I know nothing new boat NO POWER!

[Floman]

Hi all,

I have a new to me 1982 sea ray Sundancer 260 it's in nice shape everything was working fine last month I have electric going to the shore power. Now suddenly I have no power in the boat except at the 110 outlets nothing else no ignition, no power anywhere. The battery charger has power but its meter is on zero? I currently have a different battery charger hooked up to one of the batteries any thoughts ???

[Simi 60]

Is it plugged in?
Have you turned it off and back on again?

[Tin Tin]

On limited information, it seems your main battery charger has blown a fuse or is kaput. If the temporary charger is working then you will at least see the volts going into the battery banks, however they too may be kaput depending on how far down they have been run.


Note that if you have left any 12V electrical equipment on whilst there is no battery charging then your batteries will slowly run down and may become useless. The electrical equipment that might be left on in a Searay without realizing it could be:


1. Mercruiser electric corrosion protector.
2. Any electronic equipment set in standby mode, eg chart, depth, radio, TV
3. Bilge water sensor
4. Carbon monoxide and LPG sensors
5. Engine room lights
6. Fridge
7. Water pump, with a small leak at the faucet or head.



It would be wise to fit a small solar charger to your boat in case 110V supply is interrupted while left unattended.

[SV Melody]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Have you turned it off and back on again?

Simi, that's just mean...


OP - Check your battery switches. Depending on who/how your boat is wired, the battery charger may be upstream of the switches so that if they are turned off, they do not allow charge current to pass through. Then the basic 12V loads like auto bilge pumps, small lights, or other such parasitic loads will easily drain off the battery over the course of a month if left unattended and not charging.


If you can access the back of the battery switches and have a meter, see if one of the terminals is hot when the charger is turned on. The charger will show 0 amps being sent if the batteries are disconnected - there's nothing wrong with the charger. If it doesn't sense a voltage below its threshold, it doesn't send charge current. That tells me the batteries aren't connected to it.



The AC outlets will be on an entirely different circuit that is directly tied to shore power, not an inverter from the batteries (apparently). My boat's set up like that at the moment, though I'm changing it over to onboard inverters later.... but that's beside the point of your question.


So:
1. Check position of the switches.
2. Verify shore power is connected and battery charger is ON.
3. Test terminals on back of battery switches with a meter, or, turn battery switches to the other position then look at charger to see if it is now sending charge current.
4. Please report back with your findings so we can learn something.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Is it plugged in?
Have you turned it off and back on again?

SV Melody
Simi, that's just mean...

Yeah, but it was pretty funny...

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Floman.
Battery switch turned 'off'?

[Floman]

Thanks everyone! I will try some of the stuff y'all mentioned. The battery switch is on for both batteries. I left my multimeter at another place so I am going to Walmart to get a meter and a better charger, need one anyway. My suspicion is that my on boat charger broke or blew and fuse, any guidance on checking the fuse and charger would be greatly appreciated guess I'll need to take the charger out it's tucked in pretty good

[Redline452]

Some "smart" chargers check for correct polarity before charging, and will not even attempt to charge a battery which has 0 ( or some very low value ) voltage. I've had to use a 12V "wall-wart" to boost up a battery to the point where the (130A!) charger would agree to take over.

[Squanderbucks]

Yours is not the first post by a new boat owner that “knows nothing” about their new boat. A lot of good info can be gotten from forums like this but that usually presupposes some fundamental knowledge about applying the recommendations.

For any new boat owner that also is not electrical or mechanical knowledgeable I would recommend getting a good knowledgeable friend to spend some time with you on your boat. Start at the basics like 12 v electrical learning where your switches, circuit breakers are Fuses to each nav device and then start on the other systems.
If you are not familiar with these basics you will always be one step from trouble. All of us here in the forum can verify that all boats break down or quit running correctly on too often occasions.
No amount of paid for service will keep you out of trouble because things break down when no one else is around.
Good maintenance keeps this to a minimum but it is always hovering in the background.
Get a good friend to boat with you that knows these things and learn from them. And stay on the forum to get tips.

[hlev00]

Have you looked for Sea Ray specific forums like this - Club Sea Ray


I no nothing about this one but they might be able to help with more Sea Ray specifics.

[jmschmidt]

The German word for dead is "tot" or "tote" kaput basically means "broken"

[Tin Tin]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

The German word for dead is "tot" or "tote" kaput basically means "broken"

Interesting, Kaput in English means Gef*ckt

[Bawlmer]

Walmart is probably not the best place to buy a new charger. If troubleshooting determines you need a new charger there are some nice ones out there (Sterling Pro Ultra, etc) for less than 300.00. Get educated before you bust out your checkbook.

[Floman]

Update, I had a battery that was so dead that initially, my backup charger didn't even detect that I had hooked up a battery I had to put a trickle charge on it just to get a few volts in it once I did that I was able to use my regular charger to charge it overnight. Hooked up the battery and the boat came to life so now I know the battery that went dead but still don't know if the battery is bad or the boat's charger is bad. Once I charged the battery and put it back in the boat the onboard charger started working again and everything seems fine, but there has to be problem somewhere my next step is to take the battery somewhere and have it checked. Can a bad battery make a charger not work?

[stormalong]

Originally Posted by Floman

Update, I had a battery that was so dead that initially, my backup charger didn't even detect that I had hooked up a battery I had to put a trickle charge on it just to get a few volts in it once I did that I was able to use my regular charger to charge it overnight. Hooked up the battery and the boat came to life so now I know the battery that went dead but still don't know if the battery is bad or the boat's charger is bad. Once I charged the battery and put it back in the boat the onboard charger started working again and everything seems fine, but there has to be problem somewhere my next step is to take the battery somewhere and have it checked. Can a bad battery make a charger not work?

Batteries that have been discharged to zero are usually toast. You may get caught out with a dead battery. Suggest you diagnose why it went flat, fix it and then replace the battery.