270 SLX Engine cover won't go up

[salligator]

I have a 2006 270 SLX. It is a very reliable boat and quite fast but it has an interesting quirk.

If you leave it in the boat garage for a month, then this fuse blows for the engine cover hatch. Now this fuse is very hard to get at. It is located in the hatch forward of the controls. YOu then move a cover down and the fuses are there. Any idea what is causing the fuse to blow? It is a very annoying thing and has happened to me twice now. The first time it took about an hour to replace. The second time with my aid it only took about 20 minutes to fix. If it happens again it will only take me about 10 minutes to fix, but I must have a jump from a battery to start.

I should say that nothing was on in the boat, not the radio or the switch in the bathroom or even the bilge pump.

:smt100

 

[CliffA]

I have a 2006 270 SLX. It is a very reliable boat and quite fast but it has an interesting quirk.

If you leave it in the boat garage for a month, then this fuse blows for the engine cover hatch. Now this fuse is very hard to get at. It is located in the hatch forward of the controls. YOu then move a cover down and the fuses are there. Any idea what is causing the fuse to blow? It is a very annoying thing and has happened to me twice now. The first time it took about an hour to replace. The second time with my aid it only took about 20 minutes to fix. If it happens again it will only take me about 10 minutes to fix, but I must have a jump from a battery to start.

I should say that nothing was on in the boat, not the radio or the switch in the bathroom or even the bilge pump.

:smt100

let me start by saying i have absolutely no experience with this, but i have a couple ideas....

- confirm you have the correct size fuse. a too small fuse will blow to soon under load. don't assume the one you removed is the correct size. someone before you could have installed the incorrect size because that is all they had on hand or they didn't know the correct size. your owners manual should tell you what size the fuse should be or you may have a listing of the correct fuses somewhere near the fuse box.
- insure the cover is not becoming 'stuck' to the floor somehow while in extended storage. if so the pump motor would try to work too hard to raise the cover and the excessive load would blow the fuse. you may even consider applying a small amount of grease to the bottom of the cover on a fairly regular basis.
- insure the lift cylinder pistons are not corroded or pitted which could cause extra drag during operation. this extra drag could make the pump work harder than needed.
- try putting a little oil on the lift cylinder pistons on a regular basis. this will keep the pistons lubricated and reduce the force needed to raise the hatch. it will also prevent them from corroding.

i don't think the engine cover fuse blowing has anything to do with you needing a battery jump to start the engine....it sounds like the battery is just draining during the extended storage to the point it is not charged enough to crank the engine but it is strong enough to try and raise the engine cover...you could consider installing an on-board battery charger to keep your batteries charged all the time...that is what i did...i tied the charger into a shore power connection on the side of the hull...by using an adapter cord with the shore power connecton i can use standard 120 VAC to continuously run the charger...the charger is a 'smart' charger so it will not overcharge the batteries...

another option is to install remote battery terminals so that the batteries can be charged without having to lift the engine cover...you could locate them where they are easy to connect to a battery charger and would be relatively inexpensive....after a long storage you could easily charge the batteries without having to worry about opening the engine cover....i was seriously considering doing this on my boat before i decided to go with the permanently mounted on-board battery charger...

 

[moparlvr4406]

is the fuse blown when you go out to the boat or does it blow when you try to actuate the cover


Hydraulic pumps can stick if left static for a long time but this would blow the fuse when you hit the switch.
if it's blown before you touch anything....something is drawing a high load during it's downtime
and this could explain the battery being dead also

 

[notorioustech]

Wow. Same problem just started happening to me, I will try adding grease to the fitting and see if that will help. Had the same drain problem on battery 2 also, there is a direct wire fuse off that battery, not sure what it goes to but disconnected it - wasn't bilge.

I also had a short inside the steering column which smelled like burning plastic. It actually caused the boat to die completely on the water, had to be towed in. The shop just disconnected it (said radio controls) and had to replace my digital gauge as it shorted it out.

 

[paulswagelock]

If the battery is drained and you try to use the power lift for the engine compartment, the motor will draw heavy amperage due to the reduced voltage.

There are several things that draw power even if the batteries are off. Stereo and Mercathode are two.

 

[gumbyjb]

The original owner of my boat warned me to let off the hatch switch (when closing) just before it gets to it's fully down position. He said if it is allowed to go all the way down, it has a tendency to blow the fuse. I wonder if this might be happening to you, and that the dead battery is just a function of not turning the batteries off (If you don't have a battery switch, you should get one. Even if you only have a single battery).

 

[BleednBlue]

I had a similar problem. After taking delivery of my 2007 (about a year ago) the second time I lowered the hatch the fuse blew when the cover was about half way down. Replaced the fuse and had no other blown fuses since. I chalked it up to a faulty fuse :huh:

 

[highslice]

When I took delivery of our boat the captain was very specific about not hold the hatch switch on after the hatch is in the full up of full down position, or the fuse would blow. I have only had it happen to me once and it was when we were out on the lake with the hatch in the up position. I knew what it was immediately. I don't know what changed between 06 and 07, but it took less than a minute to identify the correct fuse and replace.

 

[LawyerMan]

The hatch fuse on my 2007 270 SLX has blown three times on me. Each time I think I held the switch too long.