wiggy
Well-Known Member
I have a VP2020, assuming that a red flash is beyond my finances, what would be the smallest battery that would start the engine reliable. Any recommendations?
Engine start battery
- Thread starter wiggy
- Start date
William_H
Well-Known Member
I would suggest you go to a motor vhicle battery supplier and look for the cheapest ie most common vehicle battery. Almost any car battery should do the job. olewill
RAI
Well-Known Member
Depends on how easily your engine starts. Five seconds at 200 A is not many Ah.
If you have a house battery, you could use that. The separate starter battery is supposed to be there just in case the domestic ones go dead.
If you have a house battery, you could use that. The separate starter battery is supposed to be there just in case the domestic ones go dead.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Any car battery recommended for a small diesel will do. It is the CCA that is important not the capacity. choice will depend on size/shape to fit your space. The battery has an easy life just starting a small diesel and a split charging system will ensure it is quickly recharged after each start.
maxi77
Well-Known Member
I must admit that rather than the smallest I can get away with I would be going for the biggest I could fit. The greater the battery capacity the better kick the engine gets. On the last boat the original starter battery could take a lot of effort to get the engine running, but after I fitted a 95AH high capacity starter battery it whizzed away first turn and never stuttered. That was the end of my starting problems
theoldsalt
Well-Known Member
See post #4
wiggy
Well-Known Member
The reason I ask is because at the moment I have 3 identical 85AH sealed lead acid batteries, one for engine start and the other 2 joined as a house bank. What I'd like to do is add a third small starter tucked away I the cockpit locket and join the 3 existing into one house bank.
dom
Well-Known Member
OMG this is the boomerang topic of the month; Google ybw for a million+ posts! If you lose the will to live before getting to the end - yes it's fine once you don't mix battery types; there is some debate as to whether batteries should be age matched, and purists debate over whether same-end or opposite-end connections are optimal.
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ghostlymoron
Well-Known Member
My understanding of connections is that you should equalise the length of connection for each battery so that none takes priority.
I just had to replace my VP2020 starter battery after the original Bavaria fitted Bosch starter battery failed at 9 years due to my neglect.
The original was a 55ah with (and more critical) a cold cranking rating of 420(450?) amps. The natural successor Bosch battery is the same physical size and has about 5% more CCA. Cost about £70 last week Newport IOW from whoever is trading as the phoenix replacement for the bankrupt Unipart Retail.
Edit: It was the cheaper S3 variant in this range http://de.bosch-automotive.com/en/p...rvice_parts_1/batteries_4/s3_s4_s5/s3_s4_s5_1
The original was a 55ah with (and more critical) a cold cranking rating of 420(450?) amps. The natural successor Bosch battery is the same physical size and has about 5% more CCA. Cost about £70 last week Newport IOW from whoever is trading as the phoenix replacement for the bankrupt Unipart Retail.
Edit: It was the cheaper S3 variant in this range http://de.bosch-automotive.com/en/p...rvice_parts_1/batteries_4/s3_s4_s5/s3_s4_s5_1
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blackbeard
Well-Known Member
careful here, I inherited a similar arrangement in my boat and the cables for the starter battery were fairly long, out of sight and unsupported. I used to worry about them touching and the insulation rubbing away and a fire starting. I have altered the arrangement now, and extracted the cables; the insulation was still good but it's always worrying if you can't inspect it. The current (ouch!) cables are short, supported and visible. Incidentally the starter battery is now the smallest (about 40 Ah) car battery I could find and it starts a Yanmar 1GM, it's claimed to supply 440 cranking amps.