safety breaker panel access

[aloysius]

On my Carver 406, there is a 12volt safety breaker panel located below the last step of the salon’s stairway. I would like to access the back of this panel but can not figure out how to get to it. Any help would be appreciated.
i.e. My quest is to discover how this is wired and incorporating that into the electrical diagram for my boat.

[Viper]

This isn't an easy endeavor. There is another thread on the subject. One way if available on your build is an access panel through the forward cabinet in the aft cabin. The other way is to remove the top of the step, you'll have to pull the carpet back. This will give you more room to pull up the panel but it doesn't come up as far as you think, there isn't much slack in the wire. Maybe one of the members with the same model has an electrical diagram they can share, it should show how everything under there is wired.

[g36]

I have a 405 which is year model earlier. The double doors in the aft cabin below the tv there is a small access panel to remove. it will allow some but limited space to the area. What are you specifically doing? I'll try to help if I can

[aloysius]

I found the limited space access you mentioned today. Thank you! Everything was somewhat hard to see because a previous owner had mounded a inverter to the ceiling panel blocking what little view that is there. I removed the inverter which was hot wired to my two aft batteries.
I'm investigating all of this because my Charles charger is old and acting up. I have 5 batteries in the center bilge area of my 406. The aft two are hooked in parallel and supply ALL the DC equipment on board except the stereo system. Oddly, the two next forward batteries (hooked together in parallel) supply the stereo system and nothing else. The 5th and forwardmost battery is the starting battery for the genset.
My charger seems to be charging the two aft batteries through breaker switches 1 and 3. Number 2 charger breaker (which should have been used to charge the gen set battery) charges the two batteries supplying the stereo.
I can not see much on the back of the power panel in the lower step because of the limited view and the conglomeration of wires. A schematic of how this panel is wired is my first goal and then to wire the battery charger correctly second, and finally wire in the inverter and stereo in such a manner that the next owner will not turn to abusing alcohol.
Any further assistance or advice you can give me would be appreciated.
Thank you so very much!

[bud37]

The only advice I can offer about these panels ..... be careful if you decide to open them up, the wires/cables take a set over the years ( don't want to bend ) and you can damage breaker connections surprisingly easily whilst pulling the panels out......good luck, sounds like you are on a mission here that will pay off down the road I have no doubt.

[tomschauer]

with the layout you mentioned above, what batteries are connected to the engines for starting?

[g36]

It's hard to know what someone else did. . There is some info in the owners manual do you have access to yours? I'm running 6v golf cart batteries for my house bank. I've used this on my other boat and my carver. I also have them down the center bilge along with engine start and genset battery. You may do better with having all your house loads together instead of separate banks for stereo and house and inverter. Mine are all on my 1 bank. Makes it way easier to meter the usage and charge them. With a meter you'll be able to sort it out, you should have your battery selector switch under the step. Just need to sort its connection on 1 & .I'm thinking there's nothing under the step there you'll really need to mess with. It probably can all be checked and reworked in the engine bay.

[g36]

If you don't have your oem manual..theres is some useful electrical info. Here's a link to carver online manuals. If you'll scroll down to 1998 and click on 3907 it will come up with a 98 405 which will be equal to your boat,......https://www.carveryachts.com/support/owners-guides/.

[Phrancus]

From a practical point of view: I would find it unlikely that someone rewired that much behind the panel. Because it would not help much compared to the effort (rather than putting an extra wire in, bypassing the difficulty) especially when access is a hassle. So perhaps leave that as it is and measure the other ends. You probably will find a bunch of items that are connected to the wrong power source and can change that as a whole.

I had planned to rewire the whole panel but found that most wiring is original, only some modifications were done and most markings are gone. But all is fused and switched so I will just clean, mount and renovate were needed 'only'.

Found the wiring scheme on the carver website and most of it is correct to my boat. I'ts not a complex scheme, just the colors and some of the markings are what you need to get a picture of how it is set up.


Even for charging, you don't need very much. It is nice, and luxury to have a central unit control use and charging but this can be done separately as well if need be.

For example: I have a central controller for the 3 battery banks (of which at the moment 1 bank is missing but thats another story) and I can hook up a charger to it and it will take care of efficiently charging all banks.
That charger was broken when I got the boat so I put two cheap chargers directly on the batteries. So when in port, shore power will charge the batteries. Not in a smart order but I don't care about that: theres lots of time for all batteries to be fully charged before I get back to the boat.
I will of course set this all right but here too: accessibility is an issue. The stairs are apparently a popular place to put stuff under and without taking care of access like flipping the whole thing over. Yes, I will make sure I modify the stairs that way.

[aloysius]

Thanks. Great idea to maybe someday flip the stairs. And also, I'll look into a simpler way to charge the batteries.