MacGregorSailors.com

Hi All,
I return once again to ask a question more seasoned boat owners would have a answer to than I can find on the Internet. My new to me 2003 26M has a few stray wires that have been cut because PO didn’t want to remove them. Some of these got so hot at times they blistered and stuck to nearby wires. In doing this i stumbled upon this wiring issue that’s probably been this way since the ProMainer Pro Sport12 was installed or new batteries were installed.

The ProSport 12 has 2 battery charging cables and the boat has 2 batteries, one of the cables is connected to one battery with both pos and negative connectors on the same positive terminal. As shown in the picture below.



https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Cx_He ... fqK0Eoe7qw

Is there some reason for doing this? The other battery has the other cable connected as red to positive and yellow to negative.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SY8IB ... DiC7Mh2gVQ

Thanks for any insight you can share.

I don't understand the case with both pos and neg on the same post - that's nothing but a direct short for the charger. Check the inline fuse that the charger was equipped with when new. I'll bet it's blown. That, or it senses a short and disables that part of the output.

I have a similar 5+5A, also with an inline fuse on each of the two positives. It's wired with one output to each battery, with pos to pos and neg to neg. They can be comined for one battery, but that's both positives to the pos battery post, and the same with negative. For 24V, they are also wired pos to pos and neg to neg on each battery, and the two batteries are connected post to neg, with the other two posts providing 24V.

one of the cables is connected to one battery with both pos and negative connectors on the same positive terminal

Someone read the instructions wrong. The instructions say that both POSITIVE wires can go to ONE battery if there is only one battery. or you can connect only one of the positive wires to the one battery. People seem to get mixed up because there are two positive wires on the charger and only one negative wire.

There are TWO positive wires coming from the charger: One of the positive wires goes to one battery and the other positive wire goes to the OTHER battery. The negative wire only needs to go to ONE battery, either one will do.

The confusion is about the ONE negative wire from the charger - even here on this site people have been confused about how their battery gets charged when the PERKO switch has turned off one of the batteries? They seem to think the negative wire is getting isolated on the one battery when they turn it off on the PERKO.

The PERKO does not disconnect the charger from the batteries because the PERKO switch does not switch any ground wires (negative) the PERKO only switches the POSITIVE wires.

My ProMariner connects with a pair of leads going to each battery as has already been described. Toms suggestion to check the fusing is a good one, assuming the charger itself isn't toast already. I can think of no reason to have them connected in the way yours are. It certainly cant charge the battery that way.

I have to wonder about your comment regarding wires that got so hot they melted insulation on others that are close by. Something is wrong. Wire that is sized properly for the current carrying capacity do not melt. Are you removing dead wires? Are you removing live wires? I guess I don't really understand.

here are a few more pics, the wires came from this cover under the hinge of the cockpit stern seat. The black at the top is electrical tape.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8QnGd1R6fGJLYFNq2


The wires ran down the stern of the boat directly to the battery.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/X3vIZy9wIfj1bsl22

Both wires melted, the red wire stayed intact but the black (negative) broke down around the transom drain hoses. I was greasing the steering joints when I noticed the melted wires and ProSport12 charger wires connected to the same positive terminal.

A few more shots of some hot spots

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rt3FNsu8d8ZUoxVS2

We have the similar promariner prosport20, great charger that has 2 sets of leads (+/-) that carry 10amps each, one set of leads each for two batteries (10amps) or both sets of leads to one battery (20amps) always pos to pos and neg to neg.

Makes no sense to me either how your PO has this setup, only other thing to check maybe that the leads are still factory connected to the charger and were never replaced and wrong colour coded.

Ps
I'd put a second set of hose clamps on your motor well drain pipes. In a bad situation this could let a lot of water into the boat.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/X3vIZy9wIfj1bsl22

Wind Chime wrote:.I'd put a second set of hose clamps on your motor well drain pipes. In a bad situation this could let a lot of water into the boat.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/X3vIZy9wIfj1bsl22

Thanks for the reminder!! That's one area of inspection I have neglected these past three seasons......

npsrangerchuck wrote:

Wind Chime wrote:.I'd put a second set of hose clamps on your motor well drain pipes. In a bad situation this could let a lot of water into the boat.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/X3vIZy9wIfj1bsl22

Thanks for the reminder!! That's one area of inspection I have neglected these past three seasons......

Ya, sometimes 20 minutes labour and $5 in parts for a maintenance project can make a big difference.

This motor well drain hose is sneaky, out of sight - out of mind. Even though this is not below the waterline if that hose connecting the motor well drain hole and the transom through hull every came off - you could be taking on water and never know it, and also hard to inspect back there once all the crap is loaded in the aft berth

Regarding the motor well drain and the t that connects it to the sink drain on our . I inspected ours when changing to the quick release steering arm last month. Everything looked good and thought about placing a second clamp next to the original ones but thought better of it for two reasons. 1- didn't appear to have enough room to accommodate another clamp and 2- that hose is not under pressure. It looked like the main reason to be worried would be that the hose eventually will become brittle and crack thus letting water infiltrate. Something that a second clamp won't be able to prevent. I opted for placing that part on the annual check list for vulnerability. The hose appeared to be supple and far from brittle at this time.

Wind Chime wrote:We have the similar promariner prosport20, great charger that has 2 sets of leads (+/-) that carry 10amps each, one set of leads each for two batteries (10amps) or both sets of leads to one battery (20amps) always pos to pos and neg to neg.

Makes no sense to me either how your PO has this setup, only other thing to check maybe that the leads are still factory connected to the charger and were never replaced and wrong colour coded.

Ps
I'd put a second set of hose clamps on your motor well drain pipes. In a bad situation this could let a lot of water into the boat.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/X3vIZy9wIfj1bsl22

Thanks for the tip,, I’ll slip another hose clamp around all the hoses

Wind Chime wrote: Even though this is not below the waterline if that hose connecting the motor well drain hole and the transom through hull every came off - you could be taking on water and never know it, and also hard to inspect back there once all the crap is loaded in the aft berth

My boat is aft heavy (24 gals fuel, 70hp motor, fat arse) and that thing sits BELOW the waterline much of the time.
It seems to be a weak point of the boat and I'm guilty of not inspecting it.

I remember a story here years ago. The owner came to find his fuel hose was leaking into the cockpit -> into his motor well and the drain hose had a leak and 10 gallons of gasoline went into the bilge. Talk about a bomb.