Main motor and kicker, dual battery with ACR wiring

[Pewpster]

Just purchased a new to me boat with a 225 verado and 9.9 kicker. The wiring is a bit of a mess and I'd like to redo it with the appropriate fuses and connections. I picked up the blue seas add a battery kit with a double pole switch and acr.

My plan was to have the main motor on its own battery and the kicker on the second battery with the house loads. I like the idea of a single switch for simplicity. Are there any issues with this setup?

I couldn't find the exact wiring diagram, so i modified one by moving the kicker connection from being in parallel with the main to being in parallel with the house loads.

The Verado manual specifically calls for an AGM battery, so I'd like to just get two identical AGM dual purpose batteries. I'm open to battery suggestions, but I'm not interested in lithium.

I would think a main/kicker dual battery setup is pretty common on a sport fishing boat. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[CIVANO]

here is what Blue Seas sent me

 

[CIVANO]

sorry for bottom of photo!

 

[Pewpster]

here is what Blue Seas sent me

Perfect, that's exactly my plan. I couldn't find the exact diagram online.

 

[CIVANO]

Perfect, that's exactly my plan. I couldn't find the exact diagram online.

same here. I had to call them and they emailed it to me

 

[Rayvon]

same here. I had to call them and they emailed it to me

Thanks for that,I've saved the photo for when I do mine.

 

[MRWood]

I’m thinking that’s what my setup is going to be as well. Photo saved, thanks civano.

 

[chille51]

That's what I did. Works fine for 2 seasons so far. A couple times when I was drifting and jigging with my electronics on but no motor running, had to pull start the kicker. Could have flipped the switch to the both position I guess, in hindsight.

 

[CIVANO]

That's what I did. Works fine for 2 seasons so far. A couple times when I was drifting and jigging with my electronics on but no motor running, had to pull start the kicker. Could have flipped the switch to the both position I guess, in hindsight.

If one battery is low on this system, before switching to both, make sure the small green light is not blinking! If it is, the controller is telling you that switching to both could drain the full battery into the low battery making it difficult to start either motor.

 

[mbowers]

That's what I did. Works fine for 2 seasons so far. A couple times when I was drifting and jigging with my electronics on but no motor running, had to pull start the kicker. Could have flipped the switch to the both position I guess, in hindsight.

I went with kicker and main on a starting battery and a pair of deep cycle batteries for the electronics / house on my barely used Weldcraft. Way better than the single deep cycle as shared starting and house battery for a 300hp as rigged new by Sherwood. Every start would reboot the electronics and the deep cycle didn't meet Yamaha specs for starting. Hard to get quality wiring in a $250k boat these days..

 

[chille51]

If one battery is low on this system, before switching to both, make sure the small green light is not blinking! If it is, the controller is telling you that switching to both could drain the full battery into the low battery making it difficult to start either motor.

Good tip,thanks! It's probably just as easy to pull start my 9.9 as it is to mess with the switch, tbh.

 

[Pewpster]

Would there be any issue moving the acr connection to the switch? I plan on moving the batteries up under the front seats and would considerably shorten the wire run.

 

[Weatherall]

I don't think this is correct. I believe the ACR is the balance the load to each batteries when the switch is on. I personally wouldn't connect that to the switch, but I am no electrician or engineer, but I have installed this twice as per the diagram and had great luck with charging both batteries.

 

[Alex_c]

Would there be any issue moving the acr connection to the switch? I plan on moving the batteries up under the front seats and would considerably shorten the wire run.

Circuit-wise, the ACR in the original drawing is in parallel with the switch terminals, and your proposed change would also achieve the same thing. The only change would be a slight voltage drop from resistance in the battery cables. I think it would be fine, based on circuit analysis principles. You’d obviously still want the fuses

 

[Pewpster]

I emailed blue seas and they say it's fine as long as the wire is big enough for less than 3% voltage drop.


From Blue seas
That is okay to do as long as we are accommodating for voltage drop. The voltage at the ACR has to be the less than 3% different than the voltage directly at the battery. Moving the ACR to the switch will add some additional connections between the batteries and the ACR as well as additional wire. It sounds like you are already taking these factors into consideration though. Electrically speaking, the way you have shown on the diagram below is the same as a direct connection to the battery.