[C320-list] Battery Selector Switch

[Chris Burti]

Paul,

A. Your batteries are suspect due to age and the fact that they won't start
the engine after a night's use. Ours will start the engine overnight
easily with the reefer left on, the anchor light on, a couple of fans
running and lights on and off a couple of times during the night.

B. The two batteries down could be caused by several issues.
    1. a short in the charging circuit.
    2. a dead cell in # one battery drawing both down during the day, next
morning nothing works.
    3. one or two weak batteries and a malfunctioning selector switch.
    4. one or two weak batteries miswired.

I'm suer the EE's on the list can come up with some more potential causes.
Looks like you need to load test the batteries and check out your circuitry
with a multi-meter.



On 5/20/07, Vpweikel at aol.com <Vpweikel at aol.com> wrote:
>
> We had what I call a strange and unexpected occurrence while anchored out
> this weekend.
>
> Before retiring for the night, I was careful to put the selector switch on
> battery #2 only so that in case the battery bank was drawn down, I'd have
> battery #1 for a back-up to start the engine.
>
> As I expected, the anchor light and a few other small miscellaneous uses
> drew the battery down low enough that the engine would not crank ( I
> purposely
> turned the reefer circuit off ).  Feeling good about the back-up plan, I
> switched over to battery #1 and turned the key.  Nothing
> !  Both  batteries were
> down.
>
> I know for a fact that the batteries are at least 5 years old since
> I  have
> not replaced them.  The boat is a 1996 and for all I know the  batteries
> could
> be 10 years old which is well beyond the normal expected life  span.  But
> that
> doesn't explain to me satisfactorily why both banks were  discharged with
> the
> selector switch set to #2 only.  Surely, even a tired,  old battery would
> hold charge for 14 hours - but maybe I'm wrong.
>
> Has anyone experienced this ?
>
> I'm beginning to think that something must be wired wrong or the selector
> switch failed.  This was the first real "test" of the system that we  have
> done.
> Any suggestions on how to make the proper checks of the system  both
> switch
> and house wiring ?
>
> I am planning on replacing the batteries soon.  At the moment, I  just
> think
> this should not have happened given the precautions that were  taken.
>
>
> The good news is that, the new portable 1200 Watt generator was
> on-board  and
> in 30 minutes running time the batteries were topped up enough to start
> the
> engine and get us underway.
>
>
> Paul Weikel
> Second Chance
> #361
> Georgetown, MD
>
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's free at
> http://www.aol.com.
>



-- 
Chris Burti
Farmville, NC