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most pictures I see of older montauks <mine is an 1984> don't show where the battery is .mine is in a box at the rear of the boat on the floor . wonder where you guys have yours hidden ???thanks ron


(changed abbreviated year to full 4 digit year for clarification)

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Many move batteries to the console floor. This makes for a cleaner set up but requires some rewire with heavier cable as the batteries are farther from the motors. Marine cable in larger sizes is expensive, however many find this location very convenient and it takes weight out of the stern and centers it in the hull.

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With the advent of the "white" Montauks, after the company was sold and Bob Dougherty left, Whaler started putting the battery in the center console. I guess it was an attempt to "modernize" a classic design. Somebody evidently determined that an exposed battery box was not cool, and cluttered up the stern corner of the boat.

I think it was, and still is, a terrible idea from my way of thinking. In exchange for a nice looking matching hull color battery box you get additional and cluttered wiring in both the small boat trigging tunnel, and in the console. Access and service to the heavy battery is difficult, and the console floor has to be cut out. To say nothing of the loss of VALUABLE dry storage space that a cleanly wired, battery free and oil tank free console interior can offer. These boats have precious little storage space to begin with.

So I would not do it. The battery in Montauks was always placed, or should have been placed, in the stern corner where the bow light wiring exits from the hull, and where the stern light pole is located. This keeps nav wiring to a minium. In the *some* of old "blue" 16' models, the battery was placed in the Starboard corner, as were the nav lights and engine rigging, which made for a really clean rigging job, and the weight balanced propeller torque from the enigne. Most of the hulls, however, including the tan Montauks, had the batt and nav lights on the Port side, which I never thought was as a good of an idea. Maybe it had something to do with new nav light rules - don't know. This left the mechanical engine engine steering cable on the atarboard side, re-cluttering up the transom rigging somewhat, with engine rigging on one side, and electrical rigging on the other.

Here a photo of mine, a 1979 Montauk with everything dressed to the Port side. I was able to do this by converting to BayStar hydraulic steering. I also think it may be possible to reverse mechanical steering for a port side cable entry into the engine - not sure. I also made a teak pad for the batt box, which allows moving it back even farther into the stern corner. You can see the original holes in the floor from the factory location. I think it looks great and works well, with no clutter to the stern of the boat at all.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lgolt...6443337643

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I too rig my battery only in the transom area, but for a different reason. I previously owned a Montauk 17 that had a battery mounted in the console. I did some maintenance in the console area which included removal of the battery and the battery box. What I found was severe stress cracks in the non-skid deck at the battery's four corners and heavily abraded non-skid surface. I concluded the damage to the deck happened even though the battery was strapped down inside the box.

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I was all ready to relocate my battery to the console for looks and deck space. Then I thought of hydrogen build up causing an explosion during charging. If you have louvered hatches it's probably not a huge concern, although I'd still feel more comfortable running a blower in there during charging. My 1975 has solid hatches so there's very little ventilation. The battery will remain in the port stern corner.

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Years ago I owned a 1981 17' Montauk and I moved the battery to the console, in fact I put two of them there. I got a way smoother ride, tons of accessible battery power, I ran a crab pot puller, two electric down riggers, instruments constantly. I mooched for fish and needed the DS, GPS,VHF, Stereo, and sometimes mooring lights. Moving the weight forward was a plus for me. Did the same thing to my 1984 18' Outrage, but instead I installed three batteries. One for starting, the rest for the same reasons as stated above. I hooked the two of the batteries in parallel for very deep cycle use. I'm sure I'm going to hear a ton of flack but it works for me and I've had soooo many comments on how well the boat handle the rough chop.