Hack repair question.

I purchased my 1985 260 Sundancer mid August. While overall it is a very solid boat there was a couple of things that I I could tell were done in a hurry and not the right way. One of those items was a mystery wire that was somewhat tucked up but in places you could see running from port to the closet on the starboard side in the AFT cabin. Well today I got around to tackling what this wire was. The wire is picking up power from an aftermarket amp power wire and tying into factory 12 maybe 10 gauge red wire running down the starboard side of the boat. Again the mystery wire is tied into the heavy gauge factory wire the factory wire is not cut. When I would wiggle the mystery wire I could hear the refrigerator come on. So I know this is now supplying my 12 volt power for the refrigerator and clearly making bad connection. My question is why or better yet where likely would they have lost 12v power going to the refrigerator that they would have to basically make a jumper wire?

Yikes...... need to figure it out before you have a Boat BQ on your hands.

The "reasoning" is most likely because the boat didn't come from the factory with a fridge and someone, somewhere along it's 30+ years, added it. You can get power from, and install a breaker at, your main distribution panel.

Zero Fuks said:

I purchased my 1985 260 Sundancer mid August. While overall it is a very solid boat there was a couple of things that I I could tell were done in a hurry and not the right way. One of those items was a mystery wire that was somewhat tucked up but in places you could see running from port to the closet on the starboard side in the AFT cabin. Well today I got around to tackling what this wire was. The wire is picking up power from an aftermarket amp power wire and tying into factory 12 maybe 10 gauge red wire running down the starboard side of the boat. Again the mystery wire is tied into the heavy gauge factory wire the factory wire is not cut. When I would wiggle the mystery wire I could hear the refrigerator come on. So I know this is now supplying my 12 volt power for the refrigerator and clearly making bad connection. My question is why or better yet where likely would they have lost 12v power going to the refrigerator that they would have to basically make a jumper wire?

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It's common to just run a bypass wire when you can't tell where the open in an existing wire is. Chances are the factory wire that used to supply power to the fridge has an open somewhere and the PO found it easier to run a new wire rather than troubleshoot the existing one. Not condoning this approach, but I have been guilty of it myself, on RVs. Finding an open in a wire that was likely installed before everything was buttoned up can be damn near impossible.

bobeast said:

It's common to just run a bypass wire when you can't tell where the open in an existing wire is. Chances are the factory wire that used to supply power to the fridge has an open somewhere and the PO found it easier to run a new wire rather than troubleshoot the existing one. Not condoning this approach, but I have been guilty of it myself, on RVs. Finding an open in a wire that was likely installed before everything was buttoned up can be damn near impossible.

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That is common in older RV units. You wish they would at least cut out what they can instead of leaving it.

MM

Thanks for everyone's input I really appreciate it. While I'd like to think I'm pretty mechanically inclined this whole boat thing is new to me (if you guys ever need questions answered on your Harley I'm your man! LOL) Back in August the second time we went to take the boat out one of the batteries were dead we bought two new batteries and finished the summer. I figured I would just install some marine battery chargers hence why I made the post that's a couple below this one. With the new discovery of this jumper wire running over to the 12-volt power for their fridge and the fact that my batteries never charged when I was plugged into Shore power I'm starting to think I either have a bad or possibly missing converter as I have not seen one anywhere on the boat although I haven't really been looking I just assumed there wasn't one with this particular model.

Zero Fuks said:

Thanks for everyone's input I really appreciate it. While I'd like to think I'm pretty mechanically inclined this whole boat thing is new to me (if you guys ever need questions answered on your Harley I'm your man! LOL) Back in August the second time we went to take the boat out one of the batteries were dead we bought two new batteries and finished the summer. I figured I would just install some marine battery chargers hence why I made the post that's a couple below this one. With the new discovery of this jumper wire running over to the 12-volt power for their fridge and the fact that my batteries never charged when I was plugged into Shore power I'm starting to think I either have a bad or possibly missing converter as I have not seen one anywhere on the boat although I haven't really been looking I just assumed there wasn't one with this particular model.

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I had a 1979 260 Sundancer. On my boat the "Ray Jefferson" charger was mounted just below the steering wheel on the bulkhead there. I remember it well because if I got it damp when carefully washing down the cockpit it was an "electrifying" experience if I touched it!! LOL

I misread your post, with my response, above. While that still might be part of the issue, there could be other explanations. As Bob mentioned, if that wire is feed for the fridge, and the breaker for the fridge is at the stern of the boat, that could be the explanation. But if the breaker for the fridge is forward of that splice, then it's something else (possibly main feed).

Thoughts that may help:
-- A 10g wire is the common size used to feed a fuse panel.
-- Do you have any other 12V items operating "flaky"?
-- Find all of your fuse panels. Check the bilge, inside cubby holes in the cockpit and also the cabin. This can usually tell you what accessories are installed (or "where" installed at some point).
-- Find where the amp gets it power from - is it fused properly?

Part of the problem you're going to have (and it's compounded for us since we're not there to see things first hand) is you're dealing with who-knows-how-many previous owners... and that presents MANY issues trying to figure out/map what's going on. What might be best (and really isn't all that hard - just takes a little time) is really get in there and check all the wires - possibly even think about replacing/running new wires.

I will know more tonight when I dig into it. With tdschafer info (thank you) I do remember seeing a silver box mounted right above the steering column but below the helm bulkhead that could have been a converter. I do remember when I was plugged into shore power the refrigerator running but again the mystery wire that was supplying 12 volt power to the refrigerator, thankfully was not making a good connection. I don't know how good that would have been having shore power and direct 12-volt powering up the same refrigerator. I currently have shore power disconnected because I was replacing the shore power outlet. I'm starting to think that AC converter went bad, the previous owner really wanted the refrigerator to run off of 12 volt power, instead of replacing the converter they just ran a jumper wire to supply the 12-volt power to the fridge bypassing the converter which cannot be safe to have two power supplies (12v and 110) go to the refrigerator at the same time. So enough with the rambling. my question is how can I test my converter to see if it's good?

Dual power Marine fridges are wired with a circuit that will automatically switch to DC on loss of AC power (assuming both AC and DC breakers are on) Having both wired up at the same time is not only acceptable, it is expected.