Carver Owners Forum

thanks, so now I am confused, so ProNautic 50 amp is not ok? like I said slow charge I am ok with. Also I was just checking shipment status, now shows "BACK ORDER" they have the 30amp and 40amp version ready to ship. So with 40amp, if it is charging only house battery because the other batteries are full, 40 amp should be more than enough to charge 1 battery, right? is that correct understanding? Also km, granted mine is 2000 model, does what you explain above apply to this old version you think?

It would be less than desirable for my boating but if you spend most of your time at a dock and aren't power hungry with your 12 volt systems then a 40 amp unit should suffice. If you spend a lot of time on the hook and want quick charges then higher output would be best, taking the size of your bank into consideration.

Bottom line, regardless of what you currently have, you must confirm that the existing wiring will handle full charger output through each one of the charge legs of the new unit if you're going with a ProNauticP Series charger. Check the length of the longest charge output circuit wires to the battery and back (pos/neg) then check what gauge it needs to be to handle full output and use that gauge for all output legs and your negative wire. You can go with one gauge smaller wire for bonding. If your existing wiring falls within this gauge or is bigger, then you're good to go. Consider that the location of the charger needs to be close enough to the house bank so that the temp probe can reach that bank's negative battery post.

He did mention he has a single house battery therefor it cannot be a very large bank. Even a 40a will be more than enough for his needs.

I agree with both Viper and MidnightSun's comments. A 40 should suffice because you have a single battery for a house, but I personally wouldn't recommend anything less than a 40. There are a lot of things on that size boat that can (and do) draw DC power (bilge fans, electric heads, refrigerator, lights, bilge pumps, marine radio(s), depthfinder, plotter, radar, stereo, fume sensors (CO and ex. gas), potable pumps, etc, etc). And you still need to have the ability to charge while providing power to those ancillary devices.

40 is "sufficient", 50 or 60 is better, and anything above that is just "preparation in case you get a larger house bank".

Viper thanks. Charger and batteries are within 2 feet of each other. Thanks for clarification.

Km, thanks understood.

The thing to keep in mind is the cost between different chargers is not that great so consider that down the road you may decide you need more batteries and you will have to do the charger refit all over again, so don't undersize based on that. You are free to do what you want obviously , all I am saying is consider it.

As I have already said, you have an 80 amp system there now so unless someone before has done something it will be an straight switch except for the extra bonding/case wire....follow the instructions.

To add....if you see any sign of corrosion on the wire/cable connectors ....good practice would be to change for new.....good luck.

Bud thanks for the advice/info. Since we got it back in 2016, it spends most time on dock. When we are out usually it's an hour or two out in water. And on carver 356, assuming all carver 356 same, has only space for 3 batteries. It's in center bilge. Charger is bolted on plywood on top battery 1. And as i said, never used gen, so battery on that is always off. I believe it still gets charged when needed even when off. But for that reason most used battery is house battery. And that gets used on weekends when we are onboard for a day usually. In the past we spend some weekends. But past 2 years or so we are there for day usually. So during the week everything is off. Only sensors are drawing current, which is minimal i am sure. So i am still trying to get 50 amp, will check on back order today. I mention 40amp in case 50 amp is not available this week. Because this week i have no charger want to make sure batteries are full. So i get nervous.

Also I am attaching some pictures I found and info on battery below. The old pic shows the AMP around 50 while it was charging I guess. I am not sure what it was charging how many it was charging at the time. Also old picture of batteries in their location. strange location bilge to put batteries in, but lucky for me, it's always dry.

Looks more like about 35, even accounting for parallax, but those little meters are not the best.....like you said you have now way of telling what was on at the time.

Question....do you have an inverter connected anywhere onboard ?

Nice and clean down there nIce....

bud37 wrote:QR_BBPOST Looks more like about 35, even accounting for parallax, but those little meters are not the best.....like you said you have now way of telling what was on at the time.

Question....do you have an inverter connected anywhere onboard ?

Nice and clean down there nIce....

Actually thats old pic, much cleaner now Not sure about an inverter. Not that I am aware of. Good news is west marine just said it is being shipped (50amp), so not going to 40amp.