Battery Cable route

Chris-380

Well-Known Member
Jan 20, 2019
2,425
Pontoon Beach IL
Boat Info
2000 380 Sundancer
Engines
7.4L Horizon w/V drives
Had a few issues this weekend on my 2000 380 DA

when i went to start my boat after anchoring for about 4 hours, port was fine, nothing from starboard. Windless, nothing.... starboard bank is my main house bank also.

push emergency, I watch the port get sucked down but I did get clicking.... came in on one engine, plugged the shore power in, 15 mins later, starboard fired right up....

pulled the 2 batteries from that bank, had them load tested, both good....

thinking a bad connection....

Buddy with the same boat had the same issue 2 years ago. His main ground on the motor was a tad loose. Still tight, but cleaned it up and all is well.... I checked mine. Tight. I plan to pull it next weekend and clean and try it out....

curious if the negative from the battery goes straight to the block and then gets distributed (like to the windlass).... that would explain why my windlass didn’t work....

Anyway, still a good time on the water, and got to practice my one engine maneuvering skills

Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
Had a few issues this weekend on my 2000 380 DA

when i went to start my boat after anchoring for about 4 hours, port was fine, nothing from starboard. Windless, nothing.... starboard bank is my main house bank also.

push emergency, I watch the port get sucked down but I did get clicking.... came in on one engine, plugged the shore power in, 15 mins later, starboard fired right up....

pulled the 2 batteries from that bank, had them load tested, both good....

thinking a bad connection....

Buddy with the same boat had the same issue 2 years ago. His main ground on the motor was a tad loose. Still tight, but cleaned it up and all is well.... I checked mine. Tight. I plan to pull it next weekend and clean and try it out....

curious if the negative from the battery goes straight to the block and then gets distributed (like to the windlass).... that would explain why my windlass didn’t work....

Anyway, still a good time on the water, and got to practice my one engine maneuvering skills

Thanks in advance!

Did you try running your generator with the battery charger/ AC converter? It charges most batteries pretty fast unless they are on their way out with dead cells. Glad you had a good day and looked at the good side of things. This is boating and how it goes, most of us are used to it... even with new boats.

Good luck,
Vince
 
thank you

Genny is a whole other issue.
Real finicky, sometimes starts, sometimes sounds like it will never start. Had the marina look at it last year. Started perfect for them. This year, first time ran it once for 30 mins, then I turned it off. This time would run for 5 seconds and shut down. Thinking it needs a tune up and carb cleaned.... with the covid, doubt the marina gets back on it fast....

I think I will move my batteries around and see what it does this weekend when I simulate another 4-5 hour tie up at the dock. Really believing I have a bad connection that comes and goes.... but who know.... it’s an excuse to tinker on a weekend my wife would prefer me at home helping paint at the house


Did you try running your generator with the battery charger/ AC converter? It charges most batteries pretty fast unless they are on their way out with dead cells. Glad you had a good day and looked at the good side of things. This is boating and how it goes, most of us are used to it... even with new boats.

Good luck,
Vince
 
I thought there was a "CSR" bylaw about painting houses during boating!
If not, lets write one.
 
See if you can borrow a professional battery tester and then find out the status of those cells. You could be chasing your tail doing all this work just to make a sub-quality battery do what you need of it. Just thinkin......
 
See if you can borrow a professional battery tester and then find out the status of those cells. You could be chasing your tail doing all this work just to make a sub-quality battery do what you need of it. Just thinkin......
I took the batteries and had them load tested, each of the 2 from the bank were on for 60-75 minutes. I am pretty sure they are good after that. May not be, but feel confident
 
Probably took that long to charge but not to load test.
 
Probably took that long to charge but not to load test.
They were fully charged after almost 24 hour late on the smart charger in my boat.

when you take a battery to get tested. They have a machine that simulates different loads and durations and monitor the voltage drop. I don’t just put a meter in the battery and turn the lights on or crank the motor and see what happens to the voltage drop....
 
I am thinking about putting LED courtesy lighting under the aft cockpit seating area for our night cruises. The existing red lights that came from the builder don't seem to do much. We could keep the aft part of the boat somewhat lit, but at the helm station, my night vision would not be washed out. So... 2 questions.

Where to route 16/2 speaker wire for the low duty current draw to light the LED's. I can have the power tap end of the LED's starboard or port-aft/fore in the cockpit. I would prefer not to drill any holes, but if needed, that is what I will do and seal the opening to withstand water intrusion (which I don't ever see happening w the aft canvass).

Where would you tap for 12v power once inside the bilge area? The system will have a main power button to removing power draw when not in use.

Any suggestions/idea's or past experience is welcomed.

Thank you,
Vince
 
Check your alternator. A bad alternator can cause a power drain in exactly the way you described what happened to you. I had this same thing happen to me last summer and it was the alternator gone bad. $70 for a new one and all was/is well.
 
Check your alternator. A bad alternator can cause a power drain in exactly the way you described what happened to you. I had this same thing happen to me last summer and it was the alternator gone bad. $70 for a new one and all was/is well.

I would love to know where you got a new alternator for $70? I was just quoted $284 for OEM. Luckily, I found a guy to rebuild for $50.
 
Most boat manufactures dont make electrical products. So as far as oem is concerned, Merc,Vovlo, Crusader, etc get there engine from the engine builder and in most cases it`s GM based. So "any name company" is just as good as any other.
Ignition Distributor Cap Rotor GM V8 Vortec w/Flat Cap 2001-Up$52.00
Amazon
Mercruiser and Volvo Penta V8 Distributor Cap and Rotor kit for 5.0, 5.7, 6.2 engines$34.00
And YES they both have copper conductors
 

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