Battery and charging question.

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Sea Bitt

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Battery and charging question.

28 Carver with twin crusader 220. Battery switch on battery 1 and battery 1 just two months old, went for a two hour cruising speed ride. Stopped for gas and battery 1 would not start either engine. Switched to battery two started engines and drove back home two hours. Once stopped battery two would restart the engines without problems.

Questions:
• Didn't have time to check but thinking it could be a bad wire or connector to battery one.
• I guess the new battery 1 could be bad after two months. Never been deeply discharged.
• With twin engines do both engines charge the battery when running?
• The volt gauge read 14 so it looked like it was changing compared to the other battery. Normally only run on one battery at a time so can start like the above scenario. Which worked.
• What is the easiest way to check that the engines are charging the battery and the system is OK?

Thanks,
 
Check the cables with a meter and confirm that there is voltage at the battery when charging.
 
the best way is to have true independent systems. A dedicated battery for each motor.
Running combined will hide a faulty item on a bad motor.
When the engines are running there supposed to charge their own battery . never combined
a quick test is to turn the key to on. look at the volt gauge. start the engine and go to 1000 rpm and look for a voltage increase.
 
Test the batteries. Either load or conductive.

Batteries can go bad prematurely. Or be old when purchased.
 
I have a battery load tester I was going to try tomorrow to determine if the battery is bad or not. Check for the obvious loose cable or something else?
 
"Maybe batt 1 isn't hooked up to the alt."

Or the battery connections are corroded or loose.
 
"Maybe batt 1 isn't hooked up to the alt."

Or the battery connections are corroded or loose.
 
like Alien, I'm curious why you don't have the batteries set up so each engine has it's own starting battery and charges that battery? You can do that easily enough with two 1-Both-2-Off switches and can start either engine with either battery or both if desired.
Do you have a 3rd battery for the "house"?
If # 1 is a flooded cell type, can you open it to check electrolyte level?

Check to make sure the negative terminals of all your batteries are daisy-chain-cabled together. And one or two of those also connected to clean and tight engine grounds either directly or daisy-chained between engines.

Would you clarify? Did you turn off all electrical loads when fueling , as per regs. Or did you leave loads like fridge , GPS/radar/F/f , VHF , stereo, pumps and/or AC on with engine off?

Charge the batteries as best you can before load testing or testing with the conductance analyzer.
 
I had a similar problem this past week on my Carver. It turned out to be a loose connection. Not sure why it loosened up but it's a boat and stuff happens. I entertained all the worst scenarios and it was a simple solution. Hope the same for you! Let us know...
 
It was a bad battery and items missed labeled. Port was starboard and vice versa. Replaced battery and all is well.

The question, “Would you clarify? Did you turn off all electrical loads when fueling, as per regs. Or did you leave loads like fridge, GPS/radar/F/f , VHF , stereo, pumps and/or AC on with engine off?”
I did leave the refrigerator, and radios, gps, depth finder, etc. on. Did turn blowers off and windows and doors shut.

But left the battery on. I have A, both and B selector. Either the A or the B battery can start either engine. Or can switch to both to try to start either engine using both batteries.
 
What you do not want to do is have both alternators charging the same battery at the same time.
 
what you should have is :
A dedicated battery for the stbd engine and a battery switch for the stbd engine
A dedicated battery for the port motor and a battery switch for the port motor

When testing your boats systems. port battery switch must only work the port motor and ign,and gauges and the stbd battery switch must only work the stbd motor and ign, and gauges.
 
The volt gauge read 14 so it looked like it was changing compared to the other battery. Normally only run on one battery at a time so can start like the above scenario. Which worked.

Totally wrong
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sea Bitt

It was a bad battery and items missed labeled. Port was starboard and vice versa. Replaced battery and all is well.

The question, “Would you clarify? Did you turn off all electrical loads when fueling, as per regs. Or did you leave loads like fridge, GPS/radar/F/f , VHF , stereo, pumps and/or AC on with engine off?”
I did leave the refrigerator, and radios, gps, depth finder, etc. on. Did turn blowers off and windows and doors shut.

But left the battery on. I have A, both and B selector. Either the A or the B battery can start either engine. Or can switch to both to try to start either engine using both batteries.

Click to expand...


Thanks for the clarification . Those loads, especially thr fridge or any pumps can quickly drain an already reduced-capacity battery . that's good the new battery seems to be solving the issue for you.

But I highly recommend Alien's suggestion of semi-independent engine/switch/battery setups.
One suggested improved setup:

With use of both port and stbd Off/1/Both/2 battery switches, you can ....

-Cable the #1 "port" battery positive to the port switch # 1 terminal and from there to the stbd switch's #1 terminal.

-Cable the "stbd" battery , #2, positive to the stbd switch #2 terminal , and from there to port battery switch #2 terminal.

-Cable the port switch "Common" terminal to the port engine starter solenoid.

-Cable the stbd switch "Common" terminal to the stbd engine starter solenoid.

-Cable all batteries negative posts together, and the #1 port battery negative also to the port engine block ground connection, and the #2 stbd battery negative also to the stbd engine block ground connection .

Now, when about to run the boat, just keep port battery switch on #1 and stbd switch on #2.... except for emergency crossover to bypass a bad battery for starting and running either or both engines on the good battery.
If a battery is bad, don't combine it with a good battery.

Both switches Off when leaving the boat.

That's the setup that works well on my 27' twin-Crusader boat, except a 3rd AGM battery(#3) was added for the house loads. (#1 battery positive to an battery isolator to #3 battery positive lug to a simple heavy duty On/Off House battery switch to house loads.
#3 battery negative added to the daisy chain connected to all other battery negatives.

I can start either engine or both with either battery and can charge either starting battery or both with either engine, bypassing anything I need to.

There are other ways of providing similar setups with combiners , but most twin engine , twin or more battery boats have a better setup than your present one I believe. That's only meant constructively. If you are happy with your setup that's fine.

 
Thanks for the clarification. It’s a 25 year old boat and will assume that’s the way they did it back in the day. Will take in consideration if a rewire is necessary. I would need to add another switch and a major rewire to accomplish the setup Sandy suggested. I will assume the above setup each engines charges its own battery and one circuit is considered the house battery? With my current setup I switch to house (number 2) when anchored to ensure the starting battery will never be depleted. With my current setup does anyone know if the both engines are charging the one battery and if each engine has a voltage regulator so over charging isn’t a problem? Had the boat for a number of years and doesn’t seems to be a problem? Or it is a problem and I never knew it??
Thanks
 
that's not how it works, each engine should have its own battery.When you combine the systems you are also combining the water temp, oil pressure, voltmeter, all the gauges.
So an engine with no oil pressure will still read oil pressure from the other motors sender, the same with volts and water temp.You would never know what is the correct reading.
Bucking alternators lead to voltage spikes and you will never know one is not charging
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sea Bitt

It was a bad battery and items missed labeled. Port was starboard and vice versa. Replaced battery and all is well.

The question, “Would you clarify? Did you turn off all electrical loads when fueling, as per regs. Or did you leave loads like fridge, GPS/radar/F/f , VHF , stereo, pumps and/or AC on with engine off?”
I did leave the refrigerator, and radios, gps, depth finder, etc. on. Did turn blowers off and windows and doors shut.

But left the battery on. I have A, both and B selector. Either the A or the B battery can start either engine. Or can switch to both to try to start either engine using both batteries.

Click to expand...


You turned off engine room blowers while refueling? I do not think you want to do that.

George
 
Sea Bitt, your batteries are wired the per the Carver standard from that era. My 1992 Carver is wired the same way: two batteries, one selector switch (off, one, two, all). The battery that is selected is the start battery for both engines and also provides any house power. When the engines are running, the only battery being charged by the engine alternator is what is selected on the switch. Your boat worked as designed; if the selected battery is not sufficient to start either engine, switching to the other battery will provide fresh power. My manual states this when describing how to use the selector switch. I have a third battery but its' only function is to start the generator and is not wired to the selector switch.
 
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