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CA Stu
01-30-2004, 05:17 PM
What is the best way to make sure that after an all day jam sesh at Sandbar you can still fire up your boat and drive it on back home?
Mass batteries? (What type?)
Generator? (How do you plumb and wire one?)
Thanks
CA Stu

ROZ
01-30-2004, 05:49 PM
This is MBrown's territory :D

TrojanDan
01-30-2004, 06:31 PM
Carry jumper cables. :D

CA Stu
01-30-2004, 07:04 PM
That's the way to make friends, fer sure :D

ROZ
01-30-2004, 07:32 PM
Originally posted by CA Stu
That's the way to make friends, fer sure :D
Just make sure their loooong:D A few xtra beer won't hurt either :D

riverbound
01-31-2004, 09:18 AM
We use battery isolators on all the installs we do. We also make sure that the system is not wired to at least one of the batteries that way there is always one to start the boat.
we also use a piece form pac electronics (bg-12) which automaticly shuts the stereo off if the voltage drops below 11.6 volts. it also has a three color led that lets you know the condition of your batteries, (green=good yellow=time to think about charging red=stereo off time to start boat)
we usually run optima batteries (yellow top) to power the system and these have been the most reliable for us 6seasons on my boat and no problems.

Havasu Hangin'
01-31-2004, 04:48 PM
Originally posted by riverbound
We use battery isolators on all the installs we do. We also make sure that the system is not wired to at least one of the batteries that way there is always one to start the boat.
When using an isolator, isn't there a 1/2 volt drop across each diode?

riverbound
01-31-2004, 04:51 PM
When using an isolator, isn't there a 1/2 volt drop across each diode?
I have not experienced any voltage loss using the isolators

Havasu Hangin'
01-31-2004, 05:03 PM
Originally posted by riverbound
I have not experienced any voltage loss using the isolators
Do you have one in your boat? If so, put your voltmeter on each side during operation. I'll bet $1 that there is drop on the battery side.

ROZ
01-31-2004, 05:56 PM
I guess it depends on whether or not he has his installers use doide or solenoid type relays.... Solenoid has no voltage loss, but may have a shorter life span..
If he is using diode type relays, the voltage loss(like HH says is about .5 volts) means that the batteries never see enough voltage to have a full charge ...

Havasu Hangin'
01-31-2004, 06:40 PM
Originally posted by ROZ
I guess it depends on whether or not he has his installers use doide or solenoid type relays..
You're right, Roz...my bad.
riverbound- what kind of isolators are you installing?

riverbound
02-01-2004, 02:12 PM
We use solenoid type isolators, not sure of manufacturer, but I do know they are blue. Next time we do one I will get manufacture info.

ROZ
02-01-2004, 03:40 PM
Probably using the PAC200

Havasu Hangin'
02-01-2004, 04:24 PM
Originally posted by ROZ
Probably using the PAC200
PAC200...201...whatever it takes.

mbrown2
02-02-2004, 04:17 PM
Originally posted by CA Stu
What is the best way to make sure that after an all day jam sesh at Sandbar you can still fire up your boat and drive it on back home?
Mass batteries? (What type?)
Generator? (How do you plumb and wire one?)
Thanks
CA Stu
Lots of batteries....either 12 volts wired together or 6 volts wired together to make 12....there are differeing opinions on this one...but I think everyone agrees that you will need a lot of batteries to jam all day 5+ hours..probably two to three large 12 volts like Odyssey 1700s or 2 to 4 6 volt Trojans...Also have 1 or 2 starting batteries completely isolated from the stereo system batterys...
I don't a think a generator or battery charger is going to keep up with a system that has 3000+ watts playing all day long 5+ hours.....it will definitely help your batteries last longer so they don't drain as quick, and it helps to charge them, but it is not putting out enough amps to keep up with a large system.
Maybe to go with a power supply....BF posted one here the other day that is putting out 90 amps...but it does appear to be a smart charger...so this is just to supploy 90 amps to your batteries so your batteries can hopefully stay fresh...If you are playing loud with 3000+ watts all day, there is a possibility that 90amps will not be able to keep up, so you would need to add more batterys....Lots of weight added to play long all day, not even counting the stereo gear....Just some ideas..

rivercrazy
02-02-2004, 04:28 PM
How about multiple generators and multiple chargers! As HH always tells me, go big or go home. That's why I stay home! LOL :D
MBrown - can you plug more than one battery charger into your generator?

mbrown2
02-02-2004, 05:09 PM
The force is strong in Rivercrazy...just the road I was thinking about maybe going with in the future...Yes, it has two plugs, and puts out 2000 amps....that was actually something I was thinking about doing....run a power source off of one plug and the xantrex off the other...run the power source when wanting the play loud, run the xantrex when wanting to charge batteries at the end of the day...:D

rivercrazy
02-03-2004, 08:56 AM
Yea baby. That's what I'm talkin bout! :D

ROZ
02-03-2004, 09:57 AM
Originally posted by rivercrazy
Yea baby. That's what I'm talkin bout! :D
Make sure you get a big ass powersource.... The APS90 BF was speaking of puts out 90 amps...
That's barely enough for one of HH's sub amps at full throttle....
RC, what you may need to do for your next boat is to run the stereo off a generator (dedicated 40gl gas tank in hull) that provides juice for 4 100 amp power supplies (no batteries needed).... I think that's enough juice to power a couple A6000GTI's for half a day :p :D
Now, where the hell are you gonna put all the speakers :eek:
Go BIG right ? :D

rivercrazy
02-03-2004, 10:06 AM
I don't think HH get his boat out very often, so full throttle runs are a "mute" point! LOL! :D :p
In all reality though, I'm not really into being sandbar DJ and abusing my equipment. I do run it loud at times but not consistently. My ears ain't what they used to be.
To me the advantage for me personally to have a generator setup is when I plan on being on the water for a few days at a time. That way I can use the generator for recharging duty. Most of the time, I pull my boat off the water at night and its back in the garage with the batteries on a charger. I even built a little ceiling enclosure for my charger to make it easy at the end of the day.
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/80Charger-med.jpg
As for that 6000 watt sub amp, shit I wouldn't even know where to begin to mount that beast in my boat. But, I'd settle for a BPX2200 with 2 or 3 JBL 12" GTi's! :D

rivercrazy
02-03-2004, 10:12 AM
Actually those whole generator thing does open up lots of possibilities......
Does anyone make decent weather resistant home audio amplifers and equipment? If you can run 110V off a generator, why not run 110V equipment? Lets face it, car audio speakers are not designed for "loudspeaker" duty. Its easy to find stuff on the home audio front designed for that kind of abuse. Then you eliminate all the 12V shortcomings (that is until the new higher volt standard hits the car market).....

BADBLOWN572
02-03-2004, 08:28 PM
I would highly recommend a generator in the boat. With my system (6k watts total) I can crank the system for about 30-40 min and then the batteries are completely dead. I am running 3 optima blue tops to the system and one exclusively for the boat systems so I can still start the boat once I drain the stereo batteries. On the next boat, I will definitely have a generator to keep the batteries up. Once the batteries are drained, it takes forever to bring them back up to start over. If I am not cranking the system, but just listening to it, I can get it to play for about 3 hours on a full charge on the current configuration.