Battery Charger Location on 1995 Carver 325 Aft Cabin

[aldera]

Just got my boat about 3 weeks ago and want to install a "smart" battery charger. Where exactly is the battery charger located? It's not by the batteries, battery switch under the step or behind the aft cabin medicine cabinet.

Thanks for any help.

[plittle2005]

The usual charger has status lights on it so it should have been mounted in a visible location.

But you can trace the 12 or 14 ga. wires from the battery terminals, or bus bar, back to the charger. You can also measure the voltage at the batteries when on shore power and see if it changes when you switch the charger breaker on and off, to check whether the PO might have removed it (stranger things have happened!).

[aldera]

Source of the post The usual charger has status lights on it so it should have been mounted in a visible location.

But you can trace the 12 or 14 ga. wires from the battery terminals, or bus bar, back to the charger. You can also measure the voltage at the batteries when on shore power and see if it changes when you switch the charger breaker on and off, to check whether the PO might have removed it (stranger things have happened!).

Thanks for the reply. The battery charger does seem to work since my batteries ran down with the battery charger turned off. After turning it on, the batteries did charge. The charger isn't connected directly to the batteries since only the battery cables themselves are hooked to the posts. I'll have to find where the charger is connected and work back from there. Doesn't sound easy or fun! I was hoping someone had a boat like mine and knew where it was.

Thanks again.

[Viper]

In the engine compartment on aft bulkhead under salon stairs?

[km1125]

The charger would likely be connected to the battery cables at the master on/off switch(es). If that's where your charger breakers are then that would even make it more likely.

It's almost always mounted on a bulkhead in the engine room, and well above the bottom of the hull so there's little risk of it getting splashed with water.

[aldera]

Thanks, everyone, for the replies. I guess I’ll be trying to work in the engine compartment. Doesn’t sound like fun, though!

[bud37]

Chargers are not always in the engine compartment, check bulk heads that abut the engine room but on the other side. I have had them under dinette seats and in side wall compartments etc.

IMO chargers have much longer lives in clean cooler locations if it can be helped, particularly not above battery banks....

If you can put your boat info in the vessel info it may help people who have the same model help you.

[Cooler]

My charger location is on the inside wall of the transom. Carver built a couple of mounting pods at that location for hulls like ours. They are painted over, but present themselves easily. er

[aldera]

Found it. It was behind the double bed on the port aft bulkhead.

I have a question regarding the wiring. I don't have a manual or wiring diagram for it and ProMariner doesn't have them on their website. Anyone have one they'd like to share? I attached a couple of pictures to show what I have. The big white wire has to be the 110V from the "Battery Charger" breaker on the AC panel. The black must be the ground, the 2 big red wires in the cable sleeve must go to the positive terminal of each battery but I'm not sure what the smaller red wire is for. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Viper]

It's a 3 bank charger so I suspect the red wire is just another output. Do you have a generator? If so, that might be the third bank.