batteries, rebuilding the rotten battery box compartment to fit these big boys, and ending with a crash course in electrical.

so this is the before photo. notice the corrosion and mess of wires.
rotten wood that could barely support those inferior acid batteries will not stand up to the 100+lb. each of these AGM beasts!

i had fun smashing and shredding that clean.

cut out hole to insert the beasts. thank you gary for your saw!

built stainless steal support

stainless steal support

outside extra support

notice my tiny legs of glossy wood.

the new solid piece of wood that hank beautifully fiberglassed for me. 
no rot in my future.

now showcasing the NorthStar AGMs! 
slid into place and strapped down with their seatbelt for intense sailing.

everythings labeled. brand new tips on all the wires. good to go!
the plan for these batteries is to be hooked to solar panels. they hold an incredible charge and last a long time on their own, so with the help of a trickle charge solar panel, we should hopefully have infinite power off the grid in our near future.

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