It's not so much disconnecting the battery from the alternator that's the
issue, it's disconnecting the battery from the load. The diodes in the
alternator should prevent any reverse current flow.
DF

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
.. .
I see no reason to disconnect the batteries from the alternators.

In an emergency you can se a set of jumper cables to crank the motor.

I keep a set of jumper cables in a waterporof bag in the bilge of my bass
boat, although its usually just to swap batteries around.

"Jason" wrote in message
...
I'm building a new battery system for my Albin 27 trawler. The boat
previously had a 1-2-Both-off switch and two banks of batteries. My new
engine has two alternators and I'd like to take full advantage of this
set-up. My plan is to install a dedicated starting battery with an
on-off switch, a dedicated house bank with an on-off switch and then have
a third switch to parallel the banks in an emergency. This system is
explained in detail in Calder's book and seems to be a good match for my
boat.

My question is this; Assuming I connect one alternator to each bank, what
happens when I parallel the batteries? Will the two alternators feeding
into the system cause any problems? 99% of the time the two systems
would be totally independent.

Thanks,
Jason

Albin 27 FC- "Tonic"
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jek15/



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com