Power Issue with 2005 342 Fiesta Ve

JulesBell

Hi! Just had my boat launched and everything worked fine in terms of power both with shore power and when just pulling from the batteries. I did notice my DC voltage was barely at 8V when connected to shore power, but jumped to 13v when off of shore power. The next day, I only had the stereo running and when I flushed the toilet all power went off. I flipped the appropriate breakers off/on but no power. The DC was showing the same level of voltage. I am thinking it could be a blown fuse, but not sure how to find the fuses and the one(s) that could be blown. Any suggestions?

skennelly

What kind of time frame are we talking.  Did the batteries drain down prior to connecting to shore power...than the chargers got them back up to 13v?  Could be bad batteries or alternator.

JulesBell

It was like a 24 hour timeframe in which it worked then just stopped. I hooked up a batteryi reader which showed my 2 largest batteries weren't great so I replaced them. The two smaller batteries read well. 

skennelly

Depending on how your batteries are wired up...a bad battery will drain power from the good ones.  Your boat has an isolator that should prevent that...but again now sure how your wired or perhaps the isolator is bad as well.

JulesBell

Makes sense. We checked especially after putting in the new batteries. My best guess is I blew a fuse since everything shut off at the exact time I flushed the toliet. I have a breaker in my canin but no clue how to find out if it's a bad fuse. That doesn't explsin tho why the DC voltage is slow when connected to shore power.

Black_Diamond

It won’t be a fuse. An internal short in the battery will do that under load. A battery tester (with a load) will show if so. 

Ian

Have a look around for any popped circuit breakers, these are small white discs that “pop out” when tripped. I am not sure if there are any fuses apart from a couple in the engine room for trim pump and starter perhaps, everything else is clickable or pop out breaker/overload.

8v when on shore power and up to 13v when off tells me your charger isn’t well, it’s loading things down and may be the root cause.

JulesBell

I had the batteries tested for voltahe, crank and if they were losding and it all looked good. I only have a few of the white push in fuses for the cabin and I pushed all those in. Pulled out the breaker and used an electrical tester, it would spike to 6.9 then go back to 0.0 and repeat. I'm now thinking maybe there is a short somewhere. I was told the toliet flush could have sent such a surge it could have shorted something. So frustrating lol

Black_Diamond

So you have no DC power to the cabin at all?

JulesBell

I did but now nothing is turning on even when it shows 13v. AC side works fine.

Liberty44140

Is your battery charger on and working?

JulesBell

It's on and on the AC side which is working. So I assume it's working but not sure how to confirm it is.

Ian

As I mentioned above I feel you have an issue with your battery charger, especially when you had 8v there when on shore power and 13/13v when off. This points to the charger loading the batteries. With all respect, it doesn’t sound like electrical circuits are a strong skill area for you and I suggest having someone check the charger out. Are you at a marina/boat club where there is a tech or others that can fault find electrical issues?

JulesBell

Electrical is definitely not my skill set lol. I actually made an appointment to have someone come look at it. Hopefully they find the issue quickly.