Secret breaker?

[Dkbarrett]

Looking for location of any secret breakers on Carver 3007 - 2 primary panels show no signs of scorching post scenario below;

in the midst of hunting down why generator wasn't pulling water I started Generator without shutting down main breaker and also didn't disconnect shore power at point of starting generator. At which point panels tripped. A couple of small receptacle items on port side would come up but at moment of switching on range that load tripped whole system and starboard side never came up. All outside power and lines accessed and operational.

[Dkbarrett]

Year of boat 1981 3007 aft cabin

[buster53]

Be in the look out for any and all GFCI receptacles. They can easily trip and take out other receptacles at the same time.

[waybomb]

Welcome aboard.
Yep, sounds like a GFCI tripped

[km1125]

You say "two main panels tripped"... do you have two shorepower input cords?

How do you switch from shore power to generator... is there a manual switch or does it do it automatically?

[Dkbarrett]

Our Carver is set up like this.
Has fuses across a panel for accessories like builge, panel lights etc.
below the fuse area is Pannel #1 that has two gages
1gage for Volts
1gage for Amps
Main breaker on this panel is 30 AMPs
has breaker for receptacles
Has breaker for Water heater
THe on/off Switch for the Generator resides in this section of the Breaker box
then
Below that panel
is Panel #2
It has a Main Breaker that is 30 AMPS
On this panel has the breaker for AC
ALso breaker for Range/stove

Below all of this is a Dial that can rotate to 2 or 2 or ALL or OFF

THe DOCK has Main Breaker
My Slip has its own Breaker from Main with 2 Power ports

I have 2 feeds coming into the side of the Starboard side of the boat to each panel
There is no scorching there or inside the Pannels or on any of the contacts on the bus bars

Problem ---
In testing because I was not getting water to the Generator. Forgot the impeller needed changing. I turned on the generator without shutting off Main Panel 1 & 2 or moving the dial to Off position.
Caused a power surge and it tripped all of it.
What I have trouble shot----
I found no breakers on the dock tripped
but I turned them off and on in Main and my 2 port plug in.
Checked both inputs to my boat.. Power is coming across as lights on cords are on and small test turned on Panel 1 in the boat and couple receptacles came on but only on 1 wall on port side of boat.
Nothing else has come back on. Nothing on Panel 2
Also my back up trickle charger to batteries is not coming on so Bildge pumps are DC but not coming on
I set up temp trickle charges to all 3 batteries to bypass system so bilge would work while away. on continuous mode. Can find no GFI visible outlets so far. Here is where I am.
Also Boat won't turn over but believe is because entire system took that electrical overload. Not sure if killed the 3 batteries from this they are April 2025 so brand new.
Thanks for you alls insight

[km1125]

"Boat won't turn over" should be a separate issue from the genset/shore power issue. The only thing that's really common between the two would be the battery charger. If the battery charger isn't working there should still be plenty of power in the batteries to start the engine(s), unless the battery charger hadn't been running for a while and the batteries have been discharged.

I'm guessing the 1/2/all/off is the master battery switch. Have you tested that in each of the 1, 2 and all positions to see if you could start the engines?

[Dkbarrett]

I do not have the shore power hooked up today because was not sure it was going to be an issue because I still do not know what I don't know about what's tripped or blown. With no sign of blown issue hard to trace what is next step. I did however find that the connection wire on the Generator was corroded and I took it off to be replaced. that is as far as I have gotten. I am not there all the time either.

[Midnightsun]

Odd thing is all boats are set up to run shore power or generator through a rotary switch or automatic solenoid style. Regardless of device, it is impossible to short the 2 out UNLESS the previous owner did a DIY generator install and did it wrong that is.

There is no way an AC electrical short will take out DC as they are 2 separate systems. The only thing that could be affected would be your battery charger as it is plugged into AC. That being the case, this is probably why your batteries are dead as nothing was being charged from it.

You describe a rotary dial which has no influence on shore power as it is your battery selector switch which are 1, 2, all or off. If you need to shut off power to either shore power 1 or 2, this is done by the 30 amp breaker on the panel with all your breakers and not through a rotary dial.

I realize something happened to cause a short but I seriously doubt is was caused by not selecting the proper AC input. Understanding the workings of the electrical system will definitely help now and in the future.

My honest opinion is to get some help on this through the marinas mechanical depart of someone familiar with marine electrical systems.

[km1125]

Source of the post Odd thing is all boats are set up to run shore power or generator through a rotary switch or automatic solenoid style. Regardless of device, it is impossible to short the 2 out UNLESS the previous owner did a DIY generator install and did it wrong that is.

There is no way an AC electrical short will take out DC as they are 2 separate systems. The only thing that could be affected would be your battery charger as it is plugged into AC. That being the case, this is probably why your batteries are dead as nothing was being charged from it.

You describe a rotary dial which has no influence on shore power as it is your battery selector switch which are 1, 2, all or off. If you need to shut off power to either shore power 1 or 2, this is done by the 30 amp breaker on the panel with all your breakers and not through a rotary dial.

I realize something happened to cause a short but I seriously doubt is was caused by not selecting the proper AC input. Understanding the workings of the electrical system will definitely help now and in the future.

My honest opinion is to get some help on this through the marinas mechanical depart of someone familiar with marine electrical systems.

+100 on that whole post.