opening engine room hatch with no power

Ethan's Tank

Member
Jun 1, 2014
425
aquia creek.potomac river United States
Boat Info
2009 Searay sundancer 350DA with twin 496 seacores
2000 wellcraft 2600 martinique [old]
Engines
Mercruiser 350 5.7 EFI
Does anyone know how to open the engine hatch if my batteries are dead on starboard side. I can't plug in ac power to charge the battery since the battery charger caught on fire and I was in the middle of replacing it. I had to run to the store to buy marine romex and after a few days the battery is completely dead. I can't get in there now to finish the install. I pull on the latch on the floor but the electric motor is holding it down.

Any help is appreciated
 
There should be an access panel/hole on the hatch floor or under the transom seat that you can reach into to disconnect the hatch lift pole. You will need some help manually lifting the hatch as its very heavy.
 
Ethan, I’m not sure about your boat, so please forgive me, but on my 330 there is a small port in the middle of my deck lid, (I think its called a deck plate) but I can open it to gain access to the ER. It is right next to my upper actuator where it attaches to the lid. The actuator has a quick release pin, a cotter pin to hold the main pin that is pulled out and frees the lid to be opened by hand. I have had to do this once, it is a real pain, but I was able to get in there with no power. Hope this helps.

Matt
 
On my previous 340, there was an adapter that you plugged into an outlet, hooked a power pack to that you could use power to open the hatch when the on board batteries were dead.
 
On my previous 340, there was an adapter that you plugged into an outlet, hooked a power pack to that you could use power to open the hatch when the on board batteries were dead.

that is what i have read also....there is an adapter that plugs into any DC power plug and the wires are attached to the pos and neg terminals of a battery or jumper pack....the electrical current will backflow through the wiring and energize the hatch lift motor enough to raise it....

i have no personal experience using this mehod but have read where others have used it successfully....

cliff
 
Where was your aux outlet located at?
I have a 2005 320DA - for mine this is an old fashioned cigarette lighter type female plug and it is at the helm - I do not own one but at some stage have written in my notes that the jumper lead you need for this is sea ray part number 822250 Str Plg Accy.
 
I have a 2005 320DA - for mine this is an old fashioned cigarette lighter type female plug and it is at the helm - I do not own one but at some stage have written in my notes that the jumper lead you need for this is sea ray part number 822250 Str Plg Accy.

Yes. Never had to use it, but this is what I was told.
 
My jump pack came with a male-male cord. I plugged one end into the pack and the other end into the AUX/cigarette receptical and lifted the hatch just fine.

MM
 
I was able to get it up after running the cigar light and feeding power back in. Now what I want to know if I should shrink with the hatch up and take the batteries home or leave the batteries and put the hatch back down. I finished installing the charger, but haven't finished programming it for use yet. Pronautics is closed and not entirely sure what these deka deep cycle batteries are to complete programming
 
I would close up shop...hatch down and wrap. I wouldn't want to wrap with hatch up in the event the wrap was compromised for whatever reason and thereby offering up easy access to whatever (weather or critters) into my ER. While not the most efficient, you can get that hatch open manually come spring.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Now would be a good time to run 2 wires from the pump relays to convenient location that dosent require the opening of the engine hatch.
 
Thanks, Mike - - go figure, I look at CSR 10X a day and didn't recall seeing that one!!

HAHA Art if you have the answer to that question that would be great. I'm cracking open the case to see what happened, I'll post pics of the burned up inside, from what I can see it looked like it was a burnt up capacitor.

All in all, about half way through, K-nutz and I started to shrink wrap my boat yesterday after changing out the charger and pulling most of batteries [4 out of the 5]. however, I did not program the charger nor test it, since I was in a rush to start shrink wrapping and helping k-nutz with his shrink wrapping as well. I did leave the hatch open, but after listening to y'all, I'm going to close it. Leaving 1 good battery there to complete the circuit, in case it does die, I can do the cigarette lighter trick again [finger's crossed]. I may need to find a way to wire up the hydraulic lifts operate on its own emergency backup power source.
 
Would that adapter work for any Sea Ray boat, or just the one being discussed?
Would be nice to use this method as the emergency backup on my 270 slx. I have noticed that if I plug in shore power even with the batteries disconnected, the hatch can work. I assume this is ok to do once a year for winterization? - it is drawing power straight from the battery chargers.
 
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On my buddies boat, he had charger issues (2004 320DA) like mine. We actually pulled the batter switch panel cover under the helm seat and connected a battery charger to it. We had it up in 15 minutes.
 
I had never used the adapter until yesterday, 1 November as my battery switch got left on during storage ashore for the two hurricanes here in eastern NC. Dock hand fetch their 12v booster starter battery unit and from the original bag of "stuff", there was the adapter complete with instructions! Attached the leads and hatch lights on panel illuminated and we opened her right up. We then hooked up the battery boost unit to one battery panel and started the port motor. Once going, we used the link switch on the console to boost the other battery bank to start the starboard motor. Once up and running closed down the hatch and motored her home, about an hour away.
 

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