Windlass shopping

[Midnightsun]

On my previous boat I added a windlass since it did not come with one. I elected to go with a dedicated battery in the anchor locker since I had the space plus I was able to use small wire size because of the short run of only a few feet. Bottom line it was cheaper and less work than to buy and fish the line from bow to stern in that application. Just another option to think about.

[tomschauer]

Hans, did you run a wire from the battery charger to keep it topped off?

[Viper]

I wouldn't say it's less work installing the battery in the anchor locker. You have to run charging wires up there from the engine compartment, and while adding a charger near the anchor locker may solve that problem, you should still have a way to charge it off the alternators, so still a pain to run wiring, and you'd have to either tap into an outlet close by (not ideal) or run a new 120V circuit from the panel, chassis ground to a proper location, etc. One should also consider that unless the area is somewhat tightly isolated from the v-berth, you shouldn't use a flooded type battery due to off-gassing which is not ideal in a berth. You might save the cost of large wire but may make up for it in additional labour and hardware. Only a cost analysis would determine one way or the other whether it's worth doing it that way or not.

[Midnightsun]

Actually added a small charger up front and did end up eventually running a charge wire from the alternator (6 years later) although depending on your application you may not need this. If you are only anchoring out a night here and there and plugging into shore power regularly you can easily get away with no alternator hook up. In this application I had both windlass and Sideshift thruster working off of this lone dedicated battery. Liked the fact that it was it's own source and did not draw off of the house or engine bank, the cost of the huge wires was much more then a battery, charger and smaller wires, plus those huge wires would have been impossible to run from bow to stern on that boat.

[ataylor233]

So much good info i'm anticipating running the wire from the anchor locker to the salon panel to the circuit breaker then to the battery switch . The manual only ask for 8 gauge for that length so i was going to go with #4 wire which is the same as the oem wires that connect to the batteries. i figured its still bigger than stock .... I thought about putting a battery up front but id have to run cables to the alternator because i don't have that kinda luck i wouldn't trust a 120 Charger .