Can someone tell me what this is under wheel at fly bridge? Crystal ball with a switch?

All is done except the engines. Tomorrow we head up the Wareham river to storage.

Sigh. Last breakfast aboard this am. Planned good to be run down to bare minimum. 6 bottles of water , 5 K Cups, 2 eggs and minimal in fridge or cabinets. She is all winterize as for systems except engines which Zecco does. Heading up the Wareham tomorrow.

Well, it finally came. End of season. Seems like beginning of season was just 3 weeks ago. I am embarrassed to say, but I only put 5 hours on CBTL. Admiral got covid twice, I got it once. May and most of June was bad weather. Gas price at July 4th was 6.40 a gallon. I can pay it, I just refuse to. End of season it was 4.50. But CBTL ran like a champ. My test of run-dry impellers is ending. While they pump a lot of water, they really struggled getting the intial season prime going. Going back to standard neoprene. Now the rest of the good news. While at the dock, I had 4 people approach me about selling. Almost took the last guy up, as I was disappointed about how much cruising I was doing. A very good friend, could not get along with the idea I was going to sell. He offered to buy 50% ownership for half of the last buyers offer. His only requirement was that when he wants to cruise, I drive the boat until he is 100% confident. No brainer. Really happy I have a built in hand for cruising. We will see you in the Forum! er

I have 2 350 Mercruiser MPI in My 2001 350 mariner.
One of the motors has a lifter tick I just cant eliminate.
I am going to put a new set of lifters in it (cause I don't know which one is ticking)
Are a set a Chevy lifters for the same year 350 the same?
Or did Mercruiser use something different?

For those who don’t have generators built in to their boats and have chosen to instead have an inverter installed to provide power to the 110v systems on the boat. What size inverter did you go with? Are you able to run things like the princess stove or water heater off them? What upgrades or add ons did you have to do to the batteries to power it? Or would one be better off buying a small portable generator to fire up somewhere on deck that won’t fill the cabin with exhaust gasses and just use that as needed instead?

Greetings all! Im a new to me 1998 Carver 405 AC owner and working through some things figuring out how the systems work, or don't work.

The Holding Tank indicators do not indicate waste level in either holding tank. Is there a button to push to activate the sensor or does it indicate constantly? Only one time have I seen one of the indicators work and it showed empty (of which I'd just emptied the holding tank, so that was expected). I'm not sure if it was just a coincidence or not?? Here's a picture of my indicator. It's a VACU-flush system.

Thanks!

I picked up Prestone Waterline Antifreeze.
They boast a 'No Burst' guarantee down to -100! Here is my question, especially for our friends in Canada who deal with cold temperatures.
In the directions and in bold capital letters it states: NOT TO BE USED AS A WINTERIZING FLUID IN GASOLINE OR DIESEL ENGINES.
Why do you think they made this statement?
I tried calling them couple of times, left message and never heard back. Is it safe to use this pink for our 'fresh water cooled' engines? Ingredients contain ethanol, propylene alcohol and potassium hydroxide.
My best guess is that they want to protect themselves from any lawsuits that may arise from a problem with a cracked engine block.
What say you? Would you guys use it for engines up north?

Background - Purchased the '98 405 AC in Aug '22. Brought it home from Knoxville, TN to Lake Guntersville, AL; nice 4 day trip no problems. We took an extended vacation (without boat) and I'm just now back home to start going through the boat and figuring out what's what. I'll start with the batteries. First of all, there's no issues starting either engine or generator. I'm just trying to figure out what's been done and what batteries run through which Battery Selector switch, and which batteries run the house, port engine, std engine, and generator. Another thing I was looking at is how to connect an inverter to run minimum stuff. While looking through all the manuals in the Carver briefcase, I found a Power Inverter Owners Manual (Original Equipment- Heart Interface Model HF600-12). I figured maybe the boat came with an inverter but perhaps it was removed?? Then I started looking through compartments just familiarizing where stuff is located. Low and behold under the dinette seat I found a milk crate with 3 qts Castrol HD30 engine oil, 1 gal antifreeze, transmission fluid, and a couple funnels' AND two black boxes with wires. One of the black boxes is the aforementioned 600w inverter and the other black box is an auto transfer switch. It appears the inverter only powers the stereo system and salon TV (possibly the main stateroom TV, too. just didn't think to look at it?)

Now to the batteries! All the batteries look new and in good condition; I guess they were just bought at different times and different places. Two batteries are Rural King, Two are Autocraft, and the other is a DieHard.
Batteries 1 (675cca), 2 (750cca), 3 (750cca), & 4 (750cca) are ALL Deep Cycle Batteries. Battery 5 is a Cranking Battery (1000 mca).

Battery 3 is the Generator Cranking battery and wired through an ON/OFF switch. It's pretty straight forward.

Battery 2 is apparently the Port Engine cranking battery. I came to this conclusion because the Black/Ground wire goes to the Port Engine. The POS Red cable goes back through a bundle to the 1/2/BOTH/OFF switch.

Battery 1 is apparently the Starboard Engine cranking battery. I came to this conclusion because the Black/Ground wire goes to the Starboard Engine. The POS Red cable goes back through a bundle to the 1/2/BOTH/OFF switch. But Battery 1 is also Parallel wired to Battery 4, and Battery 4 is Parallel wired to Battery 5.

All 5 batteries are wired to the Battery Chargers. The battery chargers are new equipment installed prior to my purchase. They are Xantrex TrueCharge 2 chargers that can charge 3 batteries each.

For whatever reason, the Inverter is not connected to the batteries. The Red (positive cable to the Inverter) cable is just lying in the bilge next to Battery 1, as if it used to be connected to Battery 1. This red battery cable was a writeup on the Survey, so I just electrical taped the cable-end for the journey home and wire tied it off so not to vibrate against anything. Although now I know what the red cable goes to; therefore, it was not a hazard.

SO??? Where do I go from here??? It's organized but the wiring diagram looks unnatural!! Does anyone have a factory service manual with the wiring diagram???

I'm not real sure where the Positive cable comes from that goes to the DC distribution panel?? It comes out of the bundle that goes to the 1/2/BOTH/OFF switch. I'll have to take the DC panel cover off and trace that wire.
Battery 1 is paralleled with three batteries and I think goes to the 1/2/BOTH/OFF switch. Battery 2 goes to the 1/2/BOTH/OFF switch. The switch is set on BOTH. Which means that when I start the engines they're getting power from 4 batteries! The house power is, I guess, coming from Batteries 1, 4, & 5. But if the house is getting power from 1, 4, & 5 that could pull the batteries down if running interior lights, refer, and 12v stereo at helm? Then throw the Inverter in, if connected to Battery 1, running TV and 110v stereo in the salon. It just doesn't look correct!!

The Carver Operation and Maintenance Manual says to start the engines using the high voltage battery by using the selector switch and after starting both engines select the low voltage battery "to permit the engine alternator's voltage regulator to sense the charge level of an individual battery." But if Battery 1 has three batteries in parallel??

Am I missing something?? Shouldn't the house batteries be separate so not to pull the cranking batteries down while at anchor? I'd like to re-connect the Inverter, do I wire it to Battery 1 where the cable will reach?

Any information from you guys would be appreciated!!


Attached is a JPG file that I drew trying to figure out what's been done.

Hey there.
On my 2005 Mariner there is a thru hull 'drain' for the hot water heater.
Does anyone know how to have the unit drain through that plumbing? It's there, I just can't figure out what combination of 'valves' leading into the heater will make it happen.
in the past I simply open the spigot on the heater, lift the pressure release and the water flows onto the deck.
It would be nice to use it as designed but don't know how.
Thanks.

I'm replacing the gasoline fill hoses on a 1984 Carver 3207. What hose should I use or not use?

Thanks.