adding battery charger

[danielcfi]

Hey folk's I have a 1985 260 weekender and she did not come equipped with a battery charger from the factory but does have shore power and there is a breaker for a inverter and also a hot water tank which also was not installed,my question is, i want to install a dual bank marine charger and was wondering if the wiring for the factory charger is already in place and switched at the shore power panel or do I need to run power to the 110 volt system already installed such as the rear starboard electrical outlet? I have a solar panel charger installed from previous owner but do not feel that is sufficient at dock to keep batteries charged when using 12 volt lights and radio.
Thanks, Dan

 

[Nehalennia]

If you do a search for "Charger" or "Charger Install", etc. you'll find several threads. I'm not sure if your wiring is already present for adding a charger but, here's my story
Charger install

 

[danielcfi]

Thanx
Dan

 

[Sorrento 25]

If you have the inverter breaker check the back side for wiring connected. If it is there it probably leads to the area of the port side of the firewall at the front of the bilge.

 

[danielcfi]

thank you for the reply,she is shrink wrapped for the winter now but after the holiday's i planned on going and doing some work to her weather permiting so i will pull panel and check on wiring if not i will just hardwire to electrical in stern area as there is outlet starboard side rear
Dan

 

[white glove]

If you do have an existing wire run from a circuit breaker on your ac panel then it will terminate in a blue work box most likely. If you need to run conductor, use a 14ga romex to a work box if one is not there and hard wire the charger to the work box . try to stay away from installing a recepticle below decks because this type of connection is not ignition protected. I would also run or use a dedicated circuit for a battey charger so that there won't be a potential to overload it ,many times the outlet circuit already has things wired into it already such as a refrigerator. hope this helps