Bad Charger?

[shamoo]

I decided to check my buddies 3 bank battery charger, on the 1st bank the red light stays on(saying bad connection) and is connected to the cranking battery which doesnt charge, the other two banks are green and connected to the trolling motor batteries. I hooked the bank 1 lead (cranking & bad) to one of the trolling batteries and the #2 lead(trolling & good) to the cranking battery. The trolling motor battery was red(bad bank) and the cranking battery was charging, so am I right assuming the 1st bank on the charger is bad?

 

[Hanr3]

Sounds about right assuming you just swapped the wires between the two batteries.

 

[shamoo]

Thanks Mr.3, thats what I did, I was just wondering, he ordered a new charger today, we're picking it up and installing it tomorrow.

 

[russ010]

You should be able to hook up a voltmeter to it to see if it's spitting out any juice... but it sounds like you've got a bad bank. If it's atleast a 5amp bank, you can hook 2 of the batteries in parallel and still get a charge on them

 

[shamoo]

Thanks Russ, the charger is a MinnKota 330, 3 banks, 10 amps per bank. the trolling motor is 24 volt. One lead goes to the starting battery, and the other two leads goes to each of the trolling batteries. The trolling motor batteries are connected together.

 

[shamoo]

Went to my buddies house at 20 after 8 am, headed up to Bordentown for the charger(45 mins to an hour drive), we picked up the charger, checked out a Nitro Z7 that just came in, got back around 10.30. I wanted to start on the plug in section first, got it out, took the one wire off, than another, got to the 3rd wire and who-ever connected the plug to the charger striped the screw-head. I had to cut the wire and go try to find a male end that would fit into the casing on the boat. He had the boat hooked up to his truck so I went to get the plug, tried Lowes no dice, Cecil Marine-no dice, hardware store-no dice, RV place-no dice, finally picked one up at Home Depot(YAY!!!) got back, finished up, now its 1.30, so we put the ears on his 50 HP and fired it up. I just got in around 3, nothings easy, I should have known better, anyway we'll be hitting Newton Lake tomorrow for some serious fishing. PHEW!!!!!! One more thing the new charger works WONDERFULLY.

 

[redbug]

glad to hear you got it fixed noow go catch some fish!!!!

Wayne

 

[russ010]

that's awesome that it was that simple (but tedious finding the stuff you need)

I've found the hardest to find wire adapters at AutoZone or Advance... never knew parts stores carried that kind of stuff - especially 3/8" stud ring terminals, that's the only place I've found them without ordering them offline

 

[Hanr3]

Autoparts stores carry a variety of electrical supplies and so does Radio Shack. Tow of my favorite sources.