2000 carver 356 aft cabin batteries

[mjk1040]

Our 1998 355 AC/MY may be the same. The back two batteries are for the engines and house and the most forward one is just for the generator. However you have 3 red positive wires going to the back and I assume up to the battery switch up under the step. I'd say you better trace every thing out and make sure. Mike

[cpoint]

So, there is a single battery for gen, engines, and house. battery selector 1 is for batteries 1 and 2 (gen/engine start), and battery selector 2 is for house? I will check it out today, to see what I can figure out. Thanks Mike.

[mjk1040]

Well no, the 2 batteries toward the back in our boat are #1&#2 on the selector switch, they are both house and engine batteries. The forward battery is just for the generator in our boat, however you have a second positive cable running on yours to the back of the boat? Trace things out is your best bet. Your owners manual should shed some light on this subject. Mike

[Viper]

Do you have two battery selector switches? If so, is one of them just an ON/OFF switch? If it is, that is most likely to turn off the generator battery power and the other switch is to manage the engine and house power sources.

[Midnightsun]

It seems like boat manufacturers have no clue as to what the perfect battery layout is. I have had quite few boats and all differ substantially. This Carver I have now is pretty much up to snuff stock however, wasteful of battery power IMHO. I have dual 31 series AGM's for the port engine and stern thruster, dual AGM's for the starboard engine and strain thruster. Single 31 series AGM for the generator and a stupid single 31 series AGM house battery (what in the world were they thinking) which I replaced with dual Trojan 16L-H 6v 435 amp/hr batteries. Although they go most of it right I cannot believe they give you only a single battery for the houses bank!

[Viper]

I'm not crazy about that setup. The thruster batteries should be isolated from the engine ones IMO. Engines are usually running when operating thrusters, so as those batteries lose capacity over time, voltage will eventually drop enough during thruster operation to piss off the engine's CPU. They don't like that.

[cpoint]

Qr Bbpost Do you have two battery selector switches? If so, is one of them just an ON/OFF switch? If it is, that is most likely to turn off the generator battery power and the other switch is to manage the engine and house power sources.

Yes forward (near generator) there is a battery switch ON/OFF only. Under steps there is a switch 1/2/BOTH/OFF. So 1/2 is middle battery and back battery (under charger). That one has additional cables (3 of them) for black connection. So middle one must be #1, back one #2.

[cpoint]

Well I replaced all 3 batteries with same NAPA 8270 today. Not the easiest place to work though, that I can tell you Now I need to figure out whats the best way to handle the settings on battery switch. Every time I think I get it, I keep getting confused. With weather getting colder, I think I will shut off refig when not there. I guess I can shut down DC switch on wall and battery switch OFF. That should make sure only bilge pumps to work if need be. I still need to figure out in my boat bilge and battery charger will still work if battery switch is OFF. Also I think dock power charger, charges all 3 batteries, sequentially or concurrently. Or if I have everything off (DC off), do I need to put battery switch OFF? because nothing should be drawing power.

[Viper]

From the picture you posted before, I don't see any smaller positive charge wires going to the batteries so I would assume that the charge wires are hooked up to the battery switches as in many OEM installations. If they were wired properly it doesn't matter if the switch is OFF, the batteries will still charge and the bilge pumps will still work.

If you don't want anything powered up, turn off both the main breaker at the panel and the battery switch. This doesn't get you off the hook though, as mentioned before, you don't know what a previous owner did, they may have by-passed both the panel and switch. With those two switched off, just go around and try powering up all your DC loads, everything. If something powers up, you'll know it by-passes your mains. As long as these by-passed items are shut off though, you should be okay. You may have insignificant loads powered up all the time even with all switches off like the radio that will draw a tiny amount to keep things like presets in memory. Depends on how these sorts of loads were wired up.

[cpoint]

Thanks viper, I will try what you suggest. One hopefully last question on this subject, the shore power and battery charger, will the battery charger charge all 3 batteries, regardless switch is 1/2/OFF/ALL? Because I spend more time on dock than on water, so if I leave #2 (house battery), and dock power, battery charger on, will it charge all batteries, or #2 only? if on water, alternator will charge the same as dock power (with generator off)? And assuming generator on water, is same as dock power on charging while at dock?