Re: catalina27-talk: Battery / Electrical Problem

[Rspeers]

Caution: Wiring up the system incorrectly, then turning on the main switch can be very hazardous to the health of the boat and you!  I'd suggest that you buy a friend who knows electricity a six pack of beer or bottle of whatever, and get him to help you. Twelve volts will not electrocute you, but if one shorts the main wires together, you will get lots of current and heat. Too the batteries will heat up, and could expel sufluric acid. Not good!   Of course, you can get help professionally!   Actually the system is relatively simple, once you know how to work with it. It can pay off to learn about it so that when things go wrong when help isn't handy (in the middle of the lake, at dusk, etc.). The books from West Marine are good. I'd also suggest joining the United States Powere Squadron. Their purpose in life (besides parties) is education of their members. Experts in each squadron lead courses for the education of other members of that squadron.   The unusual thing about electricity (conpared with sails, paint, fiberglass, etc.) is that after visual inspection to locate changes from normal situations, you need to know how to use a meter to figure out what is wrong.  Corrosion and vibration can make electrical systems go bad, without visual signs of the problem.   Or what looks okay may not be.  For instance, the PO found it convenient to leave the lids off of the battery boxes and to store aluminum boat hooks in the same compartment. Sooner or later, he would have been in rough water, and the aluminum boat hooks would have shorted out the terminals of the batteries. He would have been surprised with noise and smoke!   In a power boat that I operate as a race committee boat, we ran out to the finish. It was a rough day, and got rougher. The boat bounced around a lot. After we finished the last boat, I tried to start the boat, and didn't get even a click. Nothing.   So up came the engine hatches and down I went to diagnose the problem and fix it, if possible. (For a true boater, only death and taxes is worse than calling for help from that tow boat operation.)   Low and behold, the battery boxes had been strapped down, but not the batteries in the boxes. The batteries had rattled around in the boxes, while the cables had been fixed between the lids and the boxes. The cables came out of the old clamp type connectors. Problem solved with a wrench.    Bob