battery charging questions?!?!?!

[kheid]

Well i have ran into my 1st problem on the boat wondering if anybody has any thoughts.I have a perko switch and always start the motor on battery 1 and have been running the boat the 1st few times out on battery 1 which is charging fine and the voltmeter on my gauges is always reading around 12 no problems there! Well my battery for all the lights, vhf ,radio,etc was a little low the other day so while running i switched the perko over to battery 2 to try and charge the 2nd battery and the voltmeter gauge read 0 which leads me to believe its not charging the 2nd battery? Anyway the voltmeter and gauges are connected via the plug in wire under the key switch and is hooked up fine, i have no power to the gauges till i turn the key on which is how it should be .I was thinking maybe the perko switch was bad on terminal 2 but dont really know. I dont want to keep charging the battery on land everytime i go out .......Any thoughts

[tsubaki]

Add to your signature the model, year and horsepower of the boat and motor.
Has the battery setup always worked fine, is this something new or are you just now noticing it?
Have you checked for the correct connections via the battery switch and batteries?
Very rough drawing:
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/1-2.jpg
From what I remember it is suggested to shut the engine off before rotating the switch , so as not to possibly damage the charging system due to a sudden spike.
Using a battery charger periodically is needed in most cases.
Some charging systems have a low output rate and the motor may need to run for 24 hours to achieve a full charge to the battery.

It almost sounds like the two batteries are not connected together with the negetive terminals.

[kheid]

1980 chris craft 211 scorpion.... motor is a 1985 235 johnson w/35a alternator. I have just put this boat in the water recently after much work. I rewired the whole boat and everything is working properly except this. The pos. from the motor is on the common and the positive from term 1 goes to term 1 on battery and pos. from battery 2 goes to term 2 on the switch, both negatives are connected from battery 1 to 2 so im pretty sure thats all hooked up right. I did think that you only have to turn the motor off before switching to off ,not between 1 or 2 but i may be wrong. Anyway the voltmeter reads correctly unless i switch to battery 2 which has me baffled. ....Im thinking the battery 2 was really low and i only charged it for a liitle bit that could that be why the voltmeter is not reading anything, so im gonna fully charge the battery this time and try it again ..... thanks tsubaki

[tsubaki]

Sounds like you got it.
Either the switch or a bad or low battery.
Let us know what you find out.

[bradford]

I'd check the battery, could have a cracked cell or something. Use a basic 12 volt test light or multimeter to see if you have any current at all. I run mine on the "both" setting all the time.

[kheid]

thanks.... its charging today will check it whenever i get out of the "hellhole" i call work

[macojoe]

Are both battery's the same?? I mean exact!! If you have a deep cyc and a regular, or size 2 and a size 6 (just example) the bigger battery could suck down the smaller battery or the other way around.
When you go home do you leave the switch on? If so this will also cause the more needy battery to take from the better battery.

I have start battery by its self, all eletr on the 2nd battery.ride out or in it is set for all to charge them, when fishing for long times with the motor off I switch to one so the other stays good for starting.

about once a month I hit it with the charger and I have had no problems, even when using the live well all day.

[kheid]

well I havent been turning that switch to off when im done with the boat for the day I will do that from now on. I left it on (battery 1) the other day and 3 days later thats when my smaller battery (battery 2)was almost dead ....good info ! My main battery (battery 1) for starting has always stayed charged havent had to hit that with the charger yet. So i should turn my switch off at the end of the day and go from there...... thanks.... hopefully tomorrow when i take it out i will get a charge to the 2nd battery from the motor and my voltmeter will read something! will see....

[willy]

it sounds like the only battery getting charged is the one, or your battery just may have died from lack of charge, age or chemical imbalance. Test meter it after charging it up off a a/c charger if possible and see what it does.

[tsubaki]

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http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/gifs/clear.gifhttp://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/batterytester.gif

[kheid]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh harbor freight my favorite store