August 1, 2016
It was an exhausting, at times overwhelming, grind, but from July 7th until August 1st I buckled down and cranked out a lot of work. The days were long often starting before 6:00am and not knocking off until after 8:00pm. I skipped a bunch of meals and made daily trips to the marine store, Home Depot, and Target (some times…
July 20, 2016
A ridiculous amount of time has been spent studying the electrical system on my boat. The lithium batteries brought a whole other level of research to ensure I didn’t create a safety hazard. I make no promises to the accuracy of this information but I am reasonable certain it is accurate. Seven days in, I typically don’t see the voltage…
July 17, 2016
UPDATE August 1, 2016!!! – I removed the InterVolt Programmable Voltage Relay, see the new post for more information: Update With the boat wiring mapped out I felt comfortable stripping out the old batteries and wires. Figuring out where to mount all of the new equipment was a game of Tetris. Ultimately I had to adjust the position of the…
May 28, 2016
It has been a chaotic process to purchase the lithium batteries from Thunder Sky (Winston). I decided to go with the Winston batteries based on the great success other cruisers have had with their (Winston) batteries and the high charge/discharge cycle life. Until a few years ago this was a simple process of placing an order with Balqon (out of…
May 9, 2016
I have been planning for awhile to make some significant upgrades to the power systems onboard. The batteries are original, after 8 years they are tired and past their expiration. Fellow Seawind 1160 owner Dave Straton (SV Nimrod) did an upgrade to Lithium batteries about four years ago and wrote a great write up on the conversion process. After exchanging…