Upcoming Spring Build

[jojo]

I have a couple questions for you guys on my build I will be doing this spring.

1. What should I use for sealing wood for my deck? I plan on carpeting as well. The 2 things I can't decide on what to use are Rustoleum spar varnish, or Minwax spar urethane.

2. I plan on using a NOCO Genius GENM2 onboard charger. I can't seem to find any information on splicing the leads to make them longer. Does anyone own this charger that could give me any info?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Scott F]

I can't help with the wood sealing issues, but the charger you are looking at seems pretty small. What size battery are you trying to charge? A 4 amp charger will not charge a full size battery properly and shorten its life.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

A 4 amp charger will not charge a full size battery properly and shorten its life.

Can you elaborate on this?

I thought a low amp charger would just take longer. How can it damage a battery?

 

[Scott F]

To properly charge the battery, the charger should be approx. 10% of the rated capacity. That's 10 - 15 amps for most TM batteries. A battery must gas a little bit when charged to keep the electrolyte mixed. A slow charge like that will not make it form gas bubble and the electrolyte will stratify, causing the acid to settle to the bottom and water in the upper layer. The heavy concentration of acid eats up the bottom section of plates.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

Reason I asked - I recently bought a 'maintainer' to put on my hobby car during the winter. It is rated 1.5 amps. I measured 14.5 V while it is running. Do you think that will be a problem?

 

[Scott F]

If the battery was fully charged first, the maintainer should be OK.

 

[jojo]

Thanks for the response. I had another question about a battery box I am going to mount.

I was going to mount a battery box to the rear bench seat on the floor. The floor isn't flat and angles to the middle. Is it ok if that battery does not sit level?

 

[WV1951]

The angle you are referring is the dead rise, which is probably only a few degrees, although, I don't know your boat. Wouldn't think it would hurt. How about a floor in the back as well? Even a piece of aluminum across the back would give you a level area. Since what little water you get will gravitate toward the back, it would have less affect on metal compared to wood.

 

[jojo]

The angle you are referring is the dead rise, which is probably only a few degrees, although, I don't know your boat. Wouldn't think it would hurt. How about a floor in the back as well? Even a piece of aluminum across the back would give you a level area. Since what little water you get will gravitate toward the back, it would have less affect on metal compared to wood.

The angle isn't too much, I've just heard batteries should be level so the plates are covered evenly. I don't know if that's true or not.
I was trying to do this without using wood, It never seems to last long back there as it tends to sit in standing water all the time. Aluminum would be best, but would probably cost me a lot more.

Another side question, has anyone ever tried using 5200 to glue a battery box to the aluminum hull?

 

[bcbouy]

it won't be an issue if it's an agm.gel cell batteries are more sensitive to over voltage charging.agm and gel cell are not the same.gel cells have a scilica additive ,agm is more like a wet cell.both can be mounted upside down if you care to.

 

[jojo]

They are flooded lead acid batteries.

Here is a pic of what I had before. It was riveted to the rear bench with some shelf brackets. The board on the left under the plywood was 1/2" taller than the other to make it somewhat level. But those boards were complete mush when I took this apart. Just looking for some ideas.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

The plywood would have been ok if you sealed it, & also had non-porous feet. Search the site for old timers sealer recipe. You could use rubber pads of some sort for the feet. Scrounge at the hardware store for something strong & cheap.

 

[jojo]

The plywood would have been ok if you sealed it, & also had non-porous feet. Search the site for old timers sealer recipe. You could use rubber pads of some sort for the feet. Scrounge at the hardware store for something strong & cheap.

The plywood was in decent shape, it's just the boards under it that weren't. I did use a cheap wood waterproofer on the wood.

I thought about doing kind of the same thing I did in the picture, except using aluminum square tube for the bottom at different thickness to keep it level.

 

[WV1951]

How about doing the same thing again with the different thickness of feet to make it level, then buy an el cheapo plastic storage container to set it in. You might get a few drops of water drop into the container, but any water accumulating under it will never soak the wood.