Installing LED Locker Lights
LED technology has come a long way over the past decade. Even over the past 5 years! We upgraded all our lighting from amp-hungry incandescents to LED lights back in 2013. At that time, we contemplated putting lights in the hanging lockers but didn’t because of cost and hassle. We tried some battery-powered LEDs for […]
Installing a Balmar External Voltage Regulator
While I don’t recommend intentionally frying your alternator, frying ours last summer pushed this project to the top of our to-do list and I’m glad it did. We spent a lot of money on our Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries and with a new alternator and external voltage regulator I feel more at ease that the […]
How We Fixed Our Reverse Polarity
While anchoring out last summer we had to use our Honda generator to charge the batteries when the alternator died. Though we were frustrated by the alternator, we were relieved to have the generator with us. So we plugged it in, fired it up and started charging the batteries. Then we noticed the reverse polarity […]
Coming Clean – Installing our new shower
We live at a marina full-time. It just so happens to be a very nice marina with a very nice and new in 2015 facility that includes restrooms with showers, a laundry facility, a gym and clubhouse. Before the new building, the old restroom and showers were pretty lame. They were clean, but with only […]
New Balmar Alternator
Our boat came with an internally regulated, Leece-Neville 105 amp alternator. It couldn’t keep up with the high charge acceptance rate of our new 500 Ah LiFePo battery bank; it worked too hard and got too hot and finally quit on us. Plus, it looked like it had been sprayed with salt water at one time. […]
First Overnight Anchorage and Alternator Autopsy
First Overnight Anchorage A couple of months ago we finally got to take SVRO out for an overnight trip. We left Friday after work and headed south along the San Joaquin River. The wind was blowing maybe 3 knots so we weren’t able to sail, but the motor was running fine. Our batteries were at […]
Which Cabin Fans Work Best?
We’ve had three Caframo Bora fans installed in the boat for about 4 years now. On the plus side, they work. On the minus side they’re noisy (they rattle) and they’re hard to clean. And when they get dirty they get noisier. It’s a vicious cycle. We have one Hella brand oscillating fan over the […]
Power Management (Victron Multiplus)
Victron Multiplus We bought a new Victron Multiplus 3000 watt charger/inverter in November 2017 and finally finished installing it. Here’s a little video of what we did. CO Detectors Rich had a little time off work so he was able to finished up a few little projects as well. We have two carbon monoxide detectors […]
LiFePO4 Batteries
LiFePO4 vs. AGM Plan A for our batteries were the Firefly International Energy AGMs (absorbed glass mat). Earlier this year we heard about a this newer technology for AGM batteries called Microcell which is a carbon foam. Originally it was developed by Caterpillar, Inc. for their heavy machinery. They sold the patent to Firefly International […]
Electrical Project Part IV
DC Electrical Update We finally finished the electrical project! Of course it seems nothing is ever completely done. We’ll have to revisit the electrical when we get new batteries and when we take down the mast to rewire it. But for now, we are checking this one off the list. The best part is we […]