Battery up forward..any leccie/house battery issues ?

[deckie]

Hoping for a bit of insight into any issues people have had (or non issues) in placing a decent sized agm (about 100Ahr/30kg's) up near the bow. Whilst i;ve got no desire for a leccie motor i guess its the blokes running leccies up front with fwd mounted batteries to service them who would have some experience.
I'm repowering soon with a slightly heavier motor and adding a livewell down back and wanted to shift a bit of weight forward but not enough to change hull performance...whilst unfortunately its not easy to move fuel forward on mine what i do have is the perfect space already for a big battery and cant see it effecting hull performance much at all..might even improve it into a choppy sea coz anytime i;ve had weight up at the bow she's felt even better.

Cant see the point in adding the weight of a 4stk and livewell on the transom without adding horsepower (even more weight i dont want)...effectively i go backwards in power and are also worried about holeshot and performance going from 2 to 4stk around the 60-70hp mark...a 2stk seems to get it up and out of the water pretty well. So the upshot is i'd like to move some weight away from the transom even if its only 30kg or so on a light 15-16footer.

At this point i'm going to leave the lighter cranking battery down back but would like the big heavy house battery centred low and up forward which i can do ...will mount it securely and perhaps over some vibration rubber or high density foam for cushioning...but are there any hassles you have found with batteries up fwd ?...i figure next size up in battery cables should conquer any voltage drop issue over about a 4m cable run but does the increased pounding it will get cause issues ? Was going to connect the sounder to the transom battery as basic spike protection as they are sensitive things but pretty much hook everything else up to the fwd battery.
Any problems with fwd battery mounting ?...any issues you have found or i should look out for ?...these agm's are supposed to be much more vibration proof so i thought i'd test it out for myself. Will be connecting stereo/navlght/anch light/vhf/bilge pump/deckwash pump/led cabin/led deck lights plus a big HID spottie...all thru fuse/switchboard off the forward house battery. I have a slot i can even put the cranking battery with only a 2.5m cable run and might even investigate that also... but figure i'd try a house battery first to test the added pounding.

Any thoughts appreciated and thanx in advance guys. Perhaps concerned about nothing becuse its quite common to mount them fwd but hoping to hear any issues to watch out for.
Cheers
Steve

[robersl]

Just make sure if you have a ally boat it does not bounce up and touch the boat with the cable connection or sparks will fly i lifted mine out the other day with out getting in the boat and accidently touch the sides of the boat and zaps went every where ,also make sure it is well anchored as it cops a lot of bouncing up the bow but so far i have had no troubles with it working but i only run the leccie from it

shane

[lethal098]

just make sure you buy a calcium type or dry type battery or the constant pounding it gets may damage the internals of the battery. other than that cant see any issues in it being up there.

[deckie]

tx a lot for getting back guys...yeah its a glass boat so hopefully it wont cause issues. I havent seen many guys having any kind of cushioning under thenm as added protection and longevity when placed fwd but u can get good anti vibration rubber mats from clark rubber for about 8bux...and 10mm of that high density i figure cant go astray either.
Any particular brand of agm's or other batteries that u've found take a bit extra pounding up fwd or ones to avoid ?

With a new motor due i'll probably also get a new cranking battery for the motor and might slot that about middle of the boat too....any weight saving off the transom is horsepower and holeshot ...its about a 3m cable run back to the motor and whilst its not normal to see guys putting them a bit fwd i honestly cant see too many issues as long as i go with serious cables. Just never had batteries anywhere but transom before.

These good batteries today are supposed to be more vibration proof and well sealed so there's no point denying evolution...as long as she still goes well in a following sea and doesnt plough i guess its all added performance and getting the most hp from the new 4stk..if i go 60 2stk to 60 4stk i;m actually expecting slightly LESS performance out of the hole and with more weight its kinda bugging me ...simply trying to compensate now for the future.
Any other issues yell out but tx

[deckie]

Mods...any chance of transferring this thread into the "boating chat" forum plz. Sorry i have it in the wrong spot
tx
Steve

[oldboot]

As far as mounting, you will be wise to mount the battery firmly rather than using rubber as a shock absorber because seriously it wont do much...vibration realy isn't the issue heavy pounding is and a little bit of rubber will do squat.....but make sure the mounting is realy strong

Add a few "G"s to the 30Kg odd of battery and you have a few100Kg of force on the mountings

moving that weight forward is probably a very good thing

Does she go better with someone up front?

A big battery probably weighs as much as the average skinny dancer girlfriend ( you know we would all like) or as much as a typical 12 year old.

a pair of good heavy cables and you will crank from up the front if you wont no problems.....they have been running batteries at the opposite ends of race cars for decades with no problems and they need a lot more cranking than a pissy low compression outboard.

If you not going to crank off this battery up the front the cables to it don't need to be all that heavy at all...6mm automotive might even cut it... heavier would be better.

Don't forget the ventilation.

cheers

[deckie]

Tx mate..yeah will be mounting using s/s brackets. Still thinking about some cushioning underneath for the extra pounding but as u say it probably isnt necessary.
All up with two batteries it'll be moving 47kg (30aux+17crank)+ ancillary battery "stuff" off the transom and addiing slightly fwd of middle...should help performance a fair bit out of the hole for the new 4stk...plus small fuel saving plus the added bonus of a bit of extra storage room down back.

Like taking away the weight of a kid sitting on the transom as u take off.

Yepp like many rigs she tends to travel better if you have someone fwd making me think it will actually make an improvement so all looks good..if hull performance changes for the worse its no problem just putting it back.

Already got two s/s butterfly vents so i can close up the area when washing.

tx for your help guys.