AFD
Active Member
- Jul 29, 2012
- 1,250
- Boat Info
- 1997 Sundancer 290 The fat beam version
- Engines
- twins.
Starboard 5.0 alpha 220HP
Port 357 alpha 275hp
4HP Yamaha for Dinghy
I left the dock yesterday morning, boat packed with everything we own (it felt like), dinghy on the back, outboard in the cabin, cooler packed for the day, kids in pfd's, overnight stuff for the kids, and a plan for an actual fun day. we were going to travel about 45 miles and my mother was going to meet us and grab the kids for an overnight without kids for my wife and I. plan to party at the beach for the day then travel back 45 miles, dock and just relax. we got about 5 minutes in and a very minor bouncing in one gauge turned into all the gauges bouncing in sync except (ironically) the sync gauge.
the volt meters were both reading the same between 8-10 volts (bouncing), in the cabin on the 12 volt panel it was reading about 12.5 volts, 14 volts when it was on the charger at the dock.
I checked all the battery cables and they look fine and snug, no movement. all batteries were topped off 2 weeks ago but they were not very low at all they have also been on shore power the whole time except for when the boat is running or for a couple hours when we stopped for dinner.
Nothing has changed in the boat in the past week, we went out last weekend for an evening with some friends and everything was fine when we got back.
Now i assume that since all the gauges were bouncing that it is probably just a bad ground behind the gauge panel and that will be my first stop to look at tomorrow morning. i'm just looking for other suggestions. also, how do you check that your alternators are working without pulling them for testing?
my boat day lasted about 12 minutes and we had to turn around and unload the boat, reload the truck and drive down to my mother's house to drop the kids off and we still had a great day out with a friend of mine but did miss out on one of the best boat days in the summer
the volt meters were both reading the same between 8-10 volts (bouncing), in the cabin on the 12 volt panel it was reading about 12.5 volts, 14 volts when it was on the charger at the dock.
I checked all the battery cables and they look fine and snug, no movement. all batteries were topped off 2 weeks ago but they were not very low at all they have also been on shore power the whole time except for when the boat is running or for a couple hours when we stopped for dinner.
Nothing has changed in the boat in the past week, we went out last weekend for an evening with some friends and everything was fine when we got back.
Now i assume that since all the gauges were bouncing that it is probably just a bad ground behind the gauge panel and that will be my first stop to look at tomorrow morning. i'm just looking for other suggestions. also, how do you check that your alternators are working without pulling them for testing?
my boat day lasted about 12 minutes and we had to turn around and unload the boat, reload the truck and drive down to my mother's house to drop the kids off and we still had a great day out with a friend of mine but did miss out on one of the best boat days in the summer