Carver Owners Forum

Hi Everyone,

Last year I bought a 1989 32 Montego.
Everything worked great. We put the boat back in the water about 3 weeks ago and everything seemed to be ok... until I tried to turn the heat on.

Before flipping the A/C/heat breaker "on" I had the main breaket on panel 2 "on" and the volt gauge was reading 110 volts. As soon as I flipped the A/C/heat breaker panel 2 went dead and I can't get it back. I run a Y splitter to the shore power inlets at the boat since my dock only has one 30 amp plug, which has not been a problem before. I tried switching the Y splitter to see if the problem moved to panel 1. The problem was still panel 2 is dead. I removed the panel and checked voltage with a meter and I have no power to panel 2.

The wiring diagram I have from Carver shows "dual shore transfer relays". My question is... wouldn't I only have those if I had a generator? I do not have a generator.

Does anyone know if there are hidden breakers somewhere? I feel like I've looked in every spot but there must be something I'm missing.

You're going to have to dig deeper with a volt meter to see if you are getting power to then main panel 2 breaker. If so a defective, breaker may be the cause. Check the wires behind the inlet as they may be getting bad due to arcking/poor connections over time. Things like this do happen after all this time, the boat is 32 years old now.

A good reminder to all with an older boat, check the wires at the inlet connection as these do go bad. Will not hurt the least to remove, cut away a couple inches and reinstall on a fresh lead. Most boat fires originate at this connection.

Welcome to the forum by they way.

I checked the back of panel 2 for 110 volts, there is no power at the panel. I pulled the inlet out and checked that connections also. Everything looks great at the inlet and I have 110 coming out of the inlet. Are there any more connection points or splices in the boat somewhere?

Not sure on your boat, maybe some solenoids for automatic transfer? Will let someone else more familiar with your boat take over from here.

My 405 has breakers at the shore inlet locations also

Yep, check for breakers at the cord connection. There may be 2 square covers. One for TV/phone, one with two breakers A & B. Push button type. er

I found those breakers on ours this weekend after pulling all of my shore power cords out for the first time. Found 5 inlets. Two were shore power, one for cable/phone and two were breakers. Each one had two 30 amp breakers in them. I need to start keeping a book of all the odd places there are those random breakers!

Like they have all said ....check the breaker at the shore power inlet where you plug in.

g36 wrote:My 405 has breakers at the shore inlet locations also

I don’t think builders were doing those breakers back in 1989, when the OP’s boat was built.

If you don't have a genny, you wont have the transfer switches. My 1988 27 montego had the 30 amp breaker above the shore power inlet. It was in a cubby, you really had to get down and look up to find it.
I assume you shut off the breaker for the a/c before reconnecting the power.
If you have a single 30 amp power supply at the dock, you most likely wont be able to run the a/c and water heater at the same time.