98 Marlin Battery Charger - Tripping Breaker

[Harpoon]

The PO of my boat installed a Charles 50 amp battery charger, this seems very large to me. When the charger powers up it trips the 10amp breaker on the panel very quickly.
The needle on the charger is "pegged" when you fist turn it on, but generally drops lower as part of its normal cycle. I have 4 group 31 all brand new. Anybody have this issue and fins a good resolution ?

Second question, Accessory batteries don't charge from the motor. Not good in my opinion, can loose function of electronics, GPS Radar if batteries run dead offshore. Anybody change this ?

Thanks!

 

[DennisG01]

Check the specs for your charger. What size breaker does it call for? Gotta start there, before any further diagnosis. Charles is out of business (or absorbed by another company, maybe) - but you should still be able to find specs out there in internetland. Or, check the machine (inside and out) - there may be specs listed on the casing somewhere.

This is important to find out, not so much because of the breaker, but because of the wiring. A breaker's primary purpose is to protect the wiring, not the appliance.

Your motors should each have an accessory charging lead - or at least the ability to have that functionality. If the accessory charging lead is not currently there, then get those cables an attach to the engine/hook up to the batteries.

 

[Harpoon]

Dennis thanks. Yes, Charles has about the worst website one can imagine. Not hard to imagine why they are gone.
I've been trying to see what breaker it calls for. I guess the batteries are set up to be isolated from the engine on purpose. But I'm thinking in terms of jumping power over to each from the engine.
I pay close attention to my voltage when offshore.

 

[DennisG01]

I honestly don't know why they went out of business - but they did make very good, reliable machines. Generally considered a more 'high end' charger.

 

[Fishtales]

You mention new batteries... Any chance something isn't properly connected?

 

[Harpoon]

FT, no, I zip tied together as I disassembled, double and triple checked. From what I've learned that charger goes to 12 A when it cycles on so it will trip the 10. I'm going up to a 15A breaker, which shouldn't be too risky.
The feed wires look very heavy and distance is relatively short. Thanks !

 

[DennisG01]

With that in mind, a logical explanation is that when first installed it wasn't the tripping the breaker. But as the breaker aged, it now started tripping. It would probably be a good idea to double check the wire size and the length of the circuit (positive and negative) - just to be sure. The last thing you want is a fire. But in reality, you're most likely fine.

 

[Harpoon]

Also this was a boat that never left the dock. So the stayed at peak charge all season and never demanded any power.

 

[jigstrike]

Had a similar issue, replaced the breaker and no problems since

 

[Harpoon]

OK, so the breaker did it. My next improvement will be moving the 12V to the bridge, radar, gps, running lights, live well etc. over to the engine batteries so I can keep them charged on multiple day trips, or long days at anchor in the fog.
I understand isolating the DC panel in the cabin, but not the needed items at the helm.

 

[dogdoc]

That does not seem to be the recommended arrangement from my research. The engine batteries should not be used to power sensitive or important dc loads. Just sit in your car and turn the switch to acc position, dash lights up, radio will come on, etc... then start car all the prior go dark until engine starts. They are protected since we only have one battery for all functions. On our boat we have starting batteries and house batteries. I have twin engines with each having a primary charge wire and aux charge wire. Bat 1/starts and charged by engine 1, bat 2 starts and charged by engine 2. A pair of 1/2/both bat switches can be used to alternate engines or parallel batteries to one or both engines should the need arise. Bat 3 and 4 are paralleled doubling capacity and are used to power all dc loads except starting. They are charged by the aux charge wire of one engine. A simple bat switch 1/2/off can be used so the feed from either engine can charge the house bank, but not both at the same time (voltage reg issues can arise from that). At the dock your on board charger charges all 3 banks

 

[Harpoon]

From what I can tell the VHF accessory wire in the electronics box comes from engine batteries. I'm going run that to the fuse block, into which my GPS/RADAR/VHF are connected.