Upgrade charging and monitoring

[oak]

Miru is a 2007 Mainship pilot with a single yanmar 6lya 370.
My upgrade began with charging out the original pro mariner with a new pro mariner 1250/ 50 amp charger. While doing that I replaced the inline ceramic 60 amp fuses with 60 amp resettable breakers. With the ceramic breakers it is not possible to easily tell if the fuse has blown. If a breaker trips it’s apparent. I also added a remote for the battery charger and installed it in the cabin adjacent to the house panel. The remote indicates all charging functions.

The original battery set up on the pilot has three banks. The first for the generator is a group 24, the second for the house and main engine is a 8D, the third bank is for the bow and stern thrusters. Each bank is individually connected to an on/off switch, with no way to parallel. I didn’t think it was good planning to have the house and engine start on the same battery, so I moved the engine start to the thruster battery. My thought was that they are all motors and the thrusters are only used with the main engine running.

Next I removed the original Charles battery combiner and installed a blue sea ML-ACR. The ACR can now parallel the house and engine/ thrusters either manually or automatically. The ACR also has a remote control switch that was installed at the helm.

To complete the system I installed a blue sea M-2 state of charge monitor at the helm. The M-2 monitors the voltage of all three batteries and the state of charge for the house bank. The battery information is a vast improvement over the analog meter on the house panel.

 

[Bacchus]

Sounds like positive moves all around.
My '08 MS 34HT had similar set up wv3 banks. I moved start to thruster bank w same thoughts. I now have a pure house bank w Balmar Smartgauge monitor fir 2 banks. My charger charges house & start banks and gen is charged my its own alt.

Only difference I changed my gen on/off SW to a 1-2-all and added a jumper to hose bank. This allows me to connect house to gen while charging to top off gen batty or combine if needed to start gen. The Sw us same footprint & bolt pattern do EZ change.
I run all AGM and plan to change each 8D to a pair of GP31 when the time comes... 4 for house & 2 for thrusters / start

 

[oak]

Sounds like positive moves all around.
My '08 MS 34HT had similar set up wv3 banks. I moved start to thruster bank w same thoughts. I now have a pure house bank w Balmar Smartgauge monitor fir 2 banks. My charger charges house & start banks and gen is charged my its own alt.

Only difference I changed my gen on/off SW to a 1-2-all and added a jumper to hose bank. This allows me to connect house to gen while charging to top off gen batty or combine if needed to start gen. The Sw us same footprint & bolt pattern do EZ change.
I run all AGM and plan to change each 8D to a pair of GP31 when the time comes... 4 for house & 2 for thrusters / start

Thanks for your reply. I actually based my project on your charging modifications. So thanks for that and all the great information on your website. I think I will also parallel the generator and house battery. When I need to change out the batteries I will also replace with group 31’s.

 

[SteveK]

... changed out the original pro mariner with a new pro mariner 1250/ 50 amp charger. While doing that I replaced the inline ceramic 60 amp fuses with 60 amp resettable breakers...

... The first for the generator is a group 24, the second for the house and main engine is a 8D, the third bank is for the bow and stern thrusters. ............. I didn’t think it was good planning to have the house and engine start on the same battery, so I moved the engine start to the thruster battery. My thought was that they are all motors and the thrusters are only used with the main engine running.

....

Oak, just curious for more info to follow train of thought
1) you changed out pro mariner for a new model 50amp. Since you already had 60 amp fuse was the original charger less than 50 amp?
2) what was reason for the change/upgrade? mentioned parallel
3) Group 24, 8D, what was the 3rd bank? does the 3 bank charger have settings for each type battery.

 

[oak]

Oak, just curious for more info to follow train of thought

1) you changed out pro mariner for a new model 50amp. Since you already had 60 amp fuse was the original charger less than 50 amp?

2) what was reason for the change/upgrade? mentioned parallel

3) Group 24, 8D, what was the 3rd bank? does the 3 bank charger have settings for each type battery.

1. The original charger was the older model of the 1250 pro mariner. I changed that for the new pro mariner 1250p
The old in line 60 amp ceramic fuses were removed and replaced with 60 amp circuit breakers View attachment 121876

2. On my previous boats a sail boat then a trawler I always had a 1, 2 or both switch. When I got the pilot 34 in 2016 I found that there was no way to parallel batteries if the engine start battery was down. So adding an ACR to combine automatically or manually seemed to make sense.

The batteries are all flooded lead acid
Generator- group- 24
House - 8D
Engine/ thrusters - 8D
All batteries are the same type
At some time I will change the 8D’s for 2 AGM’s for each 8D and probably a group 24 AGM for the generator View attachment 121877View attachment 121878View attachment 121879View attachment 121880View attachment 121881

 

[oak]

Oak, just curious for more info to follow train of thought

1) you changed out pro mariner for a new model 50amp. Since you already had 60 amp fuse was the original charger less than 50 amp?

2) what was reason for the change/upgrade? mentioned parallel

3) Group 24, 8D, what was the 3rd bank? does the 3 bank charger have settings for each type battery.

Copy of my wiring diagram