Official 290 Sundancer Thread

Looks awesome!! Did you run cables back to the helm for a remote? If so...how? Really nice job!
 
mdolesh said:
Looks awesome!! Did you run cables back to the helm for a remote? If so...how? Really nice job!
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Yes I did...post #1231 I explained how I did it. And thanks! Really happy with the way it turned out.
 
Saw your FB post. Looks great. I had to run wire the same way you did on my old 290DA when I put a sub under the helm seat and had the amps in the panel closet.
 
Cincy Aquaholic said:
Saw your FB post. Looks great. I had to run wire the same way you did on my old 290DA when I put a sub under the helm seat and had the amps in the panel closet.
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Thanks! Yeah it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Short fish tape really comes in handy LoL
 
Hoping for some advice on an electrical issue. About 3 weeks ago, I replaced the 2 batteries that are paralleled for starting the port engine and accessories. Used the boat once after that and all was fine. Boat sat in the slip, connected to shore power for about 2 weeks.

Today, port engine wouldn’t start. Just clicking. Checked the two new batteries and one of them was at 10V. The negative terminal was loose enough that I could lift it off by hand. Thought I tightened everything well when I changed the batteries, but the bolt is rusted and doesn’t move much. Oiled it and got it tighten a little more. Tapped it back on with a hammer, nice and tight.

Immediately started charging and went up to 11.59V in about 15 mins. Turned the battery switch ON and it immediately started dropping all the way to about 9V, in a matter of seconds, before I turned the battery switch back off. Then it climbed back up to 11.2 during the time it took to type this message.

Also, all DC breakers are off in the cabin, so I’m not sure if anything could be draining that battery when I turn it on. Oh, when it got down around 9V the CO detector starting beeping. I figured maybe that was it’s way of saying it doesn’t have enough voltage to work.

Any suggestions or advice?
 
Best bet is to turn off all breakers and battery switches. Measure voltage, turn on port battery switch and measure voltage. If you have a drop with all the breakers off then you have a short somewhere. If the voltage doesn’t drop then start turning breakers on one at a time until you get your big voltage drop. An amp meter would make this much easier. You’d be able to monitor actual current draw. Does the boat have stereo amplifiers? Those are usually hooked up directly to the batteries. A bad amp could be causing your draw with everything off. How’s the battery charger? Is it on during this time when you switch the battery switch on? Does the amp draw on the charger go up significantly during this time?

First thing is to get those batteries charged back up. One more thing, just because they are new batteries doesn’t mean one didn’t go bad. I have one to change this weekend that’s only 2 months old. Good luck
 
I have a battery related question also for the group. What does your charger read/show when connected to shore power? How many amps? I have been leaving mine on all the time because apparently its a "smart charger" but the gauge shows very little power draw. Is this because the batteries are charged (which would make sense) or is the charger not working as well as it should? Side note, starboard battery at start up always seems fully charged (13.6+ volts) but the port batteries that are in parallel only show 12.3 or 12.4 volts. Batteries are new this season. Something seems a little off to me. Thoughts??
 
TN_Ryan said:
Best bet is to turn off all breakers and battery switches. Measure voltage, turn on port battery switch and measure voltage. If you have a drop with all the breakers off then you have a short somewhere. If the voltage doesn’t drop then start turning breakers on one at a time until you get your big voltage drop. An amp meter would make this much easier. You’d be able to monitor actual current draw. Does the boat have stereo amplifiers? Those are usually hooked up directly to the batteries. A bad amp could be causing your draw with everything off. How’s the battery charger? Is it on during this time when you switch the battery switch on? Does the amp draw on the charger go up significantly during this time?

First thing is to get those batteries charged back up. One more thing, just because they are new batteries doesn’t mean one didn’t go bad. I have one to change this weekend that’s only 2 months old. Good luck
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Thanks for the advice Ryan. I'm still getting familiar with the boat, but I think there's an amplifier, so I'll check.

When I turned the battery switch ON, with the onboard charger ON, the battery voltage dropped quickly. When I turned the battery switch back OFF, the voltage went up slowly until about 11.5V and seemed to level off there.

I charged it up to 13.8V with an external charger last night, started the engines for a few mins in the slip (went up to 14.1V), shut it down, and left the boat in its "normal state" overnight (battery switches off, onboard charger on, plugged into shore power). I'm hoping the one battery with the loose connection never got correctly charged from when I originally installed it. I'll go back tonight, and see what happens, since it was fully charged last night.
 
mdolesh said:
I have a battery related question also for the group. What does your charger read/show when connected to shore power? How many amps? I have been leaving mine on all the time because apparently its a "smart charger" but the gauge shows very little power draw. Is this because the batteries are charged (which would make sense) or is the charger not working as well as it should? Side note, starboard battery at start up always seems fully charged (13.6+ volts) but the port batteries that are in parallel only show 12.3 or 12.4 volts. Batteries are new this season. Something seems a little off to me. Thoughts??
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Your assumption on the battery charger amps is correct, if it's charging at a higher amp reading then the batteries are either low or there is a large draw on the 12V system. Since my boat is a trailer boat, my charger will read high for a couple hours while it tops the batteries off. But once they are topped back off it stays around 3-5 amps.

When you say start up, are you talking voltage readings with the engines running? If so then your port side readings sound more indicitive of a alternator not outputting the proper voltage. Voltage setpoint for the alternator's is 14V, so if it's not getting close to that with fully charged batteries at 1500 RPM's then the alternator isn't outputting the proper amps. Hope that helps.
 
Shark said:
Thanks for the advice Ryan. I'm still getting familiar with the boat, but I think there's an amplifier, so I'll check.

When I turned the battery switch ON, with the onboard charger ON, the battery voltage dropped quickly. When I turned the battery switch back OFF, the voltage went up slowly until about 11.5V and seemed to level off there.

I charged it up to 13.8V with an external charger last night, started the engines for a few mins in the slip (went up to 14.1V), shut it down, and left the boat in its "normal state" overnight (battery switches off, onboard charger on, plugged into shore power). I'm hoping the one battery with the loose connection never got correctly charged from when I originally installed it. I'll go back tonight, and see what happens, since it was fully charged last night.
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Did you happen to notice the amp reading for the charger as this was happening? If it happens again watch the charger and see what it tries to do.

When you turned the battery switch on for the port side battery bank, are you turning it 1, 2 or Both? If you turned it to Both and saw a quick drop that would lead to believe you have a bad cell in one of the batteries. Or with that loose ground connection you just had a low charge on that particular battery. Lets hope it's due to that loose connection!
 
Unfortunately, my charger doesn’t display amps. I have two separate battery switches that are just ON or OFF - I think it’s one for the port/access batteries and one for the starboard battery.

Today, the suspect battery was at 12.87V with batt sw OFF and onboard charger ON and indicating “float” mode (other batteries were 13.39 & 13.41)

When I turned the batt switch ON, it went from 12.87 to 12.84 and stayed there.

When I turned the onboard charger OFF, no change.

I turned on the most common DC CB’s and it went to 12.54. I turned blowers ON and it went to 12.44.

Engines started right up and voltage went to 13.36 quickly. (Last night when I started the engines it went up to 14.12. This time I didn’t run the engines as long, but it seemed to be climbing.)

Killed the engines and went to 12.69V

Turned onboard charger ON and went to 12.72

Turned CB’s OFF, went to 12.79

Turned battery switch OFF, went to 12.83, and seemed to be slowly climbing.

Put the external charger back on, hoping to get it back to 100% (was 75% last night).

Might leave it on external charger overnight. I think if I get it to 100% it might be back to normal, and the loose negative terminal may have been the problem. Fingers crossed!!
 
Sounds like you’re good to go
 
TN_Ryan said:
Sounds like you’re good to go
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Thanks again! Sorry about all that data, but I figured I’d put it out there in case something jumped out at someone. This forum has been an amazing help, especially for us, since it’s our first “real” boat.
 
Shark said:
Thanks again! Sorry about all that data, but I figured I’d put it out there in case something jumped out at someone. This forum has been an amazing help, especially for us, since it’s our first “real” boat.
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Can’t have too much data man LoL Makes diagnosing a problem so much easier!
 
Ni
pyro said:
I thought I would share a few more upgrades I've been working on. First is my continuous quest to get rid of all steel prone to rust in the engine room. My fire extinguisher bracket was badly rusting and causing dark rust stains down the transom. Removed the old bracket and cleaned the area and transom inside with muriatic acid. I went a little too agressive with the acid and may have eaten away some of the corrosive properties of my stainless trim brackets since they had surface rust on them a week later.

For the fire extinguisher bracket I ordered 0.125" x 2" wide 316 stainless bar and had a friend weld it together to allow the straps to pass under the bracket. Pop rivetted the straps in like the originals and added some 1/8" foam.

View attachment 81299

View attachment 81298

And best part the fire extinguisher did not go off during the upgrade!
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Nice work, that's on the list for myself. Already replaced the trim hydraulic system with stainless brackets which is a off the shelf option. Keen on getting that engine bay clean enough to eat off!!!
In heavy stormy rain weather do you get water make its way into the bilge? I get a small amount in and can't locate it source and am thinking of just replacing the whole rubber seal on the lid perimeter.
 
Sarges12 said:
Took the boot stripes off to replace. Might just leave them off. Looks cleaner
View attachment 81907
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Yes heaps better, I have removed all of mine, fun job as stickers are now over 10 years old and some slow painful removal with a heat gun did the trick, used some cutting compound and come up a treat. The boat has got some lovely lines so i don't think it need anything to enhance it subtle curves
 
Has anyone replaced or reconditioned their VHF antenna? The one on my boat has lost almost all the white coloring and the top two screws on the mounting bracket arent gripping fiberglass anymore. I guess this question is twofold. The most important part being how to get those two screws to grip again. Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks
 
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