2000 carver 356 aft cabin batteries

[g36]

+2 on checking the bilge pumps but they should opeate battery switch on or off
The best way to know how and to what your charger is hooked to is either visually follow the charger leads to the terminations being the batteries or the battery switch. You can also use a volt meter for this. Who knows if a previous owner or even the factory did them consistently for boat to boat. If the charger is multi bank then you could either verify or wire it so the battery switch could be off and still charge the batteries if that's what you want to do. My charger is to the batteries directly I don't turn my switches off and never use the battery switch unless I need to combine my batteries for emergency start. But I have been all through my system so I know what's being charged and by what.

[feeez]

Qr Bbpost I also have trojan golf car batteries as my house bank they are 7 years old this year. I have a victron battery monitor and do not go below 50% of my house capacity I have a golf car at home as we live at t h e lake and have gone cheaper there with a nock off battery they do not last li k e the trojan do. When these are gone trojan again for me.

I also have the victron monitoring my house bank. Do you remember what you set the capacity in amp hours at on the Victron.? I used 450.

Fraser

[cpoint]

Thanks, I will look for monitor as well. g36, so where do you keep your switch on since you do not turn it off or touch it? #1 or #2?

[g36]

If you have 4 trojan t105's then 450 is correct

[g36]

My switch stays on 2 .my port engines charges my house bank but that's just how i have set it up. moving it to both will combine house to help start if primary engine start battery is dead and 1 would feed house which I would not want.

[cpoint]

OK, I think I got it, for now I will keep it on #2 while on dock power, and while on water as long as I am there (while at dock, if I am not there while its on water that would mean its stolen ). If I am gone for more than few days, leave it OFF with only refrigerator running on dock power. If dock power cuts off, nothing to spoil and it will cut off load from batteries as well, so not draining the batteries. Leaving only bilge pumps to run if need be with OFF position at dock.

Assumption, will verify, while OFF position both batteries will still be charged and that bilge pumps are direct hooked to battery so they will run regardless of the off switch.

Concept is easy, but with you guys saying the manufacturer or previous owner may have screwed around with wiring makes me nervous

[feeez]

Qr Bbpost If you have 4 trojan t105's then 450 is correct

Thanks... that is what I have. I was very please to hear the how long they have lasted. That makes them a great value.

Fraser

[g36]

I believe they are a good battery too. I figure I take care of them they will take care of me. Watch your battery monitor ,keep them full of water and charged you should also have them for a long time too.

[Viper]

As mentioned, you never know what a previous owner or inexperienced tech may have done in the past but typically, the charger will still charge the batteries regardless of the battery switch position as they are usually hooked up to the source sides of the switch or directly to the batteries. This holds true for bilge pump operation as well. If you don't need any DC items running, then shut the switch off, just don't leave it on ALL.

[cpoint]

I went to replace the batteries yesterday, but too much wind, rocking like a cradle. Any case, can anyone confirm by picture or other carver 356 owners, what the setup should be (original, which I think is the case, pretty sure previous owner did not change things around), are the 2 top batteries in the picture house batteries, and bottom one is starter battery? bottom one has cables going into generator. based on this is the battery switch 1 starter, 2 is the two house batteries? and one both its all 3? or 1/2 on switch is house batteries one or two or both? I am assuming 1 is started battery, 2 is two house batteries.

2nd question, when I got to the boat I noticed the power bank 1 was off, maybe shore power went out briefly and tripped it off. And it stayed off. The refigirator was off because of that, not sure how much batteries were drained, I always kept the switch on BOTH. So I switched the power back on, and noticed the fan noise in the charger. It was indicating on the meter on top of charger about 30amps. I had not noticed the fan noise before. So I shutof battery charger from panel and fan noise stopped. I then turned it back on, and I did not see the needle move from 0 and no fan noise. Not sure by coincidence battery was already charged or now I have an issue with charger? Does anyone know if the charger needle stays on zero when batteries ar charged. Is this a smart charger, than it know when to turn on and off? The image is when it was charging. Later the gauge on charger was reading 0.