Cranking Battery + PowerPole Issues

[Quarry Man]

I have an 07 Triton VT19. Boat has dual PowerPoles in the back and a 90 hp Optimax. The motor has never had any issues and always runs great. I have had some issues with my cranking batteries dying out on me. I am not sure if the powerpoles or other switches are constantly draining or what. I also need to replace the onboard charger and at least one of the motor heads on the powerpoles. Any thoughts?

[Jig Man]

If you have any modern electronics on the boat they are juice hogs.  You didn’t say what cranking battery you have.  If you have room for it a good 31 series agm with high ccas and 200+ reserve capacity might be what you need.

[Tennessee Boy]

I assuming you haven't changed anything like adding a new fish finder.  Here's what I would try to figure it out in the order I would try it.  

 

1- I would charge the battery with a different charger to see if it's the charger.

 

2- If the battery is old I would replace it.

 

3- I would disconnect the power poles from the battery and see if it fixes the issue.

 

 

[Way2slow]

It's a very simple issue to trouble shoot, "IF" you know how to use a multimeter.  If you have one and know the basics of how to use it, let me know and I can step you through how to trouble shoot it.

Without knowing your capabilities, I would first suggest having the battery professionally tested.  
Anything more than that, requires a multimeter.

[gim]

Aren’t power poles run through a pump and hydraulics? Seems to me that battery power has nothing to do with the use of power poles.

[MN Fisher]

6 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Aren’t power poles run through a pump and hydraulics? Seems to me that battery power has nothing to do with the use of power poles.

Gotta power the pump...

[gim]

10 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Gotta power the pump...

Good point.

[Quarry Man]

The battery is new. I took the boat to a reliable bass boat shop and they told me something is slowly draining the batteries. It has trouble starting after not running it for two weeks. The electronics are run to a separate battery. When I disconnect everything after use manually, it seems to start just fine after.

[Way2slow]

Back to my original question, do you have a multimeter?  Ain't no way to look at a wire and see what the electrons are doing in it, so you need a meter to be able to tell what's going on.  

With a meter in the current mode, you can put it in line with each wire and see which one's drawing current and how much.  Takes all the guessing out of it.

[Quarry Man]

Just now, Way2slow said:

Back to my original question, do you have a multimeter?  Ain't no way to look at a wire and see what the electrons are doing in it, so you need a meter to be able to tell what's going on.  

With a meter in the current mode, you can put it in line with each wire and see which one's drawing current and how much.  Takes all the guessing out of it.

I think my dad would have one. My boat is at the lake and he is at home. Im at school right now too haha.

my plan is to go home tomorrow and get the boat ready and likely end up taking it to the shop.

[Way2slow]

If you can get one that has a current mode, (most do) we can isolate the problem.  Without one, everything would just be guessing.  I don't like guessing, wastes lots of time and money.

[WRB]

Totally agree with Kieth. 

Does your boat have a battery 50 amp switch to isolate the batteries when charging? This prevents voltage where it’s not needed and protects the engine computer.

The problem could be simple like a light switch is on or more complicated. The meter will indicate current flow.

Tom

[Quarry Man]

3 minutes ago, Way2slow said:

If you can get one that has a current mode, (most do) we can isolate the problem.  Without one, everything would just be guessing.  I don't like guessing, wastes lots of time and money.

I appreciate the help. I wish I could store the boat indoors as that would certainly help. I plan on taking a look soon and reporting back

[Way2slow]

There is a redneck way of trouble shooting it, but it's not as good or accurate as using a meter.  Get you a 12V, 5-Watt bulb in a socket or with some way of attaching wires to it so when you stick the wires across the battery terminals, the bulb will lite.  Be sure it's close to 5 watts, it takes approximately 500 milliamps to make a 5 watt bulb burn bright, and I figure if it's pulling the battery down in a couple of weeks, it's going to take a load of a few hundred milliamps.  

Now, to troubleshoot the problem, start at the battery positive terminal and take the wires off.  One at the time, connect the bulb between a wire you took off and the battery positive terminal.  If there is no load on that wire, the bulb will not burn, if something is drawing current the bulb will burn.  If it burns bright, then that load is at least 500 milliamps or more, if it barely burns, that means it's drawing a load but only a few milliamps but probably not enough to discharge the battery in a couple of weeks.  A good example of this is, if you have a radio in the boat.  The keep alive wire for the radios memory circuit will draw current all the time, but not enough to cause the battery to discharge in a couple of weeks.   

There are two things that I commonly find that can cause this, the voltage regulator and the onboard charger.  Charging system have a circuit in them that's supposed to only let current flow in one direction, from it to the battery.  If this circuit goes bad and shorts out, it will let the charging system draw current off the battery when it's not charging.   There are a number of other things also, a stuck relay, faulty switch etc. 

This little redneck method will get you going in the right direction as to finding the problem.  There should be nothing on the boat that will make that bulb burn bright when everything is turned off, so if you find a wire that makes it burn bright, or even half bright, there's a problem with whatever that wire connects to.

Now, once you find a wire that makes if burn bright, you have to follow that and see if it branches off to other wires.  If it does, you will have to do the same thing, disconnect those wires and check them one at a time until you have followed it all the way to the source of the load.

Understand, this may get a little frustrating and take some time, but think about the fact that if you don't find it, you are going to be paying some boat shop about $100 an hour to do it for you.  The pisser about that, a lot of them don't know how to troubleshoot it like we are doing and just keep swapping out parts they think might be causing the problem until they find it. So not only are you taking it in the shorts for the labor, you are getting a double whammy paying for parts that might not be bad.

 

I will also say, I'm not fully convinced it's not the battery.  I run two batteries in parallel in my 2500HD.  Last year if it sat a couple of weeks, it would not crank over.  Both batteries were new AGM's but one was bad and pulling the other one down with it.

[TOXIC]

Remember, gps enabled sonar units will have a constant draw.  Have you checked your trolling motor?  How is it wired and what is your full battery setup and what is run to what an what are the battery sizes?  Obviously as has been said, a multimeter can be your friend but there are a lot of possibilities.  I have 2 breaker shut off switches.  1 for my trolling motor and 1 for the main power to the boat.  With both shut off all 4 of my batteries are isolated to the charger.  Is your charger showing your batteries at full charge? 

[BassHRL119]

I didn't ready every reply, but you need to wire your boat properly. Every accessory should be to a breaker or at least a battery on/off switch.

 

Your battery draining is one issue. But another issue is you are essentially charging you power pole when you are charging you battery. This isn't good at all. The circuit boards do not like this. Ask me how I know LOL.

 

 

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, BassHRL119 said:

I didn't ready every reply, but you need to wire your boat properly. Every accessory should be to a breaker or at least a battery on/off switch.

Battery on/off switch should be the first thing in the sequence - then to a fuse/breaker box and each item should have it's own fuse/breaker...one for the Power Poles, one for the bilge pump, one for the lights, etc-etc-etc. Switches between the fuse/breaker and item would also be a good idea.

[Krux5506]

Is there an easily accessible in-line fuse for the power poles you can just pull when not in use? Yes I know it's not ideal but it'll keep your battery from dying in the meantime. 

[Jig Man]

I have several things that draw power even when turned off.  I have a switch that shuts off all power to the boat.  Maybe you should get one.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-9001E-Battery-Switch/dp/B000K2MCR2/ref=asc_df_B000K2MCR2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312065655587&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8890764982190753112&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1020569&hvtargid=pla-485863562837&psc=1

[TOXIC]

Just a side note, I do leave the main power to the boat turned on when I leave the boat in the water for an extended period of time.  That allows my auto bilge to work. 

[Way2slow]

There are a number of workarounds, but none of them are as good as finding and fixing the problem.  Usually, problems don't fix themselves and can grow to be a bigger problem later.  So, why not just go ahead and find the problem and fix it.

Yes, there may be items in the boat that might have a constant current draw for keep alive power, but none of those should have enough of a current draw that it discharges a good battery.

Maybe I'm old school, but I don't like doing band aid fixes, band-aid have a tendency to come off, and at the most undesirable time.