Low juice in "house batteries"

[bhemi]

All my batteries are relatively new. One of my acessory batteries is brand new. I was running yesterday and lost power to my GPS, VHF and Stereo. I noticed the cabin lights were very dim. I tried switching the accesories switch from 1 to 2. Cabin lights brightened right up but still no power to the above accesories. Shouldn't I have power to these when the engines are running? I'm assuming the guy who wired in the accessories put them on the same circuit and I'm wondering if I should be looking for an inline fuse somewhere. My boat is a 1992 Marlin.

What are the trouble shooting steps to find the problem?

 

[jehines3]

Not sure what accesories switch you are referring to. The cabin lights are fed from the DC panel in the cabin. The Helm console is fed from a seperate breaker out of the same panel. Assuming your guy wired all the accessories to the dash panel aux fuses you should have the same power at the dash as the cabin lights. Given this is aftermarket stuff no one will really know where the previous owner wired this stuff too. I've seen owners add stuff wired direct to batteries, off key switches, sliced in to other circuits, etc. Let us know what you find. jh

 

[Banana River View]

Idon't know about a 92 marlin by my boat has an inline circuit breaker mounted by the batteries. I was messing around with one of them one day and did not realize that I tripped it and I had no dc power at my panel. Poke around to see if you have the same.. BRV

 

[jehines3]

Not sure what accesories switch you are referring to. The cabin lights are fed from the DC panel in the cabin. The Helm console is fed from a seperate breaker out of the same panel. Assuming your guy wired all the accessories to the dash panel aux fuses you should have the same power at the dash as the cabin lights. Given this is aftermarket stuff no one will really know where the previous owner wired this stuff too. I've seen owners add stuff wired direct to batteries, off key switches, sliced in to other circuits, etc. Let us know what you find. jh

 

[Banana River View]

I went to the GW site and found the manual for the 92 marlin. It shows a 50A breaker in the wiring diagram to the helm panel. Here is the link. Hope this helps.. BRV

http://www.gradywhite.com/customer/manu ... 92-280.pdf

 

[plymouthgrady]

loss of juice

by acc.switch from 1 to 2 do you mean the battery switch?
Sounds like it's a wiring problem. one of your batteries is not charging. Same thing happened on my old BW. Make sure all the wires from (switch) '1' go to batt 1 and all the wires from '2' go to batt. 2.
You may want to charge the battery before you put it back on the boat.

 

[jehines3]

The 50A factory breaker from my 1990 is here labeled "House"

Everything else has been changed. Since you have power at the cabin lights, I'm not thinking this is it though. I think your electroncis are some how wired to a specific battery. jh

 

[BobP]

To add, you have to figure out how your three battery banks are charged from two motors and shore power fed battery charger if you have one. If changes have been made, get out a sheet of paper and trace the wires and switches at the stern and draw it out on paper, to understand how it works.

Some of the photos you see are highly modified designs, not OEM.

 

[bhemi]

Probably a bad #1 battery

Thanks for all the help. My diagnosis is a bad #1 house battery. I put it on the charger overnight last night and if it's dead I know I need a new battery. Our local West Marine can do free load testing so I may do that before I replace it.

I have one question. Will a "dead" battery prevent current flow? I've always assumed that power from the alternators would run the electricals even if the battery couldn't hold a charge.

 

[plymouthgrady]

dead batt.

a dead battery will put a strain on your electrical system-get rid of it.
A weak battery will draw all your strong ones down, they won't bring a weak one up. The alt, prob. a 30Amp won't give it the charge you need.
I suggest nothing less than a dual purpose batt. The heavier, the better.
Look for a high "RC" or reserve capacity. DP's and deep cycles are designed for multiple charges & discharges.