Our
charging system has been very reliable for the last four years when we started our
circumnavigation but a problem has arisen that I can't figure out.
To charge our house bank of eight Trojan T-145 6-volt golf cart
batteries (slightly over 1,000 amp hours at 12 volts), we have the following systems:
1. Single-cylinder Kubota 6-horsepower
diesel that drives a 150-amp Delco Remy
alternator with a
Balmar Smart
regulator.
2. Our Kubota has two alternators, a 100-amp and a 175-amp. The 100-amp just charges the starting
battery and the 175-amp is wired to the house bank.
3. A brand new
Victron Phoenix MultiPlus 12/3000/120 inverter/charger.
4. Two
Kyocera 235-watt
solar panels with a Morningstar
MPPT controller.
About two months ago, we were anchored out and I was looking at our Xantrax LinkPro
battery monitor and I said to my wife, "The genset is running great!" And precisely at that moment, its output fell to zero amps (that should teach me to keep my mouth shut). We sent the
alternator in for
repair and when it came back, it would start to output its full rated amount but would quickly taper down to 50 amps or so.
What is odd is that our 175-amp alternator on the Kubota is doing the exact same thing. And our brand new
Victron will only output about 60 amps when it should be twice that. Our
solar panel appear to be working normally.
At first, I presumed it was the
batteries so I removed each battery cable and tested each battery independently with a battery load tester. Sure enough, one battery was bad so we replaced it with a new one of the exact same model as the rest (no small feat in Thailand). We still have the same problem. I have cleaned and tested all of the connections and all of the
cables are good.
Whereas I don't like to admit it, we are
power hogs and we easily go through 400 amps in a day (please, no lectures about this - I know how to solve that problem but the solution is completely impractical here and now). We are scheduled to start our
passage across the
Indian Ocean in about three weeks and our
electrical usage goes up with the running of the
autopilot and
radar. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Fair winds, calm seas and Happy New Year.