placement of additional batteries?

I would like to add additional 2-3 batteries to my IP-40 for extended cruising. Ideas of where others have successfully located additional batteries would be appreciated. My IP40 has 4 batteries under seat at nav. station (3 house and 1 starting).

Our IP-38 has 3 group 27 agm's under the settee and two 8d's in the starboard lazarette. I've got one group 27 as a starter and the others in a single house bank.


Jim Duggan
Cat Tails
IP-38-153
Oriental, NC

We have a 2001 IP420 and I've discovered there is 330lbs of lead ballast (11 30lb bars) near the steering post (in the stern between the lazarettes). We thought why not replace all this with AGMs? Seems 6 Lifeline GRP31XTs weigh about the same and would add 750 A-hr. Other than the cost, we can see no downside to such a plan.
Any thoughts about this idea??

Jduggan, how is that working out for you - having 2 different kinds of batteries together, and separated so far apart?

There were a couple of things wrong with wiring of the set up, which was in the boat when I got it. I never liked the mismatch of the 8d and group 27 batteries and think the 27s died an early death because of that. I have now replaced all the batteries in a new configuration. The 8Ds were a problem for a couple of reasons. First they were too heavy to move safely in and out of the lazarette yourself. I think mine were 140 pounds each! Secondly, one of mine vented and the volume of gas released was enough to trigger the CO meter and scare us thoroughly.

I've replaced the 8D's and now have all group 27s although I'd use group 31s if I did it again. There are 4 in the Lazarette and 2 under the nav station bench that form the house bank. The starter is a single group 27 under the nav station with a Balmer isolation unit so the starter bank, which also runs the instruments, gets charged once the house is topped up. I get 90 amps of charge from a Balmer alternator/controller, 20/40 from my Charger and have just upgrated the solar controller to give me more from the 200 watts of solar panels on the boat.

Roger that. Thx for the update. Sounds like a good setup. I'll be doing something to our 32 in the spring of next year - just haven't decided on the specifics.

On my 420 there's extra room in the house bank area (below the nav station) - the space was filled with wooden spacers to keep things stable. The original configuration was 4 Group 29's and I've added two Group 31's wired in parallel for a total of 630 Ahr. The only difficulty was providing hold-downs.