Carver Owners Forum

Hi everyone, our 1986 4207 is having some electrical issues. It doesn't appear to be our power cord or pedestal. We haven't installed any new appliances but our power keeps tripping. I noticed the amp meter was drawing twice as much amperage as normal before it started turning itself off. It's acting like a blown fuse maybe but it still turns on for a little while, everything runs, and then it trips off again. Has anyone replaced any fuses/switches on the main power panel? Are there any tests you suggest to help us troubleshoot why the power won't stay on? Thank you!

Heh there....try removing one appliance at a time from your system, just unplug each one , that will remove it from the system, you could just open each breaker then see what happens. It is important to do this one at a time to try and identify if you have a bad appliance or circuit, especially after having seen an increase in amps used before this issue cropped up.

If the issue stops then perhaps you have found the culprit. Really you could have a weak breaker, it happens, but I would investigate the sudden increase in amp draw. Good luck man and be careful with electrical work, if not comfortable hire a marine qualified electrician.

Turn off all the individual circuit breakers and only leave the MAIN ones on. If the shore power stays working and does not trip, then turn each individual breaker on for a time (say, 10 minutes) to see if one of those circuits is actually what is tripping the main off.

If the main trips without any of the individual breakers turned on then you might have a problem with a neutral connection, which will cause a ground fault to trip the breaker.

I'm betting it's an individual circuit because of your comment "drawing twice as much amperage".

Did you try to connect a different boat to the power pedestal, same connector, on the dock? I had the same issue a few years back. I inquired to the dockmaster about potential electrical issue on the dock. His initial response was " no issues with the dock ". Next day we noticed a number of dead fish laying under the dock. Turns out, a wire did break a couple of slips away. The electrician who repaired that break said there was double the amount of power being delivered to the final 3 slips in the run and current going into the water. Fish would swim through and get zapped. I am by no means an electrical guy, but that was a wierd experience, with the same symptoms. er

"amp meter was drawing twice as much...." GUYS!! THAT EXTRA CURRENT IS GOING SOMEWHERE!! If the GFI does not trip, it means that the appliance is passing 2X amps through it. This is HEATING!

Of course the breaker trips......it is handling much more current than normal. How close to rated is it?

This is a very dangerous situation and needs a qualified marine electrician called in before you turn anything back on.

Thanks so much for your help, everyone. Fortunately, it turns out it was a new cord we needed after all. It's an older pedestal and the connection point melted there.

Glad you resolved the issue.

Not surprised the cord was the issue as there are so many old dilapidated cords on countless boats at every marina I have visited. Sometimes it is not obvious but usual telltale signs are a bit of black marks around the receptacle prongs or inlet side. Once this occurs you are on borrowed time and should change out ASAP.

Ya no surprise it was the cord. Poor connection, voltage drop, increase in current. You're lucky the breaker was tripping, sometimes the outlet on the pedestal or the boat inlet burns up without tripping anything. You should check the inlets on the boat to be safe. If you see any discoloration around the contacts, replace the inlet.

Curious, was this the accessories main that was tripping or the main for the air conditioners? Do you have 30 or 50 amp services?

Morningstar4207 wrote:Thanks so much for your help, everyone. Fortunately, it turns out it was a new cord we needed after all. It's an older pedestal and the connection point melted there.

I would still be sure to check the boat side after the pedestal etc is repaired properly to be sure there was not more going on leading to that. Just to be safe.....

Viper, We have 50 amp. It was the accessories main. We don't use our marine acs, we put a window unit.