Elecrical issues

[Jay K]

Hey Everyone...looking for some advice.



I have a 2001 Nitro 750NX DC. It still had the orginal batteries when I bought it this year. The trolling battery was almost out of water, and was pretty much beat so I replaced it with another newer one that I had, and it has worked fine.



The cranking battery had plenty of water in it, and charged up to 100% according to my home charger. The problem I have been having is that my radio will not work after I have been on the water for a while. I'm getting an error code on it that indicaes it is an electrical issue. Now it does not work at all.



I never use my radio (although I would like to listen to the Red Sox occasionally), so it was no big deal. Then yesterday, my fish finder stopped working after being on the water for about 6 hours. I hooked it up to the portable power supply back in my truck, and it worked fine. I checked the cranking battery and it said I had 95% according to the home charger, which has always worked well.



I cleaned off the connections on the wires and battery, and the fish finder works fine. I have not charged the battery at all, and the radio still does not work. I checked the fuse at the battery and at the radio, and they are both intact. I'm going to charge it now and see if the radio works after.



I'm assuming something is wrong with the old cranking battery, so I was going to replace it. I could really hold off on spending the $100 (or $289 for an optima), so any other suggestions?



Thanks!

 

[Dan J.]

The number one source for electrical ghosts on a factory rigged boat are the main leads to fuseblock from the cranking battery. They are almost always too small for what is rigged, let alone any additional draw. I'd replace and re-install new pos. & neg. of 10 gauge minimum to the block and see if that doesn't perk up your electronics overall. Good luck!

 

[Jim B]

I agree with Dan on the power wires. my 2000 882 it was a joke, one 16ga wire to run everything didn't work so well. I upgraded mine and it worked well. Thankfully they fixed that in my 2008 z7 with an 8ga wire so i dont have to mess with it.



Another thing is you need to look at the battery. If its a group st starting not dual purpose its not going to have enough reserve power to run a radio for more then a couple hours. You really need a dual purpose starting/deep cycle for that purpose. My suggestion on that is a group 27 dual purpose battery or if you want to spend the money a 27 AGM like the cabelas advanced anglers one. Personally i would not get the optima, they done have much reserve capacity for what their size ratings are and given what they cost i think they are a terrible value. When i had my 882 i had a radio in it and with the 27 trojan dual purpose i had i would run the radio and my electronics all day 8 hours plus no problem at all.

 

[Jay K]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll take a look and see what I can do.



Have a good Monday!!

 

[Nelson Lee]

You might want to hook up a volt meter to the radio and fish finder. You should get approx. 12.6 volts when the battery is fully charged (minus/no surface charge). If your battery reads 12.6v, you should get at least 12.5v-12.6v at the radio and fish finder. Slight voltage drop is normal due to length of wires and connectors. If voltage drop is excessive, this is normally to high resistance in the wire and connector (also cause by corrosion). Most electrical components will stop working around 10-11 volts. Take care and good luck with the repair.

 

[Jay K]

thanks for the advice!! I'll give that a shot ASAP.