Hydraulic steering for outboard

[kerno]

Since I am running Yamahas, I'll also take a volt/ohmeter and see if there is any current flow between one end of the ground strap and the engine at different times when running, off and with shore power plugged in.

[Capt. Thunder]

Since I am running Yamahas, I'll also take a volt/ohmeter and see if there is any current flow between one end of the ground strap and the engine at different times when running, off and with shore power plugged in.

My number 1 battery would not hold a charge. So I picked up a new battery and had my mechanic put it in for me as I had a couple charters coming up and had other errands to do. He called me Wednesday and said he replaced the battery, but when he went to rehook up my onboard battery charger, he had an issue with one of the leads. I had bought a 3 battery charger from bass pro last year, but only have 2 batteries. Instructions showed hooking the extra pair of leads to one of the batteries, if you didn't have 3.

Well one of the leads developed a short, and that was what killed my battery. My mechanic hooked it up without the pair that was shorting out. That being said, I obviously had something going on with that charger that might have been responsible for my stray current. Since the seastar was grounded with their strap, I don't have pitting, but possibly created my on problem with the defective charger, before I put the ground strap on. In other words, I developed pitting around December and maybe the charger was already defective, but not to the point of killing my battery.

[Chisox]

Thunder,

Thanks for the follow up. To be honest with you, electrical demons on a boat can have you chasing your tail, and even when you get it fixed, a lot of times you're not exactly sure that what you did really got rid of the issue.

All chargers will not put out a charge voltage unless the leads sense a device ready to accept it. Take a set of leads coming off your charger that aren't hooked up to a battery and put a meter on them. You will see no voltage present, because the internal circuitry does not see any battery/appliance that can accept voltage. Your chargers issue must have been internal. Time to dump the charger and get a new one. ProMariner for me...

[kerno]

It is funny that you mention chargers. I think of all of the electric devices on boats, I've had more trouble with chargers than anything else. And it is usually with multi-battery chargers. The old one charger for each battery system worked pretty well. I am now running four batteries with two chargers that are set up for two batteries each. Guess what? I have one battery that is nearly dead and three that are perfectly happy.......

That means on leg of one of the chargers has died. Hopefully, it didn't take the battery with it.

Hey Bob: Has Homesite seen the quad replacement? Dry sump #6 Yeeehaaaa.

[Chisox]

Kerno,

One motor and drive package, 1730 lbs., 1200 PHP. Build the engine bay big enough to service her comfortably.

4 motors, 2668 lbs., 1200 PHP, 4 times the maintenance.

Yeah, the 1200 takes racing gas (114 RON), but the V-rods take 93, which is damn near impossible to find at a marina.

Just a thought...

BTW, when we switched over to ProMariner chargers, they claimed "completely waterproof". So we plugged one in, hooked a set of leads up to a battery, and dropped the unit in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Left it there until the next morning. The battery was charged, the LEDs on the unit indicated a fully charged state, and we switched from Guest to ProMariner. That is a TRUE story...

[Albiemanmike]

BTW, when we switched over to ProMariner chargers, they claimed "completely waterproof". So we plugged one in, hooked a set of leads up to a battery, and dropped the unit in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Left it there until the next morning. The battery was charged, the LEDs on the unit indicated a fully charged state, and we switched from Guest to ProMariner. That is a TRUE story...

Wow Consumers Reports has nothing on you guys!!! That is absolutely awesome to be able to buy something with the express purpose of torture testing I wish I could afford that kind of flexibility. But you have made up my mind for me as to what charger to buy thank you very much.

[Chisox]

Albie,

As I said, that is a true story, or should I say, statement. We, just any OEM boatbuilder, get "samples" that we put through test. We don't pay for them, and they never get installed on ANY boat we build. Vendors want us to use their product, but it has to pass our testing. Many times the samples are just thrown out simply because they failed, whether it is a pop-up cleat that just froze, or in this case, if a charger fried it's guts, which it didn't, as soon as it went in the water. It doesn't cost us a cent other than our time to put the hardware through "real world" testing. We put all our SS hardware in salt water, 24/7, for weeks on end. Tough to live through that without some issues. Our LED underwater lights we use? They go in salt 24/7 until they fail...or don't. Working on an Ocean LED Amphibian right now at home. It's at about 6 weeks right now, although I see some moisture under the lens...not good.

I'd recommend ProMariner to anyone. Some of the hardware we use, I wouldn't recommend. But then, I don't get to make all the decisions...but I did get to choose our Gensets and bow thrusters!

[kerno]

I thin I just decided what kind of charger I am buying next time. The one that croaked was a Guest. I e-mailed them abiut repair and never got an answer. Not good....

[Chisox]

Guest is repped by a good friend of mine. ProMariner repped by another good friend. Now you normally just don't switch vendors because of pricing (unless it's a HUGE difference), but the performance of the ProMariner was just amazing! PLUS it was cheaper for us to buy.

That same charger I put in a bucket of water? 2 years later she is still going strong and looks brand new. We use it to charge our batts for water tests. It's a ProSport 20+ 3-bank. Another great thing about ProMariners is if 1 batt reaches full charge before the other, it will switch all the available amps to the remaining batt(s). Guest doesn't do that.

A few months ago, I got a Xantrex charger sent to me for testing. Now I love Xantrex inverters. When a customer wants an inverter installed, that's what we use. The battery charger? I probably couldn't give it away...go figure!

[triumphrick]

This has been a great thread and interesting reading! Thanks Thunder for the original post and Bob and Kerno for the additions. I appreciated the civility of it and how things were handled as things "warmed up" a bit!

I feel the moderate tone of this forum was clearly evident throughout the discussion...I have learned a few things as well. All the more reason to support and follow my fellow members here. Good job to one and all....Rick