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Hi all, wondering what size battery banks do other F32 owners have. Freeform has 240ah golf cart batteries under the companion way. I have 260w of solar panels , airbreeze wind generator, 80 amp Balmor alternator & 1kva Honda generator coupled with a 30 amp charger. I get away with the the smaller battery bank due to all my charging options but ideally I would like a larger bank ( around 400). Room is my problem, where do others store their batteries? I think I'll have Freeform for another 5 years therfore are seriously considering Lithium Ion due to getting more out of available size.
Cheers Dale.
Freeform.

Timbuktu has two battery banks. One under the companionway steps, and one on the port side under the dinette seat.

Hi Joseph , are these both house banks? do you combine them (parallel ) or are they completely separate ? If separate how are you changing both? Ideally l would prefer one big bank for charging reasons but Space dosent permit this. l could set a separate bank up maybe near fridge compressor but heat worries me and would be to far apart to run parallel ?therefore would have to be a complete separate bank. No expert on this .... so if anyone has any idea's . maybe a battery combiner for charging purposes ?
Cheers Dale.

I have the same arrangement as Joseph, a starting battery under the stairs and 4 series/parallel 6 volt golf cart batteries under the settee. For keeping everything charged, I give my my unqualified recommendation to the battery combiners here:

http://www.yandina.com/

I've had one installed for 15 years and it has worked flawlessly, untouched. If it ever breaks, it just breaks, it doesn't take the rest of the charging system down with it, I only go back to manual switching of the battery switch. Whatever supplies the charging current (shore power, engine, solar, whatever) charges every battery bank automatically. When the charging stops, every battery bank is automatically isolated. The charge in the house bank goes up and down but the starting battery is always automatically kept fully charged. I keep the battery selector switch set to the house batteries position and only switch it to the starting battery position if I run the house batteries too far down to start the engine. That's rare for me, maybe once a year or so.

There are other good charging systems but a combiner is rock simple and it has worked great for me...

Hi Rick , l think what l will do is partition of the compartment under the settee where the fridge is and add 2 more 6V 240amp/hr batteries there.l' ll hook them up parallel with the 2 other 6v under companion way ( l also have a separate starter battery, ) . Not ideal as there will probably be about 10ft separating them but its the easiest simplest way to increase my battery capacity . Ive seen others do it without Issue. Will need to ventilate both compartments properly .
Cheers Dale
Freeform.