Good morning, I am currently wiring my boat. I would like to run everything 24v including the starters. Does anyone have any experience in 6-71 DD with starters. Do I need to buy new starters or can the old one be rewired or reworked? I will have a step down transformer for any 12v requirements on the helm. Is this a good idea having only one voltage? Still kinda sorting things out but I like the simple approach. Thanks Paul
OK, this is a subject I have quite a bit of experience with. Island Eagle was a 32 volt boat when I bought her, I converted to 12 and 24. I used 24 volts almost everywhere, the only 12 volt battery on board is the genset starting battery.
First, your initial question, where to get a 24 volt 6-71 starter. No problem. Go to
any heavy-duty auto electric shop with one of your starters and they's sell you a brand new rebuilt 24 volt starter for a few hundred bucks. That's probably one of the most common starters around. They'll probably even pay you for your cores.
So, should you run 12 or 24?
First, you can run a mixed 12 & 24 system from one house bank. For my normal 12 volt ships supply, I used a Vanner Voltmaster. It's been flawless. I highly recommend it. This allows you to use a single 24 volt house bank for both 12 and 24 volt loads.
Do you need 24 volts for starting a 6-71? Nope. 12 volts is fine, run two parallel Optima batteries.
24 volts is more or less critical if you want to run a big inverter, which I wanted to do. However... I'm guessing that you will want to run your AC all the time, which means running the genset all the time, which means not as much need for the big inverter.
You will also need 24 volts if you want a big windlass. On the other hand, you can use hydraulic.
What about house lights, nav lights, etc., etc., etc.? Well, I went with 24 volts and now I regret it. There are now tons and tons of inexpensive LED and flourescent lights, but they are all 12 volt. 24 volt is a total pain in the butt to source.
If I were doing it over again, I would use 24 volts just for the windlass and the inverter, and 12 for absolutely everything else. I'd even think long and hard about a hydraulic windlass.
Scott Welch
Island Eagle