32 Volt Options

For those with 32V boats, interesting thing happened this evening. A lawyer buddy came by in his golf cart and I tried to help him set up headlights. Interesting thing was the golf cart had two banks of three batteries, each batt was four cells and thus 8V, for a total bank of 24v.

Four of these would make a 32v bank without having to go to those horribly expensive marine batts.

So those plagued with 32v systems might have a golf car based batt bank option.

I thought all golf carts used 6v batts, but that apparently is not the case.

I did not look at the batt model number, but should be easy enough to find on the net.

Some antique 32V items will work fine on 48V , DC motors are delighted!

Or 36v, three 12v in series. Just need to change alt regulator setting.

Still a quagmire. Something will always be a PITA with these systems. Hard to spec equipment, hard to find chargers, expensive, or both.

Ski in NC said:

Or 36v, three 12v in series. Just need to change alt regulator setting.

Still a quagmire. Something will always be a PITA with these systems. Hard to spec equipment, hard to find chargers, expensive, or both.

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all the old Hatt had 8 volt batteries in the 70s and early 80s

I think I would probably not buy a boat with a 32 volt electrical system, but if I somehow ended up with one I would look into converting it to 12 volt or 24 volt.


Although 12 volt is not ideal (remember when cars had 6 volt electrical systems?), most equipment made today for boats is made for 12 volt systems.

I never had any issues sourcing batteries or multiple pieces of equipment for my 32volt Hatteras. For smaller type loads, it is easy to get a 32-12 or 32-24 converter. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to buy a 32 volt boat, after 7 years of intense experience with one.

A few Hatteras owners have tried 8 volt GCs for several years now. The results seem a little sketchy, (wide variances in how much the boat is used), but the main issue seems to be that they are not very good cranking batteries and life span goes way down (with one owner reporting repeated explosions!) the more they are used for cranking.

On the big Hatt MYs like mine, there are two banks, (each engine is in its own private ER) one which was originally designed to crank the starboard engine and the generator, and power some small loads like the 12 point monitor system. The port side cranked that engine and acted as the house bank. In having to replace the banks a couple years after buying the boat, I went with Deka 8v195s on the rec of a few fellow Hatt owners, which are more of a cranking battery; they are slightly smaller in size than the stock 819s, more CCAs, less AH. They've done a terrific job spinning the engine over the ensuing years, but I still feel I was "getting away" with using them for some reason. Over on the starboard side "house" bank, I went with the full sized Rolls , heavy monsters with more deep cycle capacity and good cranking power to boot.

You really need to buy 8 GCs to come close to replacing the 4 big boys, and I think that's where people get into trouble, just trying to get away with 4. I never had a problem rounding up some strong youngsters looking for some beer money to change out those or any of the multitude batteries I had on board, so why not do it right as you can?

Wesk, not only did cars come with six volt systems but boats did as well. I have a couple of brand new Sutton six volt bilge pumps in my antique display case. I have some 32 volt pumps that will go into the display case soon if no one buys them.

I have some 32 volt pumps that will go into the display case soon if no one buys them.

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Parks, You might consider selling them to BOW, Sailorman or Sam's Marine who cater more to the big old powerboat crowd. They seem to turn them over pretty well.

HopCar said:

Wesk, not only did cars come with six volt systems but boats did as well. I have a couple of brand new Sutton six volt bilge pumps in my antique display case. I have some 32 volt pumps that will go into the display case soon if no one buys them.

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I remember as a teenager, tapping into a 12 volt battery with a sheet metal screw to get six volt power for accessories.

I had Lincoln Pipeliner welder that was 6v, I used a 8v battery in it because it would spin it faster when starting. That was one of the best portable welders I ever used, it was a 1952 model mounted on a 1952 Studebaker ton and a half truck that I bought from the original owner in the mid 70s.


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I used golf cart batteries for years on a Hat 53. I had no problems. Once you get into the 32 volt you will enjoy how much more powerful it is over the 12 volt stuff. I especially liked the 32 volt heads.

There are certainly some advantages of higher voltage electrical systems, but they have to be balanced against the necessity of finding non-standard equipment. If the entire industry were to move to a higher voltage (like what happened fifty years ago when they went from 6 to 12 volts, that would be great.


The flip side, of course is that higher voltages become dangerous to work on.