24vdc Help for HUGE Anchor Windlass

[s/v Jedi]

But Nilsson is Maxwell, right?! I know that my Maxwell WVC3500 is a direct descendant from the Nilsson 3500...

cheers,
Nick.

[GMac]

Been completely differing outfits for many years now Nick. But yes they were, back in the day, called 'Nilsson Maxwell'. Some of those winches are still going hard out today, we see them reasonably often.

Nilsson's make a range of anchor winches, more 8mm and up sizes than smaller, and they do it very very well. For a while they also made a lot of the Simpson Lawrence branded as well. Nilssons also make big sexy captive reel winches for those poor billionaires super yacht headsail sheets and etc, these are branded Harken. And they do some general engineering type things as well.

The company is now being run quite successfully by the son of James Nilsson, Grant. A very knowledgeable chap when talking winches, it must be some thing passed down in his genes

Would I fit a Nilsson made winch? Sure would and without any hesitation at all.

[cat man do]

Am I correct in saying that Nillson winches https://secure.acclipseweb.com/james...V2200_Windlass
Do not have an emergency hand winch option?

Add: Just noticed this

Geared manual backup - the best on the market

Doesnt appear to be a socket on top.

[Lawrence]

My DC system is all 12volts except for the main engine starter which is 24volts. I have two 12 volt starting batteries connected by a series/parallel switch. They charge as a 12 volt battery but when the stater button is depressed the circuit connected to the 24 volt terminals become energized. Most large trucks use them.

[foggysail]

I installed a HUGE (at least for my boat) Maxwell HWC2200 windlass. I engineered my system to operate on 24vdc. The very last thing I want to happen is for a 12vdc battery to go belly up while hauling in my 88# Delta along with 200' of 5/16"HT chain. OK, so I have a dedicated 24 system but in reality, mine is not so dedicated. Also, because we run our 7.5KW generator every morning for coffee along with battery charging and again at night to ensure hot water is available and also operate the stove and chargers, our inverter keeps the 24v bank at full charge.

I purchased a 24vdc Freedom 1500 inverter/charger on Ebay for $250 bucks. NOTE--- 24V SYSTEM CAN BE LESS EXPENSIVE IF YOU SEARCH EBAY!!! Most inverters along with chargers are the popular 12v boxes, the demand for 24v on Ebay is no where near as great as for the 12's. NOw I am not in love with the old Freedoms but for $250, I could not go wrong.

I use the inverter to power my TV, microwave, low energy 120vac lamps and other miscellaneous power loads. I use two each group 29 12v batteries in series and have NEVER had a problem with them since I installed the system 4 years ago.

Remember---- P= (I^2)*R

The current for equal watts at 12v is twice that needed for 24v. BUT THE WIRING LOSSES WILL BE 4 TIMES AS MUCH!!! Think about it.

I highly recommend the higher voltage system. If I could have purchased a 48vdc windlass or for that matter, one that operated on 120vac, I would have purchased it.

Foggy

[NoTies]

I'm going through this process for a client's boat and am thinking of adding 1 more battery and having the solenoid switch for the windlass connected between the start battery and the new battery in series to supply 24V only to the windlass when in use plus normally closed relays on - & + to charge at 12V paralleled from the start battery. These relays would open when solenoid is activated. Am I missing something or would this actually work?

[foggysail]

Be careful with the wiring. Draw a schematic before connecting anything. Try to do a what if analysis with the relays in the positions needed to both charge and series connection.

Important that the charger not float to 24 vdc when the batteries are operated in series unless you have a dedicated charger whose output can "float" off ground.

I have seen trucks wired such that the starting motor operate on 24 but the batteries are switched back to parallel 12vdc after the engine has started. YOur batteries should be fused as recommended by ABYC.

[NoTies]

I'm sure the relays will activate quicker than the solenoid, if not I can fit a time delay relay. I'm more concerned with fitting some sort of fail safe on the charge disconnect relays. Maybe 2 relays in series but this doesn't protect against a fault in the relay activation circuit. A nc/no solenoid, one side to activate series to windlass and one side to activate charge disconnect relays? Unfortunately the electricians here are not too good at thinking outside their sphere of knowledge so it's up to me to make it work.