Ballast

Good Morning
I took out 4 dead L16 batteries as they were not needed . I need to replace that weight, (500 lbs).
Suggestions?

25 cases of beer.

Put them back on.
We have near 1500lb of dead batteries on board.
Seemed counter intuitive pulling out 1500lb of weight so as to put another 1500lb of weight back in.

If they're truly dead then drain out the acid, flush and then refill with water. Make them inert.

makobuilders said:

If they're truly dead then drain out the acid, flush and then refill with water. Make them inert.

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How do you go about draining the acid from a battery? I have 2 8Ds which are nearing the end and that would lighten them for moving.



Old age ain't no place for sissies.

Just tilt them over and drain them into your bilge.

Or stick a hose in it a suck the acid out.

What could go wrong?????

Only way I can think of is tilting them over into a suitable container, then neutralize the acid and dispose of it properly. However, your 8D is a heavy beast so you'd need two people at least to move it. Not sure if there is any type of pump that could be used.


However it might not be worth the effort. What is the true weight of the liquid in an 8D? If you're only lightning by 10lbs or 20lbs then that's minimal.

makobuilders said:

Just tilt them over and drain them into your bilge.

Or stick a hose in it a suck the acid out.

What could go wrong?????

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Wow Just kidding right? Talk about a way to get seriously burned.

HiDHo said:

25 cases of beer.

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50 cases if its light beer....

makobuilders said:

If they're truly dead then drain out the acid, flush and then refill with water. Make them inert.

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AGM's for us.

We added ballast to a previous boat. I used 66 pound lead ingots and then glassed over them to keep them in place and also to contain any lead particles that might have rubbed off since lead is particularly friendly to humans.

Simi 60 said:

Put them back on.
We have near 1500lb of dead batteries on board.
Seemed counter intuitive pulling out 1500lb of weight so as to put another 1500lb of weight back in.

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X2. Why take them out if you feel you need that weight in ballast? I wonder if the boat was even designed to have them in there to begin with.

Thanks fellows, very humorous.
Batteries are long gone, part of another battery deal.

I'm wondering is lead worth the money or scap steel, rock, etc?

olegreg said:

I'm wondering is lead worth the money or scap steel, rock, etc?

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Willards were built with concrete ballast with copious amounts of scrape steel as aggregate. Give the full keel hull design, it provides a decent sole in the engine room. But it takes a lot of space. I did the math ones and have totally forgotten the weight /density comparison, but suffice to say lead is several times more dense. If you use an alternative, you will need a lot more space.

Unfortunately, buying batteries is a pretty economical way to purchase lead dead weight. So the comments, although in jest (I think), had a ring of truth to them.

Traditionally, and as Comodave states, boat builders often use lead pigs for final trim ballast. These were typically 60-ish pound long ingots that had "ears" at the end so they could be strapped down securely. They are often tucked away in hidden places, often outboard to trim stbd/port list.

https://www.rotometals.com/whole-lead-pig-ingot-57-62-pounds-99-9/

Peter

I guess I'm missing something. If you have four dead batteries you replace them with four good batteries, right?

pete

Pete Meisinger said:

I guess I'm missing something. If you have four dead batteries you replace them with four good batteries, right?

pete

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OP said they were not needed. I assumed he went lithium or something.

...personally, on any trawler 36' and over....I wouldn't sweat 500 pounds unless all of a sudden it handled way differently.

Most boats really aren't designed with the larger house battery bank many of us add...so stability shouldn't drop to dangerous.

But if still interested....I would be looking for scrap lead.

psneeld said:

...personally, on any trawler 36' and over....I wouldn't sweat 500 pounds unless all of a sudden it handled way differently.

Most boats really aren't designed with the larger house battery bank many of us add...so stability shouldn't drop to dangerous.

But if still interested....I would be looking for scrap lead.

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Good point - thinking about it, I agree that OP may want to consider whether the weight really needs to be replaced.

That said, I had some of my concrete ballast torn out. Boat is in Ensenada 75 miles south of San Diego. It took a while but my yard guys did find some scrap lead in Tijuana. It still wasn't all that cheap - I think it was $1/lb and wasn't tremendously clean which was fine, but still - you'd think I could do better in Tijuana (a large industrial city) for 800 lbs scrap. I guess there's a pretty efficient market for recycling these days.

Peter

When I bought my Nordic, it had maybe 600 pounds of bagged sand as ballast, stacked far aft against the transom. I had to shift it some to starboard to balance against my large tender which sits far aft on a Freedom Lift.

However, I noticed my waterline was underwater. It might have been due to the weight of batteries for the new stern thruster. Anyway, I had it all removed from the boat, the boat now sits properly in the water, and no effect on handling.

Install a gyro stabilizer? They're pretty heavy. But then you'll probably need 500# more of batteries...

Generator

Along these same lines, I am thinking of purchasing a boat but was told that the original owner had had the generator stolen out of his boat. It had been installed in the engine room on the port side near the stern. I noticed during the sea trial that the boat listed to starboard which was significantly apparent during turns to starboard. Otherwise the boat meets my needs. Any suggestions that won't break the bank to put something where the generator was to fix this issue? Don't suggest replacing the generator, I don't need it and don't want to add that cost to the purchase anyway.

Mark Scott

I have successfully used Quickcrete as ballast after changing my heavy black iron fuel tanks for smaller polypropylene ones; I cleaned and sealed the bilge area, and poured in the appropriate amount of concrete.

Lead Bags

Check these out. They are intended for wake boats but work great as ballast. Reasonable price and free shipping. They're in heavy canvas bags with handles. Buy 9 50lb bags and get the 10th free. That's what I did to add 500 lbs of ballast to level my boat.

https://www.leadwake.com/

Inlaws.

Comodave said:

We added ballast to a previous boat. I used 66 pound lead ingots and then glassed over them to keep them in place and also to contain any lead particles that might have rubbed off since lead is particularly friendly to humans.

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Always have been admirable towards "Belt and Suspenders" kind of folk, Said from a guy who Gorilla taped his 50# ingots to the surface with no incidents on a boat that while in 3+ seas appears reacting as one of 'Deadly Catch" fleet

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