She's finally home!! Rickk's 230

[Miguel]

Good job, Rickk.....  It´s gonna be a lot harder to damage that new seacock.

[RickK]

I forgot to mention that I ran 3/4" red stripe hose (the kind that you can see in the bilge) all the way to the connection point under the helm seat.  Should be plenty of water and pressure available now.
I was going to, and may still, put a "T" in the line after the ball valve and re-incorporate the baitwell pump.  If I could have found a bronze 3/4" T at the time, it'd be done already.  There's always another day.

[John Jones]

If it matters to you, you can coat the bronze parts with fiberglass resin and they will not turn green.  It does leave a dull look.

[RickK]

Ok, if you want to see a disaster waiting to happen if not done right, here it is:
Before:


After:


Now, how do you control a 40 gal water tank - approx 320 lbs full?  Untethered could be very dangerous, taking out through-hulls, bilge pumps, etc - so here is how I did it.
I spent a little time planning this out and there was two choices to secure the tank: 1) Pressure Treated (which would out last me) or 2) when in Home Depot, I saw this composite board - made out of recycled plastic. Hmmmm - no wood, no moisture problem.  Expensive though - $15 for a 5Wx8Lx1T - ok, I need 3.
First thought was that I need to spread this 320lbs out a little against the transom, so I built this brace for the transom with the right angle on the supports to keep it horizontal to the tank.

I needed a flat support that the tank would rest against when accelerating or when I pull her from the water, this was somewhat easy but how do you get the support tight to the tank so it is secure?

 My idea to make this easy was to make a clamp-type approach where there was some adjustment - 1/2" to be exact, this way if somehow everything let loose, it wouldn't take out my pumps or thru-hulls. The support slides up tight to the tank and is tightened up via a 4" bolt on each support.

 
Now was the time to clean out the tank - a little bleach/water and a scrubby on all sides and it was ready to drop in.
I installed a 3/4" hose barb on the tank for the output, dropped the tank into the bilge and tied the hose barb to the pump via food quality hose,
After that, it was time to fill in the surrounding sides for stability.
The end result was this

As I stated in an earlier post, the tank arrived in the size I ordered, exactly. The only problem was the bowing of the sides of the product and this hindered the installation. Oh well, what hasn't delayed the perfect install?
Took 2 days to install this:
First day I fished a fishtape down the Port side of the boat and then pulled a jet line and the new power line pair from the stern of the boat to the front. I then cut the holes necessary to accomodate the switch and the hose outlet, wired it and connected the hose to the hose outlet.
Ready for the water.
Day 2 I installed the tank and all supports.
Anyway, I put about 3 gallons of water in the tank, made sure the switches were correct and fired it up - first attempt it worked. 8)

[JimCt]

Nice installation!

  How was the composition board to work with?  I've seen the material at H.D. but never thought of using it for structural members on a boat.  Are screws/bolts the only way of attaching it?

[RickK]

That stuff is just like working with wood, maybe easier - just has weird sawdust   It's heavy stuff though but should outlast me, the next owner, the boat, etc.
To join everything, I purchased specially coated screws made just for that material - the coating is such that it won't stain the material and is not supposed to rust.  I don't know if you could glue it up like wood, since it doesn't absorb anything.
It was an exhausting couple of days but the end result was nice.
Ready to camp now. 8)

[aqua70]

I work with composition board alot. BE CAREFUL of expansion and contraction.  My brother installs decks for a living.
    On decking where there are spacers it is fine. But I will tell you it  expands.
    Underneath it will probally be fine.
It is manufactured to be secured as decking/ flat.
   I have already used it, like you have and the boards began to twist.
 
I suggest you drill a few holes in it to allow expansion and contraction.


Just my 2 cents

[RickK]

I work with composition board alot. BE CAREFUL of expansion and contraction.  My brother installs decks for a living.
    On decking where there are spacers it is fine. But I will tell you it  expands.
    Underneath it will probally be fine.
It is manufactured to be secured as decking/ flat.
   I have already used it, like you have and the boards began to twist.
 
I suggest you drill a few holes in it to allow expansion and contraction.


Just my 2 cents

Thanks for the advice.
I did see that warning on the label.  That was another reason I used the "clamp method" to attach to the rearward supports, hoping that if it started to twist, the clamp would keep it straight.
Good idea on the holes for expansion - how many and in any particular placing - ie down the center, along the edges or just everywhere?

[pete]

On my boat the water tank is secured with 2 one inch nylon straps,its an 8 gallon tank in a compartment under the floor in front of the console.Its been bounced around pretty good and has not come loose. http://images.westmarine.com/full/tiedown_f.jpg

[RickK]

It's been a long time since I added anything to the 230 and this is the time of the year when I usually burn vacation time so I don't lose it.  About a year ago I bought some Johnson electronic float switches for the bilge pumps and figured yesterday was as good a day as any to start the task.
I emptied and removed the fresh water tank and put that aside.  I then removed the bracing I had installed for the tank so I had access to the existing float switch.  I initially had thoughts of putting the electronic switch in parallel with the existing one, electrically, but I decided against that. I unmounted the float switch and tilted it to turn the pump on, which it did.  My plan was to somehow mount the new switch to the side of the existing so I didn't have to punch anymore holes into the hull.  I used my thumbnail to scrape the gunk from the wires of the existing float switch and see the color of the wire and the wire ripped apart.  I guess it was a good time to be doing this.
I took the float switch out of the SureBail plastic body and then drilled 2 holes into the side and mounted the new switch to the side with zip ties.  Nice and secure and doesn't budge.  The new float switch has a way to test it with your fingers placed on two spots - it worked.  To be sure, I filled a bucket and submerged the switch into the water slowly - it worked there too   Then I screwed the old housing back where it was, tested the switch again with my fingers to make sure it still worked and then moved on to replace the front float switch under the floor in the cabin.  This one was a little more work and again, zip ties came to the rescue.

The next thing to do was to change how the boat was wired.  Everything was wired directly to the battery before I built my battery control board and I didn't change how the wiring was configured when I installed the board.  I just connected the main wire to the switched side of my board.  Unfortunately, if I switched off the house switch, the bilge pumps were disconnected too.  Now was the time to correct that.
I pulled a new + wire from the battery location to the dash and changed how the 2 bilge switches got their voltage.  I then fused the battery end and connected it to the battery.  Now, my house circuits turn off when I switch the house battery off and my bilge pumps still remain active, so if I leave the boat in the water for a few days unattended it'll take care of itself, the way it should.  No more worries.

[kaptainkoz]

Congrats RickK... she looks awesome!

[RickK]

In April '09 I bought some white and red LED lights from vehiclelights.com and finally installed them in the 230 this weekend in the cockpit.  Installed up above the rodracks almost under the gunnels - 2 reds facing forward and 2 whites facing aft controlled by a single DPDT switched for all.  For being so small I was impressed how much light these gave off - plenty for when we're camping. 8) 8) 8)
http://store.vehiclelight.com/2005503.html

http://store.vehiclelight.com/2004400.html

I still have one more of each that I will install in the helm area on another switch.  Just have to figure the best place to put them.

Also, I was chatting with SB4 about volt meters and he pointed me to this, which I bought - I plan on rigging it with a SPDT switch so I can switch between the 2 batteries on the 230.  I'm thinking about wiring it directly to the batteries so I can always see what's up with them.  Probably wire/mount it back in the battery area - would be nice to have at the helm but really don't need it up there - we'll see what I come up with for mounting.



Won't be long 'til we're camping again

[Marcq]

Also, I was chatting with SB4 about volt meters and he pointed me to this, which I bought - I plan on rigging it with a SPDT switch so I can switch between the 2 batteries on the 230.  I'm thinking about wiring it directly to the batteries so I can always see what's up with them.  Probably wire/mount it back in the battery area - would be nice to have at the helm but really don't need it up there - we'll see what I come up with for mounting.

http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/ammeters/rv-battery-monitor.html
Won't be long 'til we're camping again

Cool device, I'm getting one, I'm tired of getting my volt meter out to check my battery 

Marc..

[RickK]

I did this primarily because I've read somewhere that it is really only tenths of a volt that can tell you your battery is dying or is discharged, not having to go all the way to like 5v before it's obvious.  I can't remember where I read this but I need early warning.  
Example: After about 3 days of boat camping I got up in the morning and having left my chartplotter all night, saw it just flashing away and then died completely.  The house battery was toast.  I switched on the starting battery (which was totally fresh still), cranked up the engine and putted about 5 mph for a couple hours and the plotter would still not come on - I thought it was fried. These non-alternator (stator) engines just don't put out the juice unless they are at high RPM. Finally I put the boat up on plane and cruised about a half-hour and finally the plotter turned on  

I'll see what it will take to mount this somehow along with a switch - maybe on a peice of aluminum or something.  Hopefully this weekend I'll design something.

Price is not bad compared to "real" marine digital volt meters.  Not sure how water resistant it is either. I looked at it briefly last night and it didn't look bad.

[Capt. Bob]

Rick,
This is very interesting because I was planning on installing a digital volt meter in my dash. I have a Datel model on my motorcycle and it's been drenched from heavy rains and subject to vibration constantly. Totally sealed, I'm positive it would work just fine in a marine environment.

Now you come along with this, which surprisingly is the same price (sans shipping) as the Datel and does much more.
Unlike you though, I wanted to monitor the charge (or lack thereof) going to the battery while underway. My bike charging system is also stator driven and the Datel has been a great indicator of real time operation. This has been beneficial in that the bike stator tends to fry over time, under heavy loads (extra lighting,GPS, radio etc.) and you can see it coming(via the gauge), thus begin shutting systems down in order to make it home.

I guess my question would be, can I use your gauge in the same basic manner on the boat?  I can see the voltage management underway as a good stator condition indicator as well as the additional metering functions when I do my "overnighters". I'm going to contact the company and explain my thoughts and hopefully get the proper wiring technique.
I was thinking of wiring directly to my + and - buss bars and using the battery switch as the reset.

This is what's great about this group. Ideas everywhere.

PS... thanks for the hatch tip.

More to follow.