Battery Issue

I seem to have a battery issue. 92 Yamaha Pro V, on a 92 Ranger 391V. Over the course of the day, I can see my battery level on my depthfinder going down. When the boat is running, the meter will go up showing that I am charging. At one point today, the boat completely shut off and I had to be jumped off. The problem started a few months ago, about the time that I put a new depthfinder on 510C. How would you go about checking to see what is draining my battery. Also, I know that I have a problem with my lights. When you plug the stern light into its mount, the light comes on, without evening flipping the switch on, could that be part of the problem? Just so ya'll know, I did not have my stern light plugged in at all today. Also, brand new cranking batter. Optima 34M

Re: Battery Issue

Hi

Can you get hold of a clip on Ammeter? If so simulate a day on the water, put your electronics gear on and measure the current draw. Electronic should not be enough to drain the battery. Record the current draw with everything on then switch off each component one by one recording the new current draw each time. This way you will establish how much power each component is consuming.

When all is off and you are still drawing current then you need to find what is on that you are unaware of and isolate these until you see no current draw.

If the boat shut off something is drawing big amps, the only thing that I could think of would be a trolling motor which could kill your 50Ah battery in short time. Do you run a trolling motor? If so it would require a second battery.


Cheers
Andrew

Re: Battery Issue

GraAlaMat77 said:

When you plug the stern light into its mount, the light comes on, without evening flipping the switch on,

Click to expand...

This could be a indication of what is going on. It is a good possibility you have some water where it should not be. Do you store your boat outside uncovered?
I would check using a test light. Turn everything off including the main battery switch. Using a test light I would look for power anywhere it should not be. Like the downstream side of a switch that is off.
If the main switch is opening properly (no power) turn it back on and go from there checking each switched circuit one at a time.
You may find that water has gotten into your panel switches.

Re: Battery Issue

Thank you for your response guys. As for the first response. I do run a trolling motor, but it is running off of two separate batteries. As for being covered, the boat is kept outside, but kept covered. So I may still have some water somewhere. I am going to go through both of the things that you guys have suggested. I will report back tomorrow. I really, really appreciate your input. Hopefully I can get this fixed before this weekend.

Re: Battery Issue

Before you start troubleshooting make sure all your batteries are fully charged with a good automatic or smart charger.