121805eg c-charger 5000 out of commision

[km1125]

Well, for a second it looked like there wasn't a negative cable on that bottom battery, but there is. Wondering why there are two red cables on that battery, and where each of those go to.

[Viper]

There are a couple of things that stand out to me, there may not necessarily be anything wrong as we're going by a pic and can't follow wires but this stood out;
- there seems to be 4 main load cables but there is a 1-2-BOTH switch which would only control loads from 2 sources. This could be explained though by other loads not going through the selector switch like separate windlass and thruster batteries. This should be clarified
- I trust the bottom battery is NOT the generator battery as usually the generator battery is under the generator and I do see at the very bottom of the pic what looks like the start of a battery or tray. It stood out at first because my thinking was that if the bottom battery was for the generator and being charged by the house charger, it may not be hooked up to the common ground and not being charged as a lot of generators aren't hooked up to DC's common ground. Having said that, I suspect now that it's not the generator battery. If it's a windlass or thruster battery and that negative cable goes directly to the thruster or windlass, it's not being charged because there's no negative connection to the charger unless it's tapped in somewhere else.
- I don't see a paralleling cable joining two batteries in a bank for say house loads, or is one battery for house, one for engines, and one for windlass or thruster? If that's the case, I'd say the house bank is too small for that size boat but it really does come down to your boating habits. Is there a paralleling cable but it's just looped up to the main bundle of cables on the stringer? If so, that would explain a couple of things I mentioned above. They just seem to all be heading aft.
- what is the bundle of small gauge red and white wires for that are left of the middle battery that don't seem to go anywhere?
- I'm sure it's probably just looped over and heads back but under the port engine along the stringer is a red cable that seems to dead end. Where does that go?
- is there a ground cable going directly from one engine to the other or are all negatives going to a common bus bar?

[Midnightsun]

Viper see below.

I have 3 batteries, 2 are on a switch "1, ALL, 2 or OFF". 3rd battery is gen battery, which have never been used last several years, as I never got around getting it to work. but that has it's own on of switch

so the 2 batteries are #1 for engine #2 for house. But current charger is charging all 3.

All 3 batteries are multipurpose deep cycle marine AGM batteries, purchased at NAPA Auto Parts.

[bud37]

So here is what stood out to me. The install is clean, battery tops and connections clean, cables are run nicely with what appears to be factory ties, the cables have their tags still affixed, the bottom battery I think may be the gen battery as it appears to have a charging cable run to it as that red cable is slightly smaller than the others and the gen exhaust appears to be there as well.
So there are two oem red cable feeds to the other two batteries and the top battery has 3 grounds attached. If their tags are still there then they will be numbered 1 and 2 relating to the main switch position, or should be.
Now generally both engines are tied together across and most cable grounds go to studs mounted to the engine block bell housing area, not all on one battery. They all appear to be tagged.

So anyway that is what I take from that pic.

[cpoint]

Hi guys, sorry for late follow up. Not getting too much time lately on this. but first in response to above few comments. Sorry for not so clear image. Basically Batteries (as pictured on page 3) are top to bottom START, HOUSE, GEN. Nothings been changed in the order they are in. The START and HOUSE on switch that has 1-BOTH-2. Gen has it's on ON-OFF switch near gen. Hence you see 2 red (positive) in bottom picture. One coming from Charger, Other going to GEN switch. And negative is hooked up, just not clear in picture.

Getting back to current status, all is well, except I do need to replace START and GEN battery as they are 5 years old. The HOUSE is new, that I just purchased. Electrician did check everything. Showed charger was installed correctly and is charging correctly. Batteries getting power/charge properly. a week before I had tightened the wires on battery, believe before they were not connecting well. Unfortunately, due to lack of time heading out there, I called and had it checked by electrician. Apparently I fixed the issue by tightening the wiring. So that's good, but now I need to pay for service call that was not needed

So, I winterized it this weekend, won't know till next season if all is grand or some other problem pop up

Thank you all for helpful information, I believe it helped me to troubleshoot and resolve it.

[cpoint]

Hello all, been awhile, have not been boating too much last year or so. Last year I had other issues, lucky turned out it was not engine, but bad fuel. Extracted all and put new fuel, all was well. June is about to be over, and I have not really done anything with boat yet. Charger issue is not 100% resolved yet. I just went through my long tread here to refresh my knowledge with your valuable answers and suggestions. Looks like I have not verified the fuse under stairs that it's not cracked or bad connection. I remember when it was suggested I tried to look, but was so tight that I was not able to pull up to see if it was ok or not. I suspect that may be the problem. Even though technician that came out had said it was charging properly. So in short where it stands now is that, on switch 1 or BOTH everything is fine while I am there for few hours. On switch 2 only either nothing comes on, or will go out in few minutes to few hours. Switching back to BOTH everything will come back on, and will stay on for the few hours that I am there. I assume it will remain on all time if I am there longer as no issues. Strange thing is if I switch to 2 after 10-15 minutes or anytime after that, everything will be on fine for awhile, and eventually will go out. So I understand switch is for distribution and should not affect charging, but seems like battery has power after a while on switch 2 when it is on BOTH switch for 10-15 minutes or more. So most likely it is the fuse under stairs for #2 bad. But how and why it seems to charge while on BOTH I am lost. So Not sure I will be having much free time (wish I could retire ) to deal with it this summer, I hope I will, but definitely need to check the fuse to make sure that is not the culprit as you guys suggested.

[km1125]

Yea, when on BOTH then battery #2 is getting a charge from Battery #1, where the battery charger is working fine. After a while that would get battery #2 up to a decent charge (to fully charge you'd have to leave the switch in BOTH for over 24 hours). So while it's in BOTH then #2 is getting some of a charge, but not a really good one. That's why it seems OK for a few hours.

There is some kind of a problem from the charger to the battery #2. There should be a fuse or circuit breaker in this circuit or a connection that's likely the culprit. There actually should be two breakers or fuses... one on each end of the circuit, but a lot of manufactures only put one nearest the battery end.

[cpoint]

Thanks km, You got it what you summarized is what is happening. To my knowledge there is one fuse under stairs (1 for each battery). I will be there all day tomorrow, will have time to check this issue, will see how it goes.