I will answer all in the order to avoid many entries: by bud37 » July 9th, 2023, 10:51 am
I can tell you that the draw from the windlass on a low battery system or one with not enough capacity will drive the
engine ecms nuts. Good practice is to have the engines running while running the windlass at slightly over idle for that
reason unless you have a large battery bank with lots of reserve capacity.
I typically motor forward as I raise the anchor and neutral as I get closer to above anchor to raise it the rest of the way typically 30-40 of water. I understand what you are saying here through. I agree with the others and as I mentioned earlier that the 12.4 volts is a serious concern....also only 13.8
approx with engines running needs to be investigated, new batteries or not, something is amiss or not
connected properly.
Guessing the Computer will say for sure what is going on.by km1125 » July 9th, 2023, 10:56 am
To me, this is a pretty key piece of data. That the Garmin was showing 13.8 while you were cruising means it's reading
the battery voltage pretty good. might be off a little, but it's close. That means the reading at 12.4 was pretty
accurate and does mean the batteries were pretty discharged.
Agreed that is why I posted it seems like it should have been higher like 13.8On the batteries... Where they EVER discharged till dead? When was the last time they were tested? You might go through all the connections (both positive and NEGATIVE) and make sure they are all clean and tight.
These batteries have always performed great and never even close to full discharge. I can test them on Monday as I have a tester. Last week I went through and looked and connections on all three batteries positive and negative, all are very clean and tight. No corrosion anywhere. If, while cruising, you were still reading 12.x something then I'd just think there was some extra voltage drop to
the Garmin, and not anything unusual, OR that you had a charging problem, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Agreedby bud37 » July 9th, 2023, 11:03 am
Perhaps the alts are not functioning or check those circuits for isolators/ charge management devices.......should see well over 14.5 volts charging from engine alts, even higher on low batteries.
This task may be over my head. If it comes to this I think I will let an expert handle this one. by km1125 » July 9th, 2023, 11:42 ambud37 wrote:
Source of the post Perhaps the alts are not functioning or check those circuits for isolators/ charge management devices.......should see well over 14.5 volts charging from engine alts, even higher on low batteries.
Not sure I 100% agree with this. I've don't think I've ever seen much over 14.2 VDC on any of the boat's I've had.
But, the OP should verify that BOTH engines are charging when running. Start each engine alone and see if the battery voltage gets above 13V. It's possible only ONE of the engines is supplying charging while both are running but you won't know it unless you test them individually.
I can do this on Monday as well and report back. I am guessing it would not matter what battery I am on as long as I start and run one engine and monitor the Helm gauges for over 13 volts, correct? Thank you all, this is such a great group. Have a great afternoon
Kevin G.
Mobile AL - Dauphin Island Marina
1999 Carver 406