Battery Wiring/Charging/Starting issues

[CARL ELLIS]

Hi, I'm Carl and I just bought a 98 sundancer 270. IT's got twins and is my first twin engine boat. I'm confused about the battery wiring and switch. I have looked for a wiring diagram using the search and found posts with bigger sundancers that have 3 banks but I think I only have 2.

I just put the boat in the water Friday of this last week and have had it out twice.
I've had to jump from one bank to the other with cables to start one or the other engine a couple of times.

It's obvious that this is wired differently and one bank is dedicated to an engine but A: I'd like to see a schematic of how that works and B:I have no idea what the battery switch is for or how to use it! lol.

My windless wouldn't raise the anchor without help when I had both motors running. (but I had used it the previous trip no problems) Do I actually have 3 banks and a charging issue? Knowing how this is supposed to be wired would help me immensely. I'm a low voltage guy and could figure it out but ti would help to have a diagram or some understanding so I know if what I find is actually correct.


Edit: I also have an Emergency start switch that I don't know if/what it does but some of the posts I saw talked about this being tied into the banks somehow.

 

[JimG]

Hi Carl,
Congratulations on your new boat!

Usually there are 2 batteries on each engine. Sometime a separate battery on the gen set (3rd bank). It would help if you could give us a count (and pics work wonders!) of the batteries and the battery switch(s).
Sounds like you have some bad batteries. Have all of them them load tested.
You can probably get the manual which contains the schematics from the Sea Ray website.

Some reading for you:
http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/late-90s-270-sundancer-thread.1786/

Best of luck and welcome to CSR!

 

[CARL ELLIS]

Hi Jim and thank you!

I went to Searays website first but it seems like just sales. I couldn't find any archives. That's when I came here.

I do think I have some bad batteries. (I see 3 in the bilge. I'll snap pics this weekend) I don't know who stores a boat in Colorado and doesn't either bring the batteries home to a trickle charger or has the ability to put one on in storage, and does so. These were brand new interstates last year.

Thanks for this. I'm thumbing through this thread.

Carl

 

[JimG]

See if this works:
https://owners-resources.searayweb.com/owners-manuals-files/Owners_Manual_1998_270_SUNDANCER.pdf

 

[CARL ELLIS]

This is what I'm getting but I will poke around as this is a different site.


Not Found
The requested URL /chrome-extension:/oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https:/owners-resources.searayweb.com/owners-manuals-files/Owners_Manual_1998_270_SUNDANCER.pdf was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Apache/2.4.39 (cPanel) OpenSSL/1.0.2r mod_bwlimited/1.4 PHP/5.6.40 Server at clubsearay.com Port 80

 

[JimG]

Sorry, try it again...

 

[CARL ELLIS]

Disregard. I figured it out. Had to take all that chrome extension stuff out of the url you posted. Thanks!