On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 08:30:18 GMT, ray lunder wrote:

The AmplePower people agitate for strict prohibition on this saying it
will smoke the diodes in your alternator. Is this true? What are you
supposed to do? Start the boat with the starting battery, let it run
for 10 minutes, turn the engine off and start it again with the house
batteries and charge them under way? What say all of you?

AmplePower gave you good advice. In theory the right technology will
allow you to switch batteries (make-before-break, ZapStop, etc). In
practice they should be regarded as backstops that *may* save your
alternator if you switch accidently.

Most people start their engines and run in the "BOTH" position. After
anchoring and shutting down the engine it is good practice to switch
to either "1" or "2". That should leave you with one charged battery
for restarting later on. If you have inadvertantly flattened a
battery, start the engine and warm it up on the remaining good
battery. After warming up the engine, shut it down, switch to "BOTH"
and restart. It's good practice to continue recharging the battery
that got flattened back at the dock since it is unlikely to get fully
recharged on the run back.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 08:30:18 GMT, ray lunder wrote:

The AmplePower people agitate for strict prohibition on this saying it
will smoke the diodes in your alternator. Is this true? What are you
supposed to do? Start the boat with the starting battery, let it run
for 10 minutes, turn the engine off and start it again with the house
batteries and charge them under way? What say all of you?

AmplePower gave you good advice. In theory the right technology will
allow you to switch batteries (make-before-break, ZapStop, etc). In
practice they should be regarded as backstops that *may* save your
alternator if you switch accidently.

Most people start their engines and run in the "BOTH" position. After
anchoring and shutting down the engine it is good practice to switch
to either "1" or "2". That should leave you with one charged battery
for restarting later on. If you have inadvertantly flattened a
battery, start the engine and warm it up on the remaining good
battery. After warming up the engine, shut it down, switch to "BOTH"
and restart. It's good practice to continue recharging the battery
that got flattened back at the dock since it is unlikely to get fully
recharged on the run back.

Most people? Not what I've seen and practiced. Typically, you pick one batt
to start and one batt to cruise. Both is reserved for charging and emergency
starting when one batt can't do it alone.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 09:28:04 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

Typically, you pick one batt
to start and one batt to cruise.

Not really a good idea. Best practice is to charge both batteries at
every opportunity, and then switch to a single house batt when
stopped. Some people like to alternate between 1 and 2 as the house
batt on different days to equalize the wear and tear.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 09:28:04 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

Typically, you pick one batt
to start and one batt to cruise.

Not really a good idea. Best practice is to charge both batteries at
every opportunity, and then switch to a single house batt when
stopped. Some people like to alternate between 1 and 2 as the house
batt on different days to equalize the wear and tear.

According to who? You? Sorry, but that's a good way to drain both batteries
and then you'll have nothing. I think I'll stick to what I know.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 09:39:41 GMT, ray wrote:

This sounds ideal if you have two identical batteries, or banks. My
setup has one dedicated starting battery and 2, 6v golf cart batteries
in series for the house. Lots of noise about starting and deep cycle
types having different charging characteristics, capacities etc.

Don't worry about it. Assuming that both your starting battery and
your golf cart batts are conventional flooded cell lead-acid
batteries, they will be fine together.