Nice work. "I won't be the jerk in a quiet bay disturbing everyone" Thank you. We have these ski boats with their tower speaker systems blasting all over. So on your switch panel, what is "Wilson"? Lol it's short for "take the wheel, son" otherwise known as the autopil...

I actually went through a similar rewiring process on my own MacGregor a while back. The original setup used low-quality wiring—definitely not marine-grade. During the process, I had to get a boat insurance survey in Toronto, and the surveyor immediately flagged the wiring as a major concern. That ...

Great! Glad it’s working! Still not sure I understand what you had hooked up and where you took the 16 volt measurement. Was it at the terminals of your LIon battery? If so, was your 120 v charger connected to the LIon? If it was just the LIon and the dc-dc charger, then I’ll have to do some more l...

Whelp... I connected the main bank to the output side of the DC to DC and everything works fine again. I still can't imagine how the DC to DC just boosted my LION to 16+V... would mean that the LION should be accepting a charge from the DC to DC that had no independent power source? Or maybe the BMS...

This model dc-dc charger requires that both sides be at the same ground potential. If they don't share a chassis ground (unlikely in a fiberglass boat) then they will require that the ground wires on both batteries be connected. See page 9 of the manual. Thanks Bill, I read about the common ground ...

Does the manual for the dc-dc charger say it can be powered up without a load battery connected? That would be my first guess at the problem. The charger looks at the load to regulate the process. I would have thought it would have a safety to lock out if there wasn’t a load, but maybe not…. Sounds...

Hi MacFolks, I am hoping someone can help me with a curious problem that I'm having with this installation. I transferred everything to the boat, as is, except the little 12V battery on the output side of DC to DC charger, as that's where the main battery bank will connect. I wired everything up exc...

Mockup of the modified system, in action. New plan: 120V line from unused 120V shore-power breaker panel to a 2A NOCO lithium battery charger, for shore power charging of the lion. 2A NOCO battery charger wired to LION battery Solar output switched from L.A. battery1 to the LION battery terminals. P...

Generally speaking, if there is any northern component to the wind you will have a less comfortable crossing. Makes sense. We can take a fair beating on Bear Hunt, and have done 45 degree - 45 degree rolls, buried the nose with waves up over the cabin top, rain and wind. On lakes. Where I can swim ...

Hi. The ideal weather for crossing is now. It’s flat calm right now in key largo. Last night, night before. The fronts are stalling out now. Spring trades haven’t kicked in. Run her over under power at around five knots. Leaving from molasses reef at maybe 5 AM. Should get to gun key late afternoon...

Starscream, Regarding item 10 on your list: make sure you have all of your non-starting batteries and the dc-dc converter protected by appropriate fuses as close to the source as possible (ABYC says 7" in most installs). Your 100A Li battery can put out 3000 amps in a short circuit condition. ...

My helm already had a compass mounted in the traditional binnacle position, so the metal iPad arm clamps on to the side of the fixed boom attachment, and pivots fore to aft. I like the depth/speed display permanently mounted to the cabin like that, was thinking of the cheapest, 5" non-touch sc...

Currently shopping for a small chartplotter with transducer for depth readings and back-up to the iPad mini currently mounted at the helm. The autopilot, 12V cooler, AIS transponder and EPIRB all look like necessary upgrades we'll be looking at down the road. For now, we picked up an Icom IC-M94D V...

Snow is melting, Bahamas trip is coming closer...8 months away. Still lots to do, but also lots of progress: 1) Katadyn Powersurvivor 40e watermaker (Bought, test fit in port seat bilge, ready to install) 2) More solar (I haven't been able to make progress on a solar mounting arch.) 3) (DONE): EPIRB...

Had slow drainage from my motor well since I purchased the boat. Unsure If drain was original? I found a bunch of wadded up thin film plastic jammed into the angle fittings. I Replaced all piping/tubing Supplies Two 1-inch PVC 90deg barbed fittings. Clear PVC Tubing inner diam 1-inch: 13in clear PV...