Since you don't know the age of the existing batteries or how they have been treated, I would suggest replacing all of them, so that you you can keep them "in balance" and treat them correctly. You can keep the any of the "good" old ones to mess around with.
Most multi-battery banks are more predictable and easier to maintain if all of the batteries are close to the same age, or even better, from the same manufacturing batch. Most battery manufacturers state that deep cycle batteries should be "broken in" to deliver their best capacity. This is merely running a number of discharge cycles followed with prompt charging.
You mentioned trying 36V, and it appears that your motor would be fine with that. Since I don't have any info about your controller, I would say that if the controller is rated for it, then maybe that is the first experiment with the new bank and two of the old batteries. You can hook them up and see how it goes before you go to the trouble of figuring out where/how to permanently mount them. I wouldn't do it until you get used to the boat and can really tell if the upgrade will be worth the trouble/expense.
Fair winds.
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, bearsfaan <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> Quick update, the starboard battery seems to be completely shot. I took the boat out, and after about 10 minutes, checked the batteries with my volt meter. Three batteries were running at about 5.89 (with the engine at full speed), and the starboard battery was at 1.5. Just one or two minutes later it was down to .79. My boat stopped, and I tried to figure out what to do. I unplugged the crappy battery and ran off of the three good ones, and everything went fine.
>
> Today I'm going to take the "best" battery and get it load tested. If it's good, then I'll just purchase one new battery to replace the shot one. If the "best" battery is iffy, I'll buy all new batteries, but wait to install them until I hear back from some folks about what to do with the load from the controls, running lights, etc.
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> I'm sure that many of you are banging your heads on your desks because I clearly don't know what I'm doing, but that's why I'm hear -- I really want to learn. I'm sure I'll make some mistakes along the way, but I learn best by doing. Thanks again for taking the time to read this.
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