Engine hatch won’t open

AtlanticJim

After all going well with our new to us 2005 FV, yesterday the engine hatch wouldn’t open. I could hear the lift motor working when I hit the down toggle but nothing on the up side. 

After some pondering I started the engines and waited a few minutes … success! 

So I’m going to assume, without digging into schematics, that the lifter is run off the starting batteries. 

At the time it wouldn’t work I had the Shore power connected and the battery charger turned on. I checked the battery charger and the lights indicated it was working. As I recall, I had raised the hatch using no batteries, just Shore power and the battery charger when it was on stands and I was inspecting it. 

How would you address this problem?

Liberty44140

How old are the batteries?

AtlanticJim

Liberty44140 said:

How old are the batteries?

Not sure, came with the boat this year.

AtlanticJim

One of my friends. Owns a marina and shop, claims that the chargers eat batteries. 

Liberty44140

Modern chargers do not eat batteries. Mine are original from 2007 and don’t damage my batteries. If your batteries are 3 or more years old, I’d start there, I usually get 4 or so summers out of batteries. 

LaRea

Yeah, this forum has not seen evidence that chargers eat batteries.  Most of our members leave the charger on all the time, as I've done for the last 25 years with no problems.  If it's a lead-acid battery, you have to maintain the water level.  

It's curious that your motor would move down but not up.

Ian

Likewise, another instance of bad information, seems he wants to sell batteries/chargers. You should have date stamps/stickers on the top of the batteries.

MarkB

Batteries got to be low voltage ... with engine running, probably the alternator providing enough voltage to lift that hatch.

JoeStang

Agreed, mine will struggle to lift up with low charge batteries, down works like normal to almost zero charge left.

YYZRC

Pics are almost always helpful.

mattie

@AtlanticJim ..........my vote as well is that your batts are toast.

Batts are good for 3 seasons - after that, any additional years are a bonus. 

Generally, the only critical setting on chargers is the battery 'type'. If not set properly to Lead Acid, AGM, etc, that will definitely shorten batt life.
Smart chargers - charge at different rates based on setting type.

Willhound

And the newer models don't even have a selector switch. They automatically sense the battery type and set themselves accordingly.

raybo3

Not so fast on bad batteries. On my lift hatch it would go up very slowly but no problem coming down (it also went up a little better when the engines were running). Did this for a while, then one day it slowly went up about a foot and would not go up anymore or come down. It failed completely. Motor was toast. Ordered a new lift from Amazon (Progressive Automations #PA-04-20-400) and a couple hundred bucks later and it works perfect. 

MarkB

raybo3 said:

Not so fast on bad batteries. On my lift hatch it would go up very slowly but no problem coming down (it also went up a little better when the engines were running). Did this for a while, then one day it slowly went up about a foot and would not go up anymore or come down. It failed completely. Motor was toast. Ordered a new lift from Amazon (Progressive Automations #PA-04-20-400) and a couple hundred bucks later and it works perfect. 

You didn't pop a breaker? Normally a bad motor will start drawing high amps, and pop the breaker ... especially if it's trying to turn but it can't ... it will overheat fast and amps will go through the roof.

mattie

Another good thread. Good reason for the forum.

@AtlanticJim keep us posted.

raybo3

MarkB said:

raybo3 said:

Not so fast on bad batteries. On my lift hatch it would go up very slowly but no problem coming down (it also went up a little better when the engines were running). Did this for a while, then one day it slowly went up about a foot and would not go up anymore or come down. It failed completely. Motor was toast. Ordered a new lift from Amazon (Progressive Automations #PA-04-20-400) and a couple hundred bucks later and it works perfect. 

You didn't pop a breaker? Normally a bad motor will start drawing high amps, and pop the breaker ... especially if it's trying to turn but it can't ... it will overheat fast and amps will go through the roof.

Nope it didn't pop the breaker or blow a fuse. I thought it was going to be the switch. Bypass the switch and still didn't work. New one works great. Now I am not saying that @AtlanticJim doesn't have a bad battery I'm just saying that it could be something other than a battery. 

AtlanticJim

raybo3 said:

MarkB said:

raybo3 said:

Not so fast on bad batteries. On my lift hatch it would go up very slowly but no problem coming down (it also went up a little better when the engines were running). Did this for a while, then one day it slowly went up about a foot and would not go up anymore or come down. It failed completely. Motor was toast. Ordered a new lift from Amazon (Progressive Automations #PA-04-20-400) and a couple hundred bucks later and it works perfect. 

You didn't pop a breaker? Normally a bad motor will start drawing high amps, and pop the breaker ... especially if it's trying to turn but it can't ... it will overheat fast and amps will go through the roof.

Nope it didn't pop the breaker of blow a fuse. I thought it was going to be the switch. Bypass the switch and still didn't work. New one works great. Now I am not saying that @AtlanticJim doesn't have a bad battery I'm just saying that it could be something other than a battery. 

So I was there today and ran the engines for a while but couldn’t lift the hatch. I thought maybe the switch? 

I pulled the helm panel and disconnected and reconnected the switch and then it worked. I’ve been having trouble with things at the helm electrically, one of the Garmin displays is out. My VHF is out. A marine electrician said if it’s Rinker it’s probably bad grounding. Ugh. I’ll need a day just to get through the nest of wires in the helm to trace this out. 

J3ff

Mine barely makes it using the switch on the dash. 80 percent of the time I have to use the posts and a jump box. Even after replacing the switch

LaRea

Grounding ... a bunch of us have reworked that 1000-connector ground block in the engine room.  It's an easy DIY project, or not expensive at commercial rates.  If you remove every connector, cut off the crimped fork terminals and replace them with proper heat-shrink ring terminals, you'll ward off a lot of future gremlins.  

aero3113

I removed every wire, cleaned the block and the terminal rings. I also gave each crimp a good tug to make sure they were tight. Then sprayed with terminal protector. I did this to the generator grounds and the grounds at the back of the engine blocks.

AtlanticJim

aero3113 said:

I removed every wire, cleaned the block and the terminal rings. I also gave each crimp a good tug to make sure they were tight. Then sprayed with terminal protector. I did this to the generator grounds and the grounds at the back of the engine blocks.

I've looked at that grounding block and honestly it doesn't look too bad, was it badly corroded before you renovated it?

aero3113

There were some that definitely needed to be cleaned.

aero3113

Definitely check each one to at least make sure the screw is tight.

LaRea

@AtlanticJim - Even if the ground block doesn't look bad, there are two issues.  One is Rinker's practice of shoving multiple wires into a low-quality crimp terminal.  The other is that there's no corrosion protection.  On mine, some of the wires pulled out easily with only a pound or two of tension.  

When I did my reno, I added a second terminal block.  I cut each wire back to get fresh copper, and installed a heat-shrink ring terminal.  I put no more than two ring terminals on each screw.  

Even if you don't have a ground issue yet, it's good preventive maintenance.

JoeStang

Good info guys, gonna check mine and add it to the list of fall projects. Would rather prevent any issues than try to deal with it mid-season.