daven5735
New Member
Now that I've got the ProNautic 1240 installed, I thought I would post the results and some opinions. First, my set-up is (3) Optima D34M Blue Tops. Two are wired in parallel for stbd engine, house and gen. The single is for port engine. So essentially a two-bank set-up. This is on my '99 310 Sundancer which I have had since new (Jan '99). Boat was delivered with standard grp 27 LA batteries that lasted just under two years. The next two sets were Optima Blue Tops like the new set I just installed with the charger. I have also gone through (2) Charles 5000 series 20A and (1) Guest 2530 30A chargers. This has really been frustrating with this thing eating through chargers and batteries but I believe with the help from Jim at ProMariner and some trouble-shooting and repair, I may have a set-up that should give me much better performance and life. I could write a dissertation on the trouble shooting and subsequent repair of some poor wiring connections which contributed to the failures as well as the poor installations of batteries and chargers that I paid the MarineMax service center to perform but I will let that one go. Suffice it to say I should have paid much closer attention to those things. Fast forward to the new install I just performed. As soon as everything was hooked up, the charger went to a full 40 amps, tapering back in stages over the next 3 hours or so to float mode. Sweet. Jim, your patience with my many questions and your knowledge of exactly what these AGM batteries need is something I wish I had discovered years ago. Even though the Optimas should do fine with a lead acid charger, the problem is they won't see their full potential when charged with the older 20A charging technology. What I didn't say earlier is that I had a factory reconditioned "spare" from Charles from the first burnout and had installed it last weekend when I installed the new Optimas. Everything was fine and after a couple of days the meter on the charger indicated a float of around 4-5 amps total. So when the ProNautic arrived and I get it installed I was really surprised when it took the full 40 amps for at least the first 30-45 minutes. These new batteries on the essentially new Charles spare really needed more than what they were ever going to get. Now they'll get it. I really wanted to go with Odysseys but the deal that Costco had on Optimas was too irresistible. I'm even thinking about installing a 4th battery to dedicate to the generator and would appreciate any opinions about that. The last question (chime in Jim if you're reading this) is whether or not I will need to change the ac panel breaker/rocker switch from the current 10A to 15A? So far the 10A hasn't tripped. By the way, the reasons I went with a ProMariner are: one, reading the quality feedback from Jim on this forum, two, I had called an engineer at Sea Ray to discuss the circuit design and he said they currently install ProMariners and three, I called and talked to Jim and got an education on what we really needed to do. Thanks again Jim.
Dave
North Texas
Dave
North Texas
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