Batteries and bilges

Here's a mini project story for your reading pleasure. We had a battery fry (140+ deg f!) So we decided to upgrade some bits. We got a new charger, and swapped out 2 out of 3 8ds (the third is isolated, don't worry). While the batteries were out, we were able to access the squishy plywood and the primordial soup underneath. We have now accessed every inch of bilge. New boards went down and then I re arranged the batteries a little to make more sense (port battery goes to port switch, stbd with stbd). The end of the story will require a little trimming/rewiring to neaten up but now we don't have any flickering lights or voltage drops at the electronics when heavy loads come on.

And what's a story without photos. First, here's ye Olde charger ("converter"?) Vs the new one. Quieter, cooler, smarter

Here's the old batteries and the gunk below. ..

And a clean (er) bilge, new boards, and new batteries!! Battery covers were not really picture worthy. ...

But believe me, the stank went down an order of magnitude between the removal of the bilge sludge and having happy, non-off gassing batteries.

Nice work!

What are the replacement boards and what are they covered or coated with? Is the access beneath the batteries the only way to maintain that section of the bilge?

Thanks Angus

Greg, there are limber holes to allow flow fore and aft so flushing was possible, but not scrubbing or inspection. I made 3 boards instead of the original 1 long one so they can be pulled up individually for inspection without removing the batteries, maybe just sliding them fore or aft in the case of the middle board. The boards are just 23/32" exterior ply with 2x4 screwed along the edges underneath for added stiffness. They were slathered in 3 coats of white enamel paint. I pondered epoxy but I think that would have been over kill. I just wanted to be able to scrub it clean. The old wood was getting waterlogged and fuzzy