Verado wiring and battery questions and Sea Ray rigging on new boat

I am waiting on delivery of a new SDX 270 with the Verado 300. I ordered the dual battery option and a charger. Outboards are new to me, and the Verado has some peculiar electrical requirements due to the ECM, digital fly by wire, and electric power steering.
As I read the Verado manual, they are very specific about having complete isolation of the engine battery and the house load. When I was shopping my boat, every one I was on had the traditional A/B/A+B selector switch, which clearly does not isolate loads.

Any Sea Ray / Verado owners out there that can confirm it was rigged with the typical combiner switch and not isolated? If so, anyone have any issues as a result of the combined loads (power steering dropping out, ghost alarms from low voltage, etc)?

Edit: I can see where a single A/B switch would tie the loads together. See if there is a dual battery-switch option.

DTS, in general (whether stern drive or OB) is finicky with power requirements - possibly more than the stern drives - that I'm not sure of as I'm not as familiar with the bigger OB's, yet. With the stern drives, there are specific bulletins that address this - not only battery size and MCA/CCA but also reserve capacity (I would assume the same holds true for OB's?). But this is well known, and has been for many years - at least with the stern drives as there were similar problems in the beginning due to battery issues. Actually, I think there are even tags on the battery leads that mention the minimum requirements.

However, wouldn't the loads (house/engine) stay separate as long as you don't put the battery switch to "both"? Use, for example, #1 as your starting battery, then when you drop anchor, use #2 for house loads. This will preserve #1 for full starting/operation of the engine.

FYI, the parts list for your boat does list a "1-2-Both-Off" switch.

Lazy Daze said:

wouldn't the loads (house/engine) stay separate as long as you don't put the battery switch to "both"?

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With a 1/2/BOTH switch, the conventional wiring scheme is to terminate all loads, to the common output. There a couple of exceptions though, like auto bilge, etc. So with this configuration, draw is off of what ever position you have the switch to. No way to isolate individual loads, bur rather isolate one battery from the other.

Could searay use an unconventional scheme? Sure. Could they be using a VSR/ACR or diode isolator in conjunction with the 1/2/BOTH switch? Sure and its certainly unconventional and has its own drawbacks. A diode pack would certainly not play nice with a voltage sensitive engine management system.

That's me. Laughing at myself. Brain fart.

On the plus side... there's a 5 year bow to stern warranty.

Got knocked off... I would just bring up the question with your dealer. Or maybe call Mother Merc and see what their thoughts are. Another good place to check might be the Verado forum.

Verado forum recommends isolating all house loads, getting rid of the 1/2/1+2 switch, and adding an ACR.
Thanks for the input. My dealer also told me they do not rig AGM batteries, just flooded type meeting the CCA and RC capacity. I found that odd since Merc "strongly recommends" AGM batteries for all Verado installations.

It can't hurt to take extra steps. But I do wonder how "necessary" it is, you know? As in theory vs reality. As I mentioned I have very little experience with the larger (newer, anyways) OB's so of course take this with a grain of salt. But from the stern drive side of DTS, nothing special has had to be done for it to work reliably. I'd be especially curious to see what someone at Merc thinks - forums are good, but not always definitive... but then there's the whole "Is Merc simply giving me the PC response/line".

paulswagelock said:

Verado forum recommends isolating all house loads, getting rid of the 1/2/1+2 switch, and adding an ACR.
Thanks for the input. My dealer also told me they do not rig AGM batteries, just flooded type meeting the CCA and RC capacity. I found that odd since Merc "strongly recommends" AGM batteries for all Verado installations.

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A properly wired Dual Circuit Plus switch and ACR/VSR will certainly separate the house and main banks, while allowing both banks to receive a charge from alt/stater.

Not usre I understand their theory between AGM and wet cell. Just choose an AGM with the desired CCA and RC. Would make more sense if they preferred the lower charge voltage needed of a wet cell for the O/B.

Wylie_Tunes said:

A properly wired Dual Circuit Plus switch and ACR/VSR will certainly separate the house and main banks, while allowing both banks to receive a charge from alt/stater.

Click to expand...

This is how I rewired my runabout, using Blue Sea DCP switch and Yandina ACR.