Engine Hatch

kordo

I have looked through past posts and learned a lot about the engine hatch and how to activate it when you have removed your batteries.  Unfortunately, I am one of the few who cannot get his hatch to go down using the emergency posts near the transom.  It will go up with no problem using my jump start battery, but not down.  My questions are:

1.  If I connect to shore power and turn on my charger without the negative terminals on my batteries connected, will my charger blow up?

2.  Will my charger supply 12v power to my house loads, specifically the engine hatch without the negative terminals on my batteries connected?

3.  Is there some other work around?

Thank you.

Handymans342

You have to reverse the positive and negative to make it go down

Handymans342

The answers to 1 and 2 should be a no

RustyS

I struggled with mine as well @Kordo.

Reversing the polarity did not work with mine as everyone likes to say is the solution. There are some type of a diode or something on back side of those terminal studs; I think mine (and yours) are bad in a way that we only have up.

My solution ended up being tapping in 2 wires directly to the hatch motor wires on the transom, then feeding the wires out rear where the scupper is at hatch. Then I hooked to my battery. Then the reverse polarity will work for you. I intend either removing or doing a more professional job in the spring, but got this to work in the pinch of time I was in.

Make sure you use fairly heavy wire like 8 or 10 gauge; it gets kinda warm through the complete up or down cycle!

Good luck!

Handymans342

RustyS said:

I struggled with mine as well @Kordo.

Reversing the polarity did not work with mine as everyone likes to say is the solution. There are some type of a diode or something on back side of those terminal studs; I think mine (and yours) are bad in a way that we only have up.

My solution ended up being tapping in 2 wires directly to the hatch motor wires on the transom, then feeding the wires out rear where the scupper is at hatch. Then I hooked to my battery. Then the reverse polarity will work for you. I intend either removing or doing a more professional job in the spring, but got this to work in the pinch of time I was in.

Make sure you use fairly heavy wire like 8 or 10 gauge; it gets kinda warm through the complete up or down cycle!

Good luck!

Good Catch. My boat works like that so I guess I dont have the diodes

kordo

RustyS, thank you.  I'll try your method, sounds easier than monkeying with diodes.  The reason I thought I might be able to use the charger without batteries is because the manual says that I don't have to use a jumper if there is an empty bank.  Doesn't say what happens if all the banks are empty.  Thanks again.

Ian

Why would there be diodes? It's a DC motor so whatever way connected will drive the motor accordingly. Sounds like some other connection or motor issue. And yes, it can go one way and not the other.

LaRea

It's up-only for a lot of our boats, including mine.  

Another alternative is to close the hatch, then open it by hand to remove the batteries.  (Remove table base, reach into engine room through the hole, disconnect pin at top of actuator.)

Willhound

Hmmm. Interesting. I wonder why some would be one way only. My old 2000 FV270 goes both ways. I just did it yesterday when I pulled the batteries for the winter. So much easier just hooking booster cables to one of the batteries and having the hatch go down. Not removing batteries is not an option in my opinion. "Maybe" if in heated storage and the charger can be left plugged in. 
I see it as a good opportunity to clean, di-electric grease and re-tighten connections every spring.

kordo

RustyS, I was at the boat today and checked the wiring on the engine hatch motor.  There is a quick connect very close to the motor.  The wires running into the connector look to be 10 or 12 gauge.  The wires coming out of the connector going to the motor are much smaller, 14 or 16 gauge.  I set up two 16 gauge wires and connected them to the existing connector, ran them to a jump start battery out of the engine compartment and low and behold, the hatch opened and closed just fine.  The wires did not get hot, which makes sense since the wires going to the motor are 14 or 16 gauge.  I can now close the hatch when my batteries have been discussed.  Hope this helps.