of batteries and Bertrams:
speaking of volts, there is quite the "war" going on in cordless hand tools as to voltage, now up over 100VDC.
Would not want to put some of these things down in a puddle of water...
My old Bertram was 24 volts, whole lot of 8 volt batteries. All you had was the built in oem ferro resonant charger to handle them.
Water add intervals were not long and a lot of work. Down on my stomach in my engine room, batteries were on centerline all the way down. 153 pounds a piece and I could never do it myself. Changed them out twice over 13 years. Always lusted after those red Rolls batteries/Surette, but I was on a far different budget.
15kw 1981 Onan 4 cyl, dirty little beast, about 2500 hours, but keep clean filters on it, which always left one soaked in diesel, and your wife going pew when you headed out, and if the starter solenoid you replaced remained reliable, which you never knew, it would start with a clank of smoke and mechanical unhappiness, rattle away and commence to slightly vibrate the entire 25 ton boat. Now there's a generator that needed a balance shaft or something. 40wt straight grade Delo on the Detroits and probably 30wt or 10/30 in the Onan gen.
And the question of course, as it always is for all of us, will it start? I had a remote start in the boat's salon and would stand by the window where I could see the gen exhaust. First to make sure the water was spitting out, seriously important for a marine gen, and then how long it took for the smoke to clear. Even after all those years, always less than a minute. Perfectly normal for a non emission diesel.
The grief on those engines was, as usual, what hung on the outside, the pumps, the filters, belts, things that break or clog when you are far offshore, out of the sight of any land, and you'd better know how to do it. And have spares for your spares. With an old boat that had crud in the tanks and condensation issues constantly, in this case South Florida, my generator maintenance runs were pretty constant. Usually once I shut down and plugged into shore power, and things cooled, I'd be changing oil or a filter, and always restart it to test for leaks. Nothing like timing it to send some soot on a passing sailboater walking down the dock.
I have never worn gloves while working on machinery. Many folks can and I envy them. My hands would get sweaty or I'd drop too many things or getting little screws in took only the lightest of touches.
I'm sure a few of you have taken off a pair of gloves at some point and went on without. But around batteries I am super careful. Don't want that stuff in my eye and I have enough older batteries where cleaning up corrosion is a way of life. Plus it's damp here where I live, so I use a lot of waxy sprays and battery sprays after neutralizing the acid. Usually means a good wash for the whole battery area to dilute any acidic corrosion that's been washed off and landed who knows where. And then out comes the blower, always the blower. Have two different sized Makita cordless blowers using same battery pack. Had them a long time, at first for just this, blowing grass out of the engine compartment of my rear engined Gravely garden tractor. I don't know how many times those Makitas fall off my golf cart and they just keep on going. Really should get a better hold down arrangement...
I'm sure there are other boat gen maintenance stories to be told here...
