Below is a video I made that shows some before and after pictures as well as noise levels and generator loading.

Our boat is a Sea Ray 280 Sundancer. The genset is a marine Westerbeke PMBG MPV3. This is a very small marine generator.

 

Link to our video

 

 

 

Below are frequently asked questions that we get about our generator addition:

*** How much did it cost?
With everything it came to just over $8,500.

My mechanic at Skipper Buds in Oshkosh Wisconsin worked with us, giving us a great rate on labor by having this done in the off season. The labor came in at just over $1,500.

The generator was $5,400. The rest of the money went to other parts like thru hulls, sea cock, sea strainer, ship / shore transfer switch, remote start, battery cables, water muffler, fuel filter + more.

*** Did you get other price quotes?
Yes, several. They ranged from $8,500 to $11,000. The local Sea Ray dealer who is not on the water like my marina wanted $10,500 to do this same install.

*** Did you have them add a battery?
I asked them to not install a 4th battery bank. This was my request. We are using the dedicated starting battery for the port engine as the starting battery for the generator. This saved money, space, weight and maintenance. If you study the redundancy built into a tri-bank system with isolated starting battery the risk of having all batters drawn down to nothing are minimal and unlikely. More likely you will kill half of the system and use one battery to start one engine then the boat has a pre-wired emergency jump system that by depressing a switch at the helm seizes the batteries together allowing you to start the next engine.

*** How much can you run off your generator?
From experience, we can simultaneously run the AC, electric stove and microwave. Alternatively, keep the electric stove and microwave off and turn on everything else (water heater + inverter + my laptop charger plugged into a AC plug) and you are good to go. Also, turn on only the AC and run a cord from our boat to another boat during a terribly hot night and you can run both AC units from the one generator. (I am not saying this was safe, just saying what we did) I don’t know if I could have gone further (higher load), we never once popped the circuit breaker.

Keep in mind; our boats have a 30 Amp shore power system. So if we are plugged in at the dock we get a maximum of 30 Amps. This generator is a 25 Amp system. So you have close to your maximum electrical capacity that you would have had being plugged into shore power.

*** Is it noisy? Do you have a sound shield?
We have no sound shield. Its not noisy at all. This is a low RPM quiet 2 cylinder Westerbeke MPV3 unit that produces 25 AMPS / 3000 watts.

If you are in the cabin the air conditioning is louder than the generator. If you are in the cockpit the exhaust fan is louder than the generator.

*** What about Carbon Monoxide?
Caution should be used when using any gas engine.

The Westerbeke does have a catalytic converter.

We have the factory installed CO detector plus I added 2 more. I test them regularly using the test switch and once per year using the bag method. We also run the exhaust fan at least 4 minutes before starting, all the time the generator is running and for about 10 minutes after we shut it off.

We have had the detectors go off. Each time it was human error like the kids opening the cabin door when the generator is first turned on. Since a catalytic converter does not do anything until it gets hot from the engine exhaust during the first 10 minutes or so the exhaust is its most dangerous. The family knows the drill. If the CO detector goes off the kids immediately leave the cabin. The generator is shut down. One adult will hold their breath, enter the cabin and open all windows as the other observes to make sure the first gets out OK. No one re-enters the cabin until all alarms stop. Upon re-entering the cabin all detectors are re-tested by me. Are we doing overkill? Maybe, but I’d rather error on the safe side.

*** Did they re-locate the water tank to the port side and mount the genset on the centerline as SR does with the OEM install, or did you just mount it on the port side of the water tank?
They moved the fresh water tank to port, about as far as you can on that gray shelf. With this there was enough room to add the generator on the starboard side of the shelf. They did not need to pull a engine. They removed the alternator from the starboard engine then three people picked it up and put it in place.

*** How did they handle the wiring at the main panel? Did they replace the non gen ac/dc distribution panel with the SR gen panel, or did they wire it independently? If so how did they achieve locking out the shore power when the gen is on and vice versa?
Our A/C panel in the cabin is factory Sea Ray. On the top left side of this panel was nothing.

They added two things to that top left corder, a ship to shore power transfer switch and remote start. The one was done drilling a small hole, the other they cut a small rectangle.
The transfer switch has three positions; Generator/off/shore power. There is no way to mess up. You cannot possibly feed the boat from both at the same time.
The remote start is a single button rocker switch. Press it and you are starting the generator. The switch has a built in red LED. If the LED is lit the generator is running. If you press the other side of the rocker switch the generator shuts down. There was plenty of room behind the factory panel for all necessary wiring.

*** Can you provide shore power to another boat?
Yes, I did this. I am NOT saying it’s safe, just saying what I did.
We plugged into our 120 volt outlet in the cockpit a "120V standard to 30 Amp twist lock" adapter made my Marineco, part # MAR-83A about $60 from West Marine or around half that online. The other boat plugged their shore power cord into that. Actually, I don’t think it was long enough. We plugged our shore power cord into the adapter then their shore power into our shore power cord.