1991 Original Battery Setup (33 Aft Cabin)

[Howell678]

I got this boat last fall and have been slowly tackeling the many need projects and have not had a chance to get around to the batteries. This past weekend the Generator wouldn't start or turn over so the first thing I will check when I get back to it is the battery. That being said I guess I will tackley this next.

Does anyone know what the original setup was from the factory? How many batteries and what was wired to what. I hoping someone knows to save me the time of chasing wires and with the chance it may have changed over the years. My house boat has a cranking battery for each egine and the generator. I replaced the old style charger with a modern 3 bank battery tender. It then has two house batteries that has a 12v powersupply/battery charger combo. I have been happy with this setup and I am thinking of doing something similar on the carver. I know there are two battery switched under the stairs coming into the boat, but I haven't even had time to see how many batteries it has (though it doens't look like their is room for 5 where they are located.

Any help is apppreciated before I start chaising wires.

[bud37]

Welcome to the forum....my advice would be to chase the wiring and make a schematic. The reason is simple, you can never be sure of what previous owners and mechanics have done.

It may well be original, but will still require some looking into.....good luck with your investigations and hopefully someone with the same model can chime in.

[buster53]

As to how many batteries you should have, not trying to be flip, but open up your hatches and look. On my 356, there is only room for 3 batteries. I have a starting battery for the gen set and 2 deep cell batteries that handle both my house load and engine starting.
Some years ago, I had a 3807 and while we had the same 3 battery setup, if I recall, the battery compartment had room for 4.
I’m willing to bet $2 your battery compartment is designed for 3. FYI, my 356 is just a newer, slightly larger version of the 33’ aft.

As far as your genset not starting, my genset has its own on/off switch, similar to your basic, 1/2/Both/off, switch. Just maybe, that is your problem, switch not turned on…or the battery is dead.