Opening Engine Hatch

[JPringle]

Just put in new batteries. Must have an open circuit somewhere which ran them down because after 3 days, I don’t have enough juice to raise the hatch! Remained on shore power and the meter in the electrical box in the cabin shows that I’m getting power to both banks. Can I hook up a cigarette lighter to an external battery, plug it in and use the power from that battery to activate the hatch?

 

[boatrboy]

Just put in new batteries. Must have an open circuit somewhere which ran them down because after 3 days, I don’t have enough juice to raise the hatch! Remained on shore power and the meter in the electrical box in the cabin shows that I’m getting power to both banks. Can I hook up a cigarette lighter to an external battery, plug it in and use the power from that battery to activate the hatch?

Strange - all winter I completely disconnected my batteries and was able to lift the hatch with shore power only, once I flipped my battery rocker switches to on in the main panel. I had the converter switched on too. I have never tried the power plug yet so I can’t offer anything there except that if the circuit is open, imo, you won’t get power to the lift cylinders, but just guessing here.

 

[Sgrochow]

Just put in new batteries. Must have an open circuit somewhere which ran them down because after 3 days, I don’t have enough juice to raise the hatch! Remained on shore power and the meter in the electrical box in the cabin shows that I’m getting power to both banks. Can I hook up a cigarette lighter to an external battery, plug it in and use the power from that battery to activate the hatch?

Different year boat than mine. But for what it’s worth, I’ve opened and closed my hatch with the cigarette lighter plug powered by a 12 v jump pack. Did this when I pulled all the batteries out for replacements. Wanted to give them the cores when picking up the new.

 

[JPringle]

Good to know! Thanks! Another thought, the batteries I put in are AGM. Does the factory charger work on these?

 

[Sgrochow]

Good to know! Thanks! Another thought, the batteries I put in are AGM. Does the factory charger work on these?

Hi @JPringle, If you are asking me, I don't know the answer to the AGM/charger question.

 

[JPringle]

The first picture is the battery charger when I first put the batteries in. The second picture is after I turned the charger off at the switchboard and then turned it back on again. It shows it’s working with the power on and the steady green light. However, should the needle be showing some kind of reaction?

 

[JPringle]

BTW, I took a spare battery with jumper cables to the bus underneath the steering wheel, hatched opened up just fine. Duh!!