battery in winter

One more reason to love my old, stupid, mechanical diesels!
 
"That's exactly what I wanted to do. I went to West Marine yesterday and they do not have the 50 to 30 adapter. I found one on the internet "Charles". It's $200.00. A little pricey but what else is new. If it was for the home it would probably be no more than $50.00"

Since this is just for use on land...
If you are handy with wiring you can get just the boatside 50 amp connector either from a damage or discount rack and wire to the other end yourself as long as you can select the correct hot leg & neutral for the batt charger and wire the ground to a heavy duty all weather 20/110 connector for your extension cord.

"That sounds crazy, what happens when you need to replace your batteries?"
I have heard from mechanics that they use one of those jumper packs (portable batteries) to maintain power to the boat when changing boat batteries. This has also become quite common with new cars since the power is required for many of the learned and updated programs which will be lost without power.

"Hank, if your batteries are fully charged when you put the boat away, and the cables are disconnected - so there is no drain - there is no need to charge them over the winter."

FWIW - I checked resting battery voltages at 11 weeks after leaving the boat but before turning anything back on or starting the charger. The voltages were just about 12.49 showing approx. a 15% loss from a maximum charger when left in the fall. This is just about right on par with the above cited article from the Trojan battery folks. With colder weather I would expect the loss rate to decrease until next spring when it will again increase.

Hope this helps
 
quote:
Originally posted by smitty477

I was just doing this over the weekend - I Use a 50 to 30 straight adapter connected to my old 30 to 15/110V adapter attached to an extension cord.

Hope this helps

Click to expand...


I'm not sure I understand how this adapter works is it bridging the two hot legs? Or is it only connecting one and it is luck of the draw which circuits will work on the boat? I just tried to call for tech support but I missed them by a few minutes.

I'm hoping you can shed some light on this.
 
"I'm not sure I understand how this adapter works is it bridging the two hot legs?"

Based upon previous posts I was assuming that he has a 50/250 boat inlet/cord set which has two hot legs. But he only needs one leg to power the batt charger so the other leg is not required at all for this task. On my boat I connect the one leg I need and whatever other circuits are on that line do not really matter since I am only using it for charging. I can also throw one of two switches to power the other legs (parallel) but that has no value as I am only charging. So I go 50 amp adapter straight to a 110/20 amp plug to a heavy extension cord - during charging it pulls at most 5 amps.

Hope this helps
 
Smitty how are you selecting which leg is hot? Does the adapter open? Most adapters I have seen are sealed/potted and there is no way to open them.

Hank is about to buy a A5030S Charles 50 Amp to 30 Amp, 125V Straight Adapter I just can't figure out how this works I would love to see a diagram as to what is doing/connecting. I don't understand how they can sell something like this it just doesn't make any sense to me.
 
"Smitty how are you selecting which leg is hot? Does the adapter open? Most adapters I have seen are sealed/potted and there is no way to open them.?

Yes - absolutely they open up and on mine there are colored 'rings' around each opening where the stripped wire ends go in 'red' , 'white' , 'black' , and 'green' signifying the legs and ground connections. You can just buy the boatside connector alone without the wire and they come with a weather cover that slides over the connector itself after you wire it. I just happened to have a straight connector 50/250 then short straight pigtail wire to 30/125 that I used for a while.
Keeping in mind that your 50/250 boat wire or boat inlet splits into two separate lines once it is inside the boat we are just wiring one side to power the batt charger and maybe a light with the one side connection to an extension on land.
Sorry this was not last week I was just at the boat and could have taken a few pic of these to make the descriptions easier.
Hope this helps
 
Please Note - MY ERROR here in using the term 'straight adapter' instead of straight pigtail.

I apologize and have corrected to above posts to reflect the manufacturers correct terminology.
The connectors I have modified have always had a wire attached hence the 'pigtail' designation.
This is not to be confused with "Y" type adaptors which are also popular.
I was not familiar with the fact that some exist without any wire at all.

I have a link that should help describe the correct wiring or adapters.

http://www.catalina30.com/TechLib/Wiring%20Diagrams%20Boat/Marinco%20Boater's%20Guide%20to%20AC%20Electrical.pdf

Hope this helps
 
Thanks for responding I took another look at the straight adapter and realized it was a 125v and then it made sense and it was clear this was not an option. The only way I see to do this is to buy a 50/250 and wire it myself of course I would need to figure out which leg feeds the correct line for the charger circuit. This is a bit of a PITA but I guess at the end of the day it would work I'm just not sure it's worth the trouble or expense.
 
Great info but beyond my capabliities. I guess I'm better off just bringing my battery charger up to the boat rather then burning the entire marina down.
 
Hank this is now a challenge so I will have to figure something out:) The hard part or expensive part is a 50/250 female plug the rest should be fairly easy. Either we jump both hots and make sure you only turn on one branch at a time or only tie in one leg and trial and error as to which leg does the trick. This isn't rocket since but this is not for the novice when it comes to wiring.
 
"The hard part or expensive part is a 50/250 female plug the rest should be fairly easy"

Hello Dave - IF it is for an adaptor for charging and light work while you are on land perhaps consider some other options.
The plugs are often available much cheaper on ebay / non marine versions with covers are also available (electrical stores and online) / marine stores often have discounts on a straight pigtail if it is damaged (you dont need it all anyway) / may know someone at the marina who destroyed the rest of his line in a unique way - stuff like that can get you the part you need without the 'boating' price for your adaptor.

Hope this helps
 
I wasn't planning on buying a marine version it is still about $70 when I have a few minutes I will stop at the electrical supply house and see what I can put together.

Thanks for your input Smitty I will let you know if I ever get this put together it certainly would make it easier to charge all of the batteries at once.
 
A good time to remind folks to never use an automotive or elcheapo charger on a boat without totally disconnecting everything, both + &-, from the batteries.
The reason for this is that some chargers use a transformer that ties the neutral to ground and it may put AC power on the negative output side thus the metal part of the boat.
 
With that being said, how does one charge their batteries on blocks when Cummins recommends never disconnecting your battery? Never thought charging batteries could be so complicated. It sure was a lot easier with my old boat. (30amps)
 
Why can't you add an external charger plugged into 110v?
 
Cummins told me never to disconnect batteries as it is not good for engine computers. Above post says if using external charger, you should always disconnect batteries. Going to stop by West Marine now to see if they have a marine battery charger that plugs into 110 instead of using my car charger.
 
Can someone post a link to the Cummins warning against disconnecting batteries?. That is a startling concept for any equipment.

I can see some user settings being lost when battery power is disconnected but For short duration disconnections a small jumper box would maintain them. even that IMO would be a poor design.
 
All I can say is when I had my survey done, this is what the technician told me. He also stated that you should always start port engine first and when shutting down, do opposite. Starboard than port. He seemed to be knowledgable so I have no reason to disagree. He did say that for short duration, you could disconnect as it does maintain its own power but certainly not for the entire winter.
 
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