Question on Shorepower?
 

My "new to me" 1993 38 Special Baja has Shorepower and does not have a Generator.

My question is.... Can I, or is there, a way for me to run my Air-Conditioning off of the Batteries?? Even if I have to install more batteries thats ok with me....

Also, I just found out how much they want for New White Hatches to replace my dark brown ones. Rear are $598.45 each and $370.01 each for the front!!! Ouch!!!

Thanks!
One Poor Baja Owner!!!

There is a battery system that will run the ac but it is totally different from what you have now. If you have someone local that does marine ac and gensets he should be familar with it. It will run the ac about 8 hours before recharging.

you may get away with it for a short time if you wired in an inverter to supply the 115v for the AC system......not sure how long that would last though....

As for the hatches....try BoatUS or Weast marine....i'm sure they can order the Bomar hatches cheaper then from the dealer or Mfg can get them to ya for! :)

Thanks Robert!!
As for someone local that know's genset's and marine air....Well it is Kansas you know!! Can I do it myself??

Got a phone # somewhere,may take a day or 2 to find it, I'm at home after a long weekend at Orange Beach

I know some of the sailboat guys try to run AC units on inverters, usually with poor results. I wouldn't bother with it. Get a small genset.
BTW, it may be a bomar as someone else pointed uot. Cheaper through West marine. Alternatively, if just the plastic is cracked, you may be able to dissassembele and just replace the plastic. I would suggest lexan over plexiglas. You wont have to worry about breaking that. Cost should be around $20.
Gary

Thanks Guy's!!

Gary, that's kinda what I was thinking....Now I have to find a place to get Lexan.....

Could I just buy a small generator like a Honda Carry on?? Then pipe out the exhaust?? Or do I need to go with what came out factory???

Check for "Plastics" in your yellow pages. If I dont need a whole sheet, I'll ask what they have for leftover scraps. That's usually very chaep. Just cut the stuff at low speeds with woodworking tools. High speeds will melt plexi.
Forget the carryon gen. They dont survive the pounding very well. I wish there was a cheap alternative but you're best to get a marine unit. BTW, ANY marine genset will work. You'll only need a small (about 4kW) generator to run the 5000BTU unit that came with that boat. Stay away from rebuilt generators. The small units are usually 2 cylinder, 3600rpm, all aluminum motors. The rebuilds NEVER seem to last long. With the addition of a ship/shore selector switch, it can be wired into your existing 110 panel.
Get a BIG can muffler with it or the noise from the exhaust will drive you crazy.
Gary

Thanks Gary,
Who has the best prices on generators??

Is there tinted lexan to replace the original? I've got a small crack in mine from where my niece thought she was doing me a favor by pulling my bow line in through the bomar and clamping it shut. Cracked right where the latch is.....:hothead:

Reckless - I have a whole bunch of bronze smoke 1/4" lexan in smaller pieces if you let me know how big the hatch is I may be able to hook you up.

As for the portable gens- a lot of guys I know use the Honda EU2000 and love them. They are super quiet, light, and will run the AC in most performance boats. They are also completely enclosed in plastic and seem to hold up well. All you do is throw them on the swim platform when you use them.

Here is a good thread on them.

http://www.cbpba.com/forums/showthre...&threadid=1141

Oh, and check www.piedmontplastics.com they have all kinds of good stuff.

Another question,

Can I pug my shorepower into 110 in my garage?? Or do I need 220?? the cord say's it's a 30A 125V??? Is there a adapter for this??

Also try your local RV Motorhome store. They have tons of adapters etc for the RV industry and I am sure they could find something to make it work.

EU2000i Honda is a gem.
Small, light, quiet.

You could use a 1350 watt inverter on a 5000 Btu AC while underway, but you'd need to upsize your alternators to 90 or 100 amp units to keep up with the normal accessory load AND the AC (and we are assuming a NORMAL stereo, not a megawatt one).

The Honda would run your boat while at anchor.

Go up to the 2000 Honda generator... my buddy uses one and straps it to the swim deck when anchored... fabulous setup... With a 38 baja, I would think you would have room for a genset... I'm not familiar with baja as to if the offer one from factory... if they do, then there is probably a location for it... then you don't have to move the generator around from the cockpit to the swimdeck... just plug the shorepower into it and off you go..... I had checked ebay and they run a bit cheaper there... Northern hydraulics magazine carries them as well. The 2000 will give you a little more power than the 1000 to run ac and other items on board.... I would think the 1000 would trip to easily under load...

$999 for the 2000 Honda in Northern Hydraulics.....

Thanks Guy's,
This is all just the info I was looking for!! The 38 Special did come with a generator as a option, but just my luck, mine doesn't have one!! Anyone know where to get a good deal on them??

Here's the deal, I would like to run the A/C in the cabin while we are coved out and rafted up to other boat's. (6 hours tops!) If we ever overnighted on the boat we would be back at the marina where I could plug into the Shorepower. So......what's the best, most economical, way to run the A/C???

The thing I have against a generator is, well 1st they are expensive!! 2nd we would be swimming off the back of the boat and I'm worried that the exhaust fumes and noise would be a pain! 3rd I'm worried about carbon-monoxcide poisoning in the cabin!!

I just can't see a take along generator working in this situation, since we would be swimming off the back of the boat.

I know, I want my cake and to eat it too!! The reason for all this is so we can take along our little one (she's almost 10 months now) to the lake and she can "chill out" in the cabin during these hot summer days!! It's going to be over 100* for like the fifth straight day today!!

Additional Batteries and the weight of them wouldn't be a problem since this isn't a speed demon anyway!! But, I'd hate to invest a lot of time and money into more batteries and a big inverter for it not work??

HELP, I'M VERY CONFUSED!!!
maybe it's because I've been up all night working!!!:rolleyes:

Hey Fun, welcome to the baja family, I to have a 38 special (95) The boat won't be the fastest boat out there, but when you get to where you are going the cabin offers tons of comfort. Good luck and if you any questions about the 38 give me a shout.

Also when I used to keep my boat at home I would always plug my shore power into 110v you just need to get the adapter.

My personal observations:
The carry along gen gets old, moving it around. And it's kind of annoying on the swim platform as you pointed out.
You can get a battery setup and inverter to run the AC, IF it's SMALL and HIGH EFFICIENCY. If it uses to many amps, this setup will be more trouble and cost than it's worth.
If you're going to keep the boat a while, buy a new gen. Check out these guys, they have some of the best prices I've found. http://www.mabru.net/
If you're only going to keep it a few years, buy a used or rebuilt.
Check your braker panel before using an adapter and hooking up to a non-30 amp outlet. I've seen several boats where the common (white) wire was hooked to ground. No problem if it's the correct polarity, but if it's not you'll hear a very loud pop.
Gary

If you want ac when coving and don't want the generator on the swimdeck and I agree with not running off the batteries... then your only recourse is to come up with a genset... I would go that route if you have the room from factory to do this.... This would be a no brainer to me.... No generator to move around, no batteries to drain and it would be quiet, but it's the most expensive.... sounds like a toss between cost and inconvenience... Good luck!!! I'd spend the extra money, which I know isn't always the easiest thing to do....

Question on shorepower
 

There are many additional things to consider or be aware of for what you are considering even beyond what has been discussed on this thread.

Here's what I consider when calculating invertor installation.

An invertor consumes a small amount of power just being attached to your batteries even with no load attached. Enough to make a substantial drain to a small, less than very strong battery system overnight. This unless you physically turn it off so that DC is disconnected from the invertor.

Invertors are less than 100% efficient in conversion from 12VDC to 115VAC. 90% efficiency might be considered avarage. That means for every 100 watts of power you draw from batteries only 90 watts is available. That is parasitic loss.

When converting from 12VDC to 115VAC, you lose efficiency. Wire the DC input to your invertor with wire rated for the DC ( battery ) draw not the AC. Use marine grade wire that is fine stranded and is also tinned to help prevent corrosion. These DC connections are very high amperage and deserve extra consideration at every crimp, lug, screw or connection of any type.

I have found the best way to use an invertor is to use four or eight 6 volt golf cart batteries wired series parallel. This gives high current and long lasting power. This is not what everyone wants to hear but in reality the batteries in your boat are in no way capable of providing substantial inverted 115VAC for any period of time.

Also consider that different invertors have different waveform outputs. Some AC devices require more pure sinusoidal waveforms. Most less expensive invertors provide squarewave outputs. This is adequate for many things but not all. Electric motors and incandescent lighting run fine on square wave or synthesized sine wave.

An invertor load will draw down your boat batteries in a hurry. If you have standard alternators you will run them very hard to even think of recharging in a reasonable time. A standsard 60-65 amp alternator will require a few hours to get your battery(s) back to a reasonable level. And, you can't do that at idle. Your alternator will require around 2500 RPM to provide a reasonable charge rate. To really make your system reliable and strong install 130 amp alternators.

Well, that kinda brings everything into perspective!!

Who knows where to find a good deal on a Used or Rebuilt or Reman. Generator??

Gary,
I looked up that site and I'll call them to see if they have any used ones. It looks like a new one runs about $4750.00 (I wonder if that comes with everything I need or if that's just the start?) This is a fixer upper so Used is the way I would like to go!!

A 6500 Btu AC will pull around 8 amps running plus an amp for the water pump. This means 9 amps at 120 volts = 1080watts. Divide 1080 by 12 volts and you will need the batteries to supply 90 AMPS. Figure a loss of 10% thru efficiency drop thru the inverter and you are knocking on a 100 AMP drain on your batteries whenever the compressor is running.

So, you have a 100AMP drain from the AC. Your 12v fridge pulls 4 or 5 amps. Your Stereo (150 watt normal decent system) will pull at least 10 amps at normal listening levels. You will also have some 12 volt lighting on in the cabin I'd expect. This totals up to a 125 AMP drain on the batteries when the AC is running in cool mode. If it is hot outside and you leave the cabin door open as we usually do, then the AC will run 75% of the time if not continuously. For benefit of this situation, let's figure that over an entire 8 hour day at anchorage, you will average a 90 AMP drain.

One Group 31 battery will provide around 90 amp hours of power. This means that for each Group 31 battery, you can run your setup for one hour. Each Grp 31 battery weighs around 45 pounds.

8 hours of runtime will require 8 group 31 batteries (360 pounds of weight). Remember that these batteries are SEPARATE from your starter batteries, else you will have no juice left to start the motors after 8 hours.

Saturday night, when you dock the boat, you had better have a 100 AMP charger hooked up all night long, or else you will still have dead batteries come Sunday when your friends are dropping their anchors. 800 Amp-hours of batteries won't recharge from fully dead to firecrackers in just a couple of hours...

As far as swimming off the stern, put the Honda on the nose on a little rubber welcome mat.

And someone mentioned putting a portable genset in the engine room. Nope. Only for storage, and even then, only if you close the fuel cock and close the fuel tank vent. DO NOT run a portable genset in a marine engine compartment.

Hope you have gotten some helpful answers on this thread.

For those raftup/anchor periods where cuddy time is necessary for the family..... www.kooleraire.com and a separate larger cooler stocked with ice which may include some beverages of choice.....Screw all the gizmo's when you're trying to enjoy a good raftup and a good stereo system.....Just another out of the box alternative....

FunHome
That site was for new gensets. Check out boat trader for used. You can usually find working used units under 6 kW for around $2K. You'll need a $200 transfer swictch, thru hull, strainer, exhaust muffler, & misc hardware(another few hundered). The good news is that the units are pretty much self contained with auto shutoff and simple wiring to hook up.
mcollinstn has it about right. But you may need even more than 8. Startup amperage can be 2-3 times the normal running current on the AC units.
Gary

Thanks Guy's,
I think I'll get by for the rest of this season and start looking for a good used Genset that I could install over the Winter!!

If anyone here's of one please let me know!!!

Thanks again!!
Brad