battery placement
 

Hey guys,

Has anyone with a cuddy moved their batteries into the cuddy?
If you did, where did you put them?

I'm starting to rewire the whole boat. I would like to move both batteries into the cuddy in the two red circled ares. I was hoping there is enough room to cut two access holes up top and drop one on each side.
Has anyone done that?

Thanks

Not sure u have enough room under the bunks for a battery. There is room under the deck right outside of your cabin door. If your fuel tank is not there.

Yeah I didn’t think I had enough room I was just hoping there was.

In the center right before the step down is where the gas tank is. So mine from stern to cuddy step down goes live well, box storage/ fish box, then gas tank.

Other then putting then in the step down in the cuddy they may just have to stay in the stren.

Thanks for the reply!

i would like to get mine out of the stern also. my fuel tank is right up against the splashwell, so boat seems a little stern heavy.

I may drill a few holes to get the depths and see if there is room. I have a bounch of others holes I’m filling in anyways.

I moved my batteries from the stern to the fish box just aft of the cuddy bulkhead (I have an '89). Made a nice difference.

I would be most interested in your findings if you decide to drill depth holes as those would be ideal locations for my planned trolling motor batteries.

Keep the batts in the stern and get trim tabs...

Mine are right outside the cuddy door in a custom hatch inspired by Phatdaddy. Be sure to run 1 or 2 gauge cable. Also you can get a cheap but powerful hydralic crimper from harbor freight.

YES on the crimper!!! Love mine. Comes with several different dies so you can crimp many different wire gages.
YES on the battery placement. When I redid my V21's deck I found this HUGE void right between the captains and mates chairs, just before the bulkhead to the cuddy in the center of the deck. It will easily fit 2 batteries plus some misc stowage. It's an easy matter to buy and install a deck hatch.

Personally I would keep them in the stern Their there already

You may want to test how your boat floats with the batteries moved, I know I used to keep a spare battery in the floor compartment in the cabin sometimes and when I would put a fair amount of gear in there (like when we went to the Keys and I left it in the water for a week) the cockpit floor was sloped forward...no drainage when it rains.

Well holes were drilled and it looked ok...so I said go for it.

Cut a 12x7.5 inch hole in the area just forward of the cuddy bulkhead and
Bingo there is a perfect cavity for one battery maybe two if you wanted them on the same side. I’m going to cut the other side tomorrow and take some photos.

:sun::sun::beer:

Weight forward will have a greater effect on attitude than weight in stern.
Measure 2x...cut 1x.

Awesome! Good to know!

Truthfully, I still don't like the idea of putting batteries in the cuddy on the hull. That area takes the most pounding from a wave. It lifts up the highest and drops the furthest.... add something heavy on the inside of the hull in that area and you are asking for a cracked hull IMHO.

Remember that the hull is designed and braced to take an incoming soft (water) shock against it, not outgoing hard (solid) heavy weight shocks.

Physics tells us that a free falling object accelerates at 9.81 meters per second per second. (9.81m/s^2) So a 25 lb battery (11.33 KG) falling 2 feet (.6096m)
[Think of a 2 ft high chop] has the impact force of roughly 67.69 Joules or 49.93 Ft. Lbs. Put two batteries together and you have the equivalent of roughly 100 ft. lbs pounding on your hull in a 2 foot drop. More as the wave height height increases. And every wave causes that pounding.

The furthest I've gone forward is the area between the captains and the mates seats, and even then I tried to insulate the batteries from the hull itself with several inches of wood over foam that the batteries sit on. Just my two cents. :head:

Not Sure if this will work trying to post from my phone.

Cool, always wondered how deep it went there, even if it wasnt used for batteries nice to know you could put some hatches there.

The cavity runs the full length of the step down. I think Im going to try and build some fishing gear drew storage in front of where I cut the two holes.

Destroyer,
Im not going to lie I agree with you, and was thinking the same thing. I would have liked to have put them in between the the captains and passenger chair. My set up goes from stern forward live well, storage locker, fuel tank. I didnt have much choice where I could move them. Im going to add a bracket and wanted the weight forward, but couldnt impact the storage locker or fuel tank. Where its mostly a family boat my wife wants as much storage space as possible. I think what Im going to do is build a platform so it spreads the force over as much area as possible. I have some industrial rubber flooring Im going to fix to the bottom of the platform and then again on top of the platform under the battery. Hoping this off sets the pounding, since we are on the lake 90% of the time we just have to deal with boat produced chop.

Bradford, Ill take some better pictures with a measuring tape to give a better idea of the space.

I don't get the pictures The ones on the side in the cabin I understand that even though I wouldn't want my battery's sitting on the hull skin and the other pics with the two hatches I can't figure out where you cut them, so you have four hatches you cut?

No just the two holes. I tried to get a close up view to show how deep they are.

Nice find, twisted. I cut an inspection hole in mine, but on the outside of the stringer, thats why I thought it was too shallow. Im thinking now, cut some holes like u did, epoxy up
The edges, use the cut outs as hatch lids and gain some storage. Can u post some pics with your camera in the hole facing forward & aft

Thanks

Ok here we go should be able to see much better now.

Ok so the whole thing is rectangular. The bottom slants away so the measurement to to the top of the slant. That is not how the battery will sit just dropped it in to show the fit.

Awesome !

Totally solves my trolling motor issue (unless I go 36v). Thanks !

No problem, I did forget to mention that the cavity space is equal dimensions on both sides.
At least in my boat!

I would not put the battery's up there, I would put in a hatch and use it for storage for something light, I don't like the weight and corners of the battery's resting on the hull , that's just my opinion

So how much room is there between the top of the battery and the underside of the deck? Obviously don't want to just drop the battery into a hole with an uneven bottom - will need to fabricate a base with a built in angle to compensate.

I'm thinking maybe a sandwich made up of 1/2" rubber mat on the botom, 3/4" plywood, expanding foam to make up the angle and a 3/4" plywood top for the battery to sit on. That means that a minimum of 2" of clearance in the shallowest corner. Is there enough?

Could probably get away with a 1/4" mat and 1/2" ply for a total of 1.25" if need be..

Follow up question - do you see any reason why I couldn't cut the access hole in the side of the step down rather than the top of the deck? Harder to get to but I have milk crates bolted to the deck in the cuddy and wouldn't want to move them, even occasionally for battery access.

Absolutely! In no time at all you can stick the trolling motor right through the large holes that will be in the hull...you could troll from inside the cuddy!
Brilliant...

Yea pretty sure a properly bedded and secured battery won't be much of a risk in my situation. But thanks for your kind guidance. I'll let you know next time I'm in RI -maybe we can hook up again..

It was a word of caution to the OP...as many have noted on this thread what he is proposing is somewhat risky.
That is a heavily concentrated load at the end end of the lever arm, without proper bracing this could be a disaster. In any case I wouldn want all that weight (somewhat) permanently mounted up in the bow area.
Sometimes we have to accept that the designers actually knew what they were doing.

The comment on your trolling motor was a joke...hope you enjoyed the bourbon.

Merry Christmas to All!

Bill

Maybe if the boat was used only in fresh water lake I might feel differently about the battery's upfront sitting on the hull because the pounding would be absent but in the ocean that's a differant story Good luck It does look good

Not speaking for twisted or jv, but I envisioned a cleat attached to the stringer on either side with a shelf spanning the void. Very similar to the shelf in the stern.

As far as the weight, I believe others who have mounted trolling motors on the bow have set the batteries in the step down

thanks for all the advice guys.

The plan was NEVER to have the batteries sitting on the hull it's self. At first i was going to build a large dispersion shelf that sat on the hull, but after reading what you all have said i'm going to change it up a bit.

in the photo i'm going to glass in a platform for the battery to sit on.
One side attached to the stringer, one side attached to the bulkhead, and the third side to the side of the set down. the photo is NOT correct because I don't have a photo with one of the bulkhead in it, but you guys get the idea.

This will make sure there is no weight on the hull skin.

I did indeed! Merry Christmas !

Looks like a good plan. Will be very interested in seeing updates. Thanks for all the pics..

Let’s take a step back; what is the motivation for moving the batteries away from the stern anyway?

Maybe I’m missing something...but I just don’t see a good reason.

Unless you have hung an over weight engine on the stern why do you want to do this?

Thx, B

In about a year ish when I repower. I’m going to hang a 36 in set back bracket with a swimming platform and a 200 hp off the transom. I need to rewire the boat now to get a number of basic functions working. With the current under deck setup the only place for the batteries is the transom. With the planed extra weight in the stern I’m trying to offset it as much as possible. I’m doing it now one because I already have everything I need and two I don’t want to have to move the batteries latter rewiring the boat twice.

Hold on your saying you are going to put on a 36 inch extension( 3 feet sea drive swim platform) off the transom and put on a 200 hp hanging plus a swim platform so you can stand on ?
To me it sounds dangerous Like it's going to rip your transom off But that's just me I would really like to know what the big guns think, I love the steplift too but I don't know if I like that idea

thats awsome, i thought about that but lacked the nuts to start cutting holes.
with a 350mag/bravo 1 in my boat im always looking for ways to get weight forwards.

and yes i have trim tabs already

The most important issue seems to be how to secure the battery rather than moving the weight.

I'd suggest securing to withstand constant pounding in 3' seas.........meaning more securely set and braced than needed. " Overbuilt" as the saying goes..