Carver Owners Forum

Quick ?, should my alternators charge my house battery? Almost all of my electronics on the bridge are powered by the house battery which is the largest AGM available and brand new. I have 2 12" MFDs, autopilot, radar, stereo with amp, VHF w/AIS and fridge all running while under way. Yesterday did a two hour cruise stopped for 3 hours with everything off but the fridge and radio on with no music playing. After about an into the hour cruise home with everything back on I received a low battery message on my MFD. I Fired up the genny and of course the charger kicked in at high amps for the initial charge and Agradecida was happy again.

By the way Fayette Michigan is a fantastic harbor and cool place to see. Brand new docks with power. Make sure to hit Sherry's Port bar. Its about a mile walk south past the cemetary for cheep beer. Not a culinary delight but nice walk and very friendly people.

Do you have a battery selector switch? If as you say all of your instruments run off the house battery the selector switch may have been bypassed. If that is the case then your engines may not be charging your house battery. You may have to trace the wiring to get a better idea of your exact setup.

..Aaron

Yes, Fayette is gorgeous. Years ago they had an annual Blessing of The Fleet ceremony and Lost Sailors ceremony. That inlet had numerous flower wreaths and floating bouquets. If you swing through Menominee on Thursday, I'll buy dinner. er

Sadey, I had a 356 and I found something out the hard way. When you are on shore power it does not matter what your battery switch is set on, all of the batteries will charge as there is a charge wire that comes to your batteries. Probably three charging leads to your starters, house and penny batteries.

However, you will find that your battery switch, under the step, must be set to ALL or BOTH when underway for the alternators to charge ALL of your batteries, including your house battery. The alternators will only charge what the selector switch is set to when underway.

Hope this helps.

Tireless

Thank you all for the responses. The switch under my step is simply an on and off switch. Thoughts?

That is clearly different than my 1999, 356. My current boat has on/off under the step as well. Beside that there are 2 breakers which are breakers for the charging systems. One of them controls the alternators ability to charge the batteries. Do you have those? If not, you may have a breaker inline that is stopping your alternators from charging. Bottom line is that your alternators should be charging your house for sure. Maybe someone can chime in that has a newer 356 than I that can help. Sorry I couldn't..

Sadey, I checked the Owners Manual for a 2004 Carver 356 and the diagram under the step of the panel shows the same as I had. The only time the selector switch is only an on/off switch is with diesels, not your case.

The selector switch was designed to enable you to select Bank # 1, Bank #2, BOTH or turn them OFF. Do you have another switch on your boat that would enable the Bank selections as described. There are also breakers beside the dial for the charging system.

In your boat, how are you selecting battery banks, that is where the problem may be. In my 356, I had Bank #1 for the starters and Bank # 2 as the house. Is it possible that someone changed the switch under the step to an on/off prior to you buying the boat. If so, this maybe the issue as you can't draw from Bank 1 and 2 individually. You would want to do this so you can keep a battery in reserve in case of emergency starting. A a stated before, the batteries must be set on both for the alternators to charge while underway.

If you cannot switch battery positions there is a relay or ACR or a combiner that automatically does the charge thing for you however it seems to not be doing its job.

My 2006 is set up the same with on/off switches for all the batteries with combiners that do the charge allocations.

I have Horizon 8.1s. Each of the four batteries has it's own on/off only switch. Each of the staring batteries are wired only to it's respective power plant however the port motor/battery also powers the windless. I'll dig around and see if I can find a breaker for the house battery that may be tripped. After a day on the house only battery when I hook up to shore power the charger for the house battery shows a fair amount of amps for the initial charge then tappers off. Is it possible the engine driven alternator(s) don't put out enough charge in a low battery state to keep up with the draw of all the electronics?

Thanks again for the help/suggestions.

No problem. Sorry I couldn't sort it out for you. Good Luck