Question on 2-Bank Charger

[RHuff]

 

My 2008 Triton VT 17 Tourny Sport came with a Dual Pro XL 2-Bank Charger. I only run a 12-Volt setup with one cranking and one trolling battery. My question is this: Will my Mercury 2-Stroke outboard charge my batteries while it is running? I tried plugging the back of the boat in, but no lights or any type of activity seems to be going on with the onboard charger. How can I see if it is working? 

[Scott F]

The on board charger needs to be plugged in to a 110 volt outlet. The motor will charge the starting battery, but not the trolling motor battery.

[RHuff]

How do I know if the outlet is 110 volts lol? I just used my standard outdoor outlet off the back of my house.

[iabass8]

your outboard, if working properly, will charge your cranking battery but short runs and lots of fishing/running electronics/pumps/etc won't fully charge your battery unless you make a long(ish) run to fully charge it. Plug it in at the end of the day. there should be a power cord coming from the on board charger or a receptacle built into the boat for the charger that the cord runs to. plug that in. if you're not getting anything you may want to examine the charger itself.

[fishnkamp]

The standard receptacle at your house will be 110 volts. Start by chasing the wires coming out of the charger. There will be a 110 volt ac lead that will either have a 3 prong ac plug on it or it will ron over to a onboard ac receptacle ( that may be what you meant by plugging in the back of the boat). It might be someone replaced the charger and the new 110 ac wire coming out of the Dual Pro Charger may no longer go to that plug in the boat.   Now there will be two sets of 12 volt wires coming out of the charger. One set will go to your trolling motor battery. The second should be going to the engine cranking battery.  These wires must be hooked up to the batteries or nothing will happen. No lights will light.  I suspect the 110 volt ac line no longer goes to the plug in the back of your boat.  Make sure to plug something like a lamp or a radio just to test your extension cord and the house outlet have ac coming out of them. You could be on a circuit breaker that tripped.  Possibly when you tried your charger.

[RHuff]

 

The breaker is good and your correct in that there is a chord running from the charger out the back. At the end of this is the male end 3 prong plugin. I plugged it into my extension chord (which is good) and I looked up online that it should light up green, yellow, and red lights depending on the level of the batteries. I see the light panel on the charger but nothing lights up when I plug it in. 

[iabass8]

6 hours ago, RHuff said:

 

The breaker is good and your correct in that there is a chord running from the charger out the back. At the end of this is the male end 3 prong plugin. I plugged it into my extension chord (which is good) and I looked up online that it should light up green, yellow, and red lights depending on the level of the batteries. I see the light panel on the charger but nothing lights up when I plug it in. 

Kind of silly but you do have the charger hooked up to each battery right? Theres a positive and negative lead for each bank. 

[RHuff]

Yes both leads are attached to both batteries

[WIGuide]

Are you sure they're on the correct posts? I believe the chargers have reverse polarity protection so if they're on backwards it won't turn on. Black to - red to +. 

[iabass8]

2 hours ago, WIGuide said:

Are you sure they're on the correct posts? I believe the chargers have reverse polarity protection so if they're on backwards it won't turn on. Black to - red to +. 

Ive done that Once on my dualpro.  I believe the bank just flashed a single red light when hooked up incorrectly. Mine is the 3bank/15a so it could be different than his. 

OP, did you plug anything else in to the outlet your ex. Cord runs from? Ive had mine go bad. Verify the outlet is good.  your charger hooks up identical to mine. I run a heavy duty ex. Cord to the boat and plug it in. As long as its hooked up correctly, your outlet, cord, or charger is bad. Sounds like outlet or cord leaning more towards outlet. Unit being dead would be strange but possible.

[Puggz]

In an answer yes it will work fine and thereès a way to protect the cranking battery from discharge.  Its call an Automatic Charging Relay. If you want to know how to do it just send me a PM.

 

 

[RHuff]

SUCCESS! Thank you guys for all of your assistance. Not gonna tell you what the problem was because I feel like a fool lol

[iabass8]

18 minutes ago, RHuff said:

SUCCESS! Thank you guys for all of your assistance. Not gonna tell you what the problem was because I feel like a fool lol

It usually is something stupid. Glad you got it squared away.

[fishnkamp]

Oh come on tell us,  so we do not do ourselves!  We all make dumb mistakes  and the suspense is killing us Truly we are glad you figured it out. Around here it is less about  "all knowing: and much more about  "all helping"  each other.  That and a little friendly jab int he ribs once in awhile LOL

[RHuff]

Been having trouble with the starter the last few days. Even took it out a time or two, launched it, and couldn't ever get it to start. Was planning on taking it to the shop on Saturday. I had the batteries wired in wrong. Had the positive wire running from the outboard to the cranking battery wired but forgot the negative. It was tucked down out of sight. After wiring everything correctly, motor starts right up and charger now works... I guess the starter was only getting partial volts that wasn't enough to turn the fly wheel. Oops LOL...

[fishnkamp]

Glad you found it without blowing up anything.  The VT17 is a sweet boat. The current boat my wife and I own is the 11th boat in 40 years.  We were setting a boat up to fish a specific lake about 30 minutes away from our house. It was a mid sized lake with a 20 hp max so we had to find just the right boat. After looking at all kinds we ended up choosing between a VT17 and a Lowe Stinger 170. We ended up getting the lowe but I still love the VT17 and VT19's which are now Crestliner VT's and Lowe HP's  Funny Lowe bought the line when our boat became 1 year old! The dealer was really confused by my laundry list when we came in the first time. We had them install a PT35 trim/tilt plate, my Merc 25 detailed up like a 20, a 5 inch smaller pitch prop and a stingray jr hydrofoil. The boat setup that way came out level and did 17 mph. Since we now live on the Chesapeake Bay I replaced the 25 & trim tilt plate with a 75 HP Merc 2 stroke. It now runs 32 mph on the gps and has a slightly more aggressive hole shot.  I am curious my boat is a 2010 so we are very similar, what engine and what speed do you get out of the boat. 

[RHuff]

It's a 2008 Mercury 2-Stroke. The speedometer doesn't work but the gps on my phone says I run 32 mph at full throttle on calm water. 

[fishnkamp]

Cool! Thanks!  I was curious and you know what happened to the curious cat....