Major Electrical Upgrade to our 40 Year Old Boat- WE'RE GOING LITHIUM! (Episode 46)
Vložit
- čas přidán 6. 08. 2024
- With two months to go before our planned 4000 mile sailboat trip, we undertake a major electrical upgrade. We replace our lead acid battery bank with a three battleborn lithium batteries. Additionally we install a Balmar XT-170 Amp Alternator with the MC614 External Voltage Regulator.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
Links to products seen in this video:
Plexus Structural Adhesive: amzn.to/32Wscea
Plexus Application Gun: amzn.to/32WS75k
Stanley Hot Glue Gun: amzn.to/3eK8uHQ
Balmar XT-DF-170 Alternator: amzn.to/3eE9tJL
Balmar MC-614 External Voltage Regulator: amzn.to/3eF2Hn8
Balmar Belt Buddy: amzn.to/3eEPzhD
Ancor Wire Stripper: amzn.to/3vs2pqm
Ancor ratcheting double crimper (select the crimper from the Amazon menu): amzn.to/3t586sA
Ancor ratcheting single crimper (select the crimper from the Amazon menu): amzn.to/3vuGQpb
Battleborn 100AmpHr 12V Battery: amzn.to/3u6aKzR
More at cruisingmaya.com and on instagram at @CruisingMaya
Help support the making of these videos!
/ cruisingmaya
Link to Store: CruisingMaya.com/shop-1
Link to Tip Jar: www.cruisingmaya.com/support
Awesome video .
Thank you for posting this!
You're welcome! I hope it helped your cause in some way!
Great video, thanks. Planning upgrades to my '79 Mariner '36 Ketch, this helps a lot.
Glad it helped! The video is light on details, but I wanted to show that an upgrade like this is possible by the DIYer.
After having traveled thousands of miles and countless nights at anchor, lithium was absolutely the right choice. Good luck with your project and thanks for watching!
Very nicely done. Great install. I truly appreciate you taking the time to share this with us. We will binge watch to catch up with you
Thanks so much for your comment! Glad there's other people out there who like electrical projects! Cheers to ya!
Beautiful wiring job.
Thank you! It was a major upgrade that has served us well.... especially with the addition of a deep freezer 😀
I would like to know more about the plexus adhesive. I am mounting bracket boards behind my electrical panel and the access sux! I usually use thickened epoxy, but for that I usually sand back to glass. Doing that with all the wires in the way is not an exciting idea. I look forward to hearing back from you.
I feel your pain! I would still recommend sanding back to bare fiberglass with the plexus. However the plexus sets rock hard in like 5 minutes- I used it all the time when I was building boats a few years ago. For hard to reach places I put a dap of hot glue on the thing I'm mounting just before placing it- hot glue holds the item in place while the plexus kicks. It's expensive stuff, but works wonders. Hope this answers your question! Thanks for watching our videos!
Guess you did learn something at U of IOWA and it was worth money and effort for the EE degree. Great job!
Definitely put some of those skills to use.... although I'm still waiting to use long division in binary in the real world.
Careful with the hot glue and Plexus -- Plexus has a very low flash point!
Good point! That plexus is really amazing stuff.... just make sure you've got good ventilation!!! Cheers and thanks for watching.
Great video, thank you guys for sharing. And a late congrats on getting up to AK. Looks like an amazing trip so far!
Thanks so much for the comment! We're having a great time up here so far. Lots more videos coming in the future. 🍻
Another great video you guys! Seeing the video vs the IG stories really puts into perspective the amount of work that went into that conversation, never mind getting it to look so neat!! PS, I had a good laugh at Disco at the end there😂
Thanks so much! Definitely a big undertaking, but SOOO worth it. The system has performed great so far on our trip. Disco makes us laugh everyday- glad we could share one of those with you :-)
Beautiful install. Your fabricated bracket is an inspiration.
Thank you so much for the comment and for watching! Cheers!
You did a great job!!!
Thanks so much! We've been putting the system to the test and it's been operating great! Thanks for the comment!
Glad to see another video from you. Can't wait to hear about the trip! Really nice lifepo4 install, I'll be doing that this summer too. Enjoyed the ideas.
I am going to try to put together a technical video of the project- I got a ton of great insight from www.marinehowto.com. if you are going to use the mc614, that website is a must.
Thanks for the comment and we've got a lot more good stuff coming soon! Cheers!
@@CruisingMaya Thanks for the info. I'll likely use either the MC614 (already have a Balmer with an older regulator) or maybe the new MC618. What model of crimper are you using on the lugs? I'm shopping for those right now. It looked like a very clean hex crimp.
You guys are awesome! I am looking to be on the water by next year and cruise the BC coast. You two give me confidence that I can do it alone, well, with my cats, lol.
Love hearing that! You can do it! BC is such an amazing place to cruise!
Hello, very nice to see the final product of the wiring. Could you share the fuse sizes you installed for each lithium battery? And discuss how and why you chose mrbf fuses? I see a lot of articles call for class T when using lithium but you can’t beat the convenience of the mrbf’s. Thanks
Hello and thanks for your comment! We have a 100 amp fuse for each battery and then a 200 or 225 Amp mrfb fuse (I'm away from boat at the moment).
A class t fuse would go nicely as a replacement for the master mrbf. For our size battery bank I feel good about two levels of mrbf fuses, but on banks bigger than our 300amphr one I'd definitely put a class t in.
Thanks again for your comment and watching!
Also, space was such a premium for us we opted for the space saving mrbf.
I’m always a day late and a dollar short…
Great videos, thanks for sharing! If you make it as far as Kodiak, AK be sure to be sure to swing in and say hi! I’ll have some fresh smoked salmon for you too!
Thanks for the comment and for watching! I don't think we're gonna make it to kodiak on this trip, but maybe if we make a passage from Hawaii to AK we'll shoot for a very northerly route. Cheers from Petersburg, AK!
You guys are my favorite. Wish you made 2 videos per day 😅
Moving to the Olympic peninsula in 3 weeks. Happy to be following in your wake!
Lots more videos coming in the future! Thanks for watching!
@@CruisingMaya No rush, I'll be here!
Good job. :)
Thanks so much :-)
If you do a technical video (or just feel like answering my question) it would be nice to know what the pulley ratio is on the new alternator vs. your crankshaft pulley and how many amps it outputs at idle, cruising speed etc.
We get a solid 70A at idle, and I want to say I've seen it get to 120A at around 2200RPM- which we typically run at (we go about 5.5knots @ that RPM). With our new Balmar alternator we got a performance curve of the output that they tested it at before it shipped. I can't seem to find that right now, but I can share that if I do come across it. So far, very happy with the new setup. We've got about two weeks of full time cruising in and it's been great.
My partner says you (Matt) look great without the beard.
If you haven’t left yet, could we meet up and discuss your Vancouver trip as we are planning one of our own. We will buy the meal! :)
Thank you for your comment! Might have to keep the beard off if I keep finding gray hairs in my beard haha! We have already left on our trip and are almost to Alaska- feel free to us questions for your trip. Thanks again and cheers!
Looks nice, real nice ;-) How's it been performing on passage? Did you say in another video the reason for doing this big upgrade?
New setup has been working great! I have some fine tuning to do- there are a bunch of settings and options with the external regulator. I've got it set relatively conservative for charging at the moment- which is fine for all our long motoring passages, but we will want to really crank the output when we are in mexico and not motoring 4-5 hours a day between anchorages. Thanks for your comment and for watching!
Hi. Nice project. Do you need a dc to dc charger with the lithium to protect the alternator?
We do not have a DC to DC charger. The output of the alternator is directly connected to the lithium bank. The lithium bank is connected to the AGM starter battery via an automatic charge relay (ACR). We have a sterling alternator protection device installed in case the lithium bank is disconnected while the alternator is running. Thanks for your comment and for watching!
This is great! I am in the process of researching a Lifepo4 upgrade myself and found this…had a few questions if you don’t mind answering:
Any thoughts on performance of the system after a year of use?
You went from 400ah to 300hr…I know lithium has more use of the 300ah. You happy you went with the 300ah instead of maybe something like 400ah? I am debating doing 300 ah system myself as I have simple systems like yourself but also thinking maybe I just go with 400 as it won’t be that much more…
How much solar do you have on board to help with charging?
Hello and thanks so much for reaching out! We are happy to answer your questions. First off, after a year of using and abusing these batteries they tested out at 100% capacity. Here's a video link to where we tested them: czcams.com/video/tDi2wcUUEhI/video.html
300 amphrs worked for us, although 400 would have been nice...
Our supercharged alternator (170amp) and 200W solar panels really helped. I would add more solar panels if we could just to help keep up with our energy needs.
heat disipation for lith /batts,fan? and insulation from freeze ?
There are air vents in that compartment to dissipate heat. We didn't insulate the compartment as temps are relatively mild in western Washington.
Sorry, Mac... Disco is always the star of the show!
She is such a diva. We couldn't possibly compete!
The two wires at 6:03 what did you end up wiring them to? I
I will get you this information next time I check the engine!
@@CruisingMaya thank you I've been researching for 3 weeks straight. The purple wire is the ignition key on and the other stats hot all the time. We shall see.
@Tripp III oh my if I known you were researching I would have gotten back to ya faster!
I am going to run the engine tomorrow so I'll get eyes on it and let you know
@@CruisingMaya no worries at all, thanks again and you are appreciated more than you know. Your video helped so much.
@@trippiii7715 Ok so we are staying one extra day, engine goes on tomorrow and I will let you know. Stoked to know the video helped your cause.
Electrical work confuses and frightens me...Well done on you.
Electricity definitely deserves respect! I was lucky enough to study electricity in college so that experience helps a lot when it comes to boats. Thanks for watching!