seadog42uk

The wiring on this boat is a complete mess of wires, all taped together with black tape, I have traced one side to the + on the leasure battery the other is taped to the wire leading off toward the - terminal on the starter battery. I will try and strip away the tape and follow the wire. If one wire should come from the +on the leasure battery where should the other be connected? There is a shunt on the - side which connects the BMV-501. At some time there must have been some form of split charging as there are several wires tapped up in the fuse cupboard. With the engine running the ammeter reads about 30 amps.

Help please, I am trying to sort out the wiring on my boat. At the moment I am trying to understand the wiring to the ammeter, a 0 - 60 dial, one side goes to the positive terminal on the leasure battery and the other to the negative terminal on the starter battery. Both are very heavy cables. They have been in place for the last 25 years. What should I do? Stuart

The nipple for adding more air is at the bottom with no room to connect a pump to add more air.

I hope someone can help, all the diagrams I have seen for installing an accumulator show the pipes at the bottom of the unit thus causing a pressure bubble at the top of the tank. However the accumulator on my boat has been installed the wrong way up with the pipes at the top of the unit. How can this work? Stuart

The engine is a JP3, the alternator was fitted at a boat yard four years ago, I think it was for a Ford Granada. I cannot see any name or reference on it. At the time of fitting I was told it was 110amps. My batteries are 1x 110ah starter and 2 x 200ah Gel leasure. There is one wire coming from inside the back of the alternator which connects to a Kestral Controller. I do not have a tacho.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a basic wiring diagram showing the wiring from the alternator? The wiring on mine is a complete dogs dinner and I feel the only way is to start again with the proper size cables, so help please? Stuart

Thanks for the reply, it would seem that my batteries are about done in. Following your advice I have adjusted the Ah and find that my 400Ah are down to 115Ah. The state of charge reading is now about right, new batteries before winter I think. Stuart guote name='Top cat' timestamp='1316460844' post='751669'] I got round this by reducing the battery bank capacity factor untill the SOC and battery state of charge readings roughly agreed . In my case my nominally 440 Ah batteries are entered as 175Ah and that seems about right. Hope this helps TC

Is there a way to adjust the State of Charge(%) reading? Mine is at present showing 84.3% whereas the battery is about 60%. Stuart

It would appear that the rate of charge was set at 50amps when the Victron was installed. Should I reset the system to the default of 75% of available charge to make better use of the 100ampsr available? Stuart

I have a 200/100/12 Victron Inverter Charger, my batteries are two Victron 200ah Gel = 400ah total. My question is what rate of charge should my Victron be set at? Stuart

Thanks for your help. Stuart

The voltage was about 12.3, I don't know the alternator type but it was fitted new four years ago. We were running the engine for hot water for the washing machine, when inverter cut out the voltage was 11.6 with only 5amps from the alternator. After I removed the fuse from the unit the charge went up to 48amps. I cannot see how to remove tne controller as the wires go into the loom, do you think it will be OK to just leave the fuses out?

Help please, what engine oil should I use in my JP3 and can the same oil be used in the PRM gearbox? Stuart

I have one of these controllers fitted, it seems to have gone wrong as after a few minutes running it drops the charge rate down to about 5 amps. Yesterday I removed the two fuses from the unit and obtained a full charge rate. Does anyone know anything about these units? Stuart

Has anyone had problems with getting petrol in cans from garages? In North London the garages have been told by the police only to sell petrol to cars, in order to stop petrol bombs. Looks like I will be running on gas until this lot is over. Stuart

As a Grand Prix fan can anyone tell me how I get connected to Sky? I have spoken to them but have been told that as I live on a boat I cannot have a system because I have no fixed phone line. Regards, Stuart

Can anyone tell me what voltage I shouild get from a new battery just supplied fully charged and not yet fitted? Regards, Stuart

Can anyone tell me what colour a gold licence should be for 2011? regards, Stuart

We have a 12volt Lec fridge, can anyone tell me how to change the light bulb? Stuart

I had to cut the pipe and fit a new tee-piece, the position of the joint meant that I could not get two hands on it. Thanks you all your advice. Stuart

Thanks for all your helpful advice, I will try again tomorrow. Stuart

I have a problem with a tee connector which has been knocked and now has a steady drip that I cannot stop. I have a spare fitting but cannot get the pipes to release from the joint, what is the knack of doing this, there is very little space to get at the connector. Regards, Stuart

Thanks everyone.

All your comments are welcome, please allow for the fact that my wife and I will be 70 this year and are not able to absorb some of the finer points of the chargeing system. I have always used the monitor to see how many ahours we have used during the 24 hour period and then run the generator or engine to run the charger to 0.0 hours and most of the time the charger goes to float. I was born on the boats in 1941 and worked with my family until 1963 and in all that time we only had oil lamps for lighting and later a very large battery charged from the engine. It was a complete eye opener to us when we returned to live on a boat in 1990. Regards, Stuart

Thanks everyone, I think we will look to having new batteries at some time this year. I run the generator until the inverter goes into float mode and reset the monitor at that point. Regards, Stuart