Stereo For New Pontoon????

[Havasu Cig]

We just bought a new pontoon boat and want to do a stereo system with a generator to charge both the batteries for the stereo and the battery for the bar / refrigerator.
The boat has one battery right now for the engine and another for the bar, and from what I can tell they are seperate systems. The battery for the bar has a shore power type hookup for charging the battery either on the trailer or in a slip.
There is plenty of room inside the storage area for a generator. My questions are, what type of generator would work best. It will be enclosed but I planned on routing the exhaust out of the compartment. I just worry about cooling?
Would it be hard to wire in another battery in the bilge and then hook all three together to be charged from the generator with an isolation switch to remove one of the engine batteries from the system if desired.
Thanks.

[ROZ]

HavasuCig,
MBrown posted this a while back. His setup is sweet...
"
If you stay with the 12v option, the 1700's are great batteries....I run two 17's and one 12 in one of our boat...
If you do use the generator, it will not keep the batteries charged, you will need it to power a power coverter like a Cascade/Iota 90..Iota 90
I use the Honda/Iota/Odyssey setup in another boat and it works great....leave the generator and charger running when cranking the system, just plug the charger in at night to top off the batteries..
Send Boatfloating a PM if you want to get the Cascade/Iota... "

[ROZ]

Here's his setup:
The powersupply is the yellow box beneath the amp
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/17PICT0106-med.JPG
generator. the braided line is for the exhaust:
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/17PICT0081-med.JPG
I believe the LCD on the console is the Xantrex controller:
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/17PICT0096-med.JPG
He also wrote this:
How many amps does the Xantrex hit the battery with?
Output current: 40 A @ 14.5 V nominal
Is that charger designed to be able to supply its rated amp charge over a long period of time without overheating?
It is supposed to, but I had a problem with mine and it is getting replaced/fixed right now...When working...it was charging at 14.4V and keeping the batteries at that level.
How many volts does the charger give? The reason I ask is most amps are engineered to take up to a 14.4V to about a 15.5V maximum. (did you go the Generator/Xantrex route because the alternators in outboards are somewhat limited in output?)
Output voltage (nominal, depending on settings)
• Charge: 13.8-14.8 VDC
• Float: 13.1-14.2 VDC
• Equalize: 15.5 VDC @ 5 A maximum
(those are the three stages above)
Actually the alternators on the 300x's put out 65amps, so I am not concerned that they could charge over long distances, but when you are running 80 from one end of the lake/river to the other...they don't get much charge time...the real reason for the setup was so I could crank the stereo for hours and if the batteries drained, I would just fire up the generator...it is not too often, I run the generator and sound system together...it would have to be a long day at the sandbar to do so.....Also, I use it for shore power...we leave the boat docked all night, so at the end of the day, I fire up the generator and in the morning, I have fully charged batteries...I don't have power down by the docks, so this comes in handy...
Do you charge one bank of batteries while running the stereo off another bank and then switch them as appropriate?
No...there is only two batteries and each is wired to each engine through two perko's...the Xantrex is wired to both batteries....I run off both batteries all the time...if they go dead, I kick on the charger get where I need to go, and fully charge them at the end of the day...has not happened yet...since with Odyssey's they last...when my Xantrex went out, I could not tell it was not charging so I did have an issue when one Odyssey went dead because I though the Charger was charging...
Where do you route the exhaust of the generator? Ok, I know no one wants to hear how trick DCB is with their rigging and shit, but to answer the question it is required ...Really, this is the first one they had done....and Dave was a little worried about doing it...Deron and Chad down there did some research and found some heat tubing that could withstand the temps, and encased that in the braided line, and they routed it to an extra bilge dump...so from the outside it looks like I have an extra bilge pump....and they fabricated the exhaust to hook to the hose and braided line....It is just trick
All this info should be a sitcky as it's asked often :)
Hope all is well... Take it easy :)

[Havasu Cig]

Thanks for the info, I will print it out. :)

[BoatFloating]

Funny you should ask this question I just posted this yesterday. (http://www.***boat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69215) The yellow box in Mbrowns boat is his old Xantrex system that took a crap on him so I hooked him up with Cascade system. You can use the APS 75 instead of the APS 90 even though the 90 is working for Mike it does put a strain on the Honda 2000. Let me know what you are looking for....
Roz, thanks for the plug....

[Havasu Cig]

Thanks for the info, I am going to talk to Tony at Eliminator and see if he has some time to hook me up with the install. I will let you know.

[mbrown2]

Nice recap Roz...also, got the CB (at least I got a box from Tweeter...don't know if it is in there).....thanks