Tank and Battery Plan

The best solution tends to be the simplest one, it is often said. This may be such a case. After going around and around on tank and battery size and placement we have decided on a final layout. Shown in the attached picture. Center tanks will be stepped to the keel. The forward center tank space will have room for the main battery bank atop. It has room for six 4D size batteries with some spare height to place tall golf cart batteries if we so choose in the future. This comes at the expense of fresh water storage. We reasoned this is ok as we plan on having a watermaker. We could have cut down the center diesel tank, but we want to maximize fuel capacity. I had played with ideas of storing batteries on the outboard of the wing tanks, pulling in the outer edge of the wing tanks for plumbing and conduit, etc. But I concluded these ideas simply complicated the construction without really gaining anything. So, plumbing and conduit will run along the hull outside the wing tanks. There is plenty of space there for these things so no sense consuming tank space for these items. Battery placement was chosen as such to keep them centered and easy to access.

Latest Toy, er... Tool!

A Porter-Cable 7HP 60 Gallon air compressor. We have some spray applications that will be coming up soon. The little portable compressor we have is just not powerful enough. This one should be enough to power just about everything we need (except for these which would be cool to use but we cant justify the cost of the large compressor it requires).