One morning they did not have enough charge to start the engine and I was forced to use the crossover switch to join the house bank of batteries to the starter bank. Fortunately the engine started even though the house bank was down to 12.2V.
The starter bank was made up of two Delkor "low maintenance" batteries that were on the boat when I purchased her in 2005. Back in Fremantle I managed to remove the two heavy gel batteries that sit over the starter batteries and moved the sick batteries to the SUV. At "Battery World" one battery had 330 CCA (cold cranking amps) instead of its rated 800 CCA, and the other one registered 10 CCA. The installation date of the batteries was Nov 2002, making them more than 13 years old.
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| New Battery Being Moved Onto Boat |
I replaced them with one similar sized Century N12 MF battery at a cost of $339. The battery is rated at 900 CCA and weighs 34 kg.
The removal of the batteries from under the cockpit of the boat gives me access to that area for the first time since I was in La Paz and I will take the opportunity to use a grease gun to lubricate the steering system and to have a good look at the earth straps for the Dynaplate grounding shoe. There will be quite a few things to inspect.
After that is done I'll reinstall the batteries.
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