Why is it that my boat will work perfectly when I am out fishing by myself but seems to screw up EVERY time I take the family out? Does it just not like them? How does it know who is in my boat and who isn't?
Took the family out yesterday for a day of tubing and swimmng- within 10 minutes of being on the lake I lost my tach, my temp gauge, volt gauge and accessory power to the horn, radio, cigaretter lighter plug and other things. Engine ran fine and had no issues. I quickly turned back to the ramp and got under the console to look for a bad ground. If you turned off the key and turned on the bilge pump, the engine alarm would do the typical 3 beep signal that the power was on. The radio would go blank. The gauges would bounce around. Turn the pump off and everything went back to normal. Hit the horn button and the gauges would jump but the horn wouldn't sound. Obviously a ground issue, right? Checked 'em all- nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Spent the day close to the ramp and did not tube at all as I didn't want to get stuck out on the water somewhere. We managed to have a decent day until about 4 o'clock when we decided to call it a day. Literally 1,000 feet from the ramp the gauges suddenly came back to life and everything worked as it should. (!!!!!!) Great, now I can't diagnose the problem because it went away! Are there such things as boat gremlins??? SHEESH!!!
Just had to vent a bit.
UFM82
Took the family out yesterday for a day of tubing and swimmng- within 10 minutes of being on the lake I lost my tach, my temp gauge, volt gauge and accessory power to the horn, radio, cigaretter lighter plug and other things. Engine ran fine and had no issues. I quickly turned back to the ramp and got under the console to look for a bad ground. If you turned off the key and turned on the bilge pump, the engine alarm would do the typical 3 beep signal that the power was on. The radio would go blank. The gauges would bounce around. Turn the pump off and everything went back to normal. Hit the horn button and the gauges would jump but the horn wouldn't sound. Obviously a ground issue, right? Checked 'em all- nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Spent the day close to the ramp and did not tube at all as I didn't want to get stuck out on the water somewhere. We managed to have a decent day until about 4 o'clock when we decided to call it a day. Literally 1,000 feet from the ramp the gauges suddenly came back to life and everything worked as it should. (!!!!!!) Great, now I can't diagnose the problem because it went away! Are there such things as boat gremlins??? SHEESH!!!
Just had to vent a bit.
UFM82
