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Has anyone ever had just one battery charge in a two battery system?

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2000 vista 268 in Mass.

Are you talking about the engine's alternator charging only one battery or the on board battery charger? Or do you have more than one battery on your "house" battery bank? Which battery is not being charged, House or engine?

1. With any electrical issue, check connections to make sure everything is connected correctly and making good contact. This could be simple or it could be a big job. Have you had any electrical system work done recently that could have left something disconnected? Get the Volt meter out and start checking voltage from positive to ground at various locations to try to narrow down the issue.

2. If you are talking about the alternator charging system, the fact that the alternator is charging one battery means that the alternator is working and the problem must be elsewhere in the system. There may be an issue with the battery isolator that charges both batteries but separates the two batteries electrically.

3. If it is the on board charging system, many of the battery chargers have indicator lights to show charging activity. Some chargers may have a fuse for each battery bank. Consult the owner's manual for the battery charger to see what voltage you should see during charging and when the battery is fully charged. This battery charger output voltage may vary from about 13 volts to 14.5 depending on the battery's state of charge. Low 13s to bulk charge, approx. 14.5 to finish, and back to the low 13s to maintain a charged battery.

4. What kind of shape are your batteries in, and how old are they? If they have a few birthdays you might need to replace them. If you have more than one battery in your house bank, one bad battery can cause all kinds of problems. Try to keep these matched. If you change one then change the other(s) also.

I appreciate your situation. I am chasing a similar issue. The voltmeter in the dash shows lower than I would like, but the alternator is putting out 13.5 Volts. The engine's battery is always at or near full charge and has enough to easily start the engine, but the on board charger's lights do not show that it is charging the engine battery while on shorepower. Add in a lack of time to work on it....... you know how it goes.

Four Winns does a reasonable job putting an owner's manual together, but I am not finding a wiring diagram for the battery, battery charger, battery selector system. Good luck and please keep us posted.

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Surface Interval: A scuba diving term for that time between dives to relax and prepare for life's next great adventure.

Current boat: '02 FW 268 Vista
Previous boat: '95 FW 190 Horizon

The batteries are new alternator is new the shorepower works fine to charge, the problem is after a long weekend on the hook and i start the boat 1st batt. Will start the boat but wont run the trim 2nd batt. Works it fine when i switch to it. Batt. 1 never seems to come back till i get back to shore power

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2000 vista 268 in Mass.

I'd suspect the charge splitter (a blue anodized ribbed thing with 3 terminals on the engine compartment forward bulkhead, if it's in the same place as on my 278 Vista). You can easily check it with a multimeter; central terminal is from the alternator output, the other terminals go to the batteries, the output voltages at those terminals should be very close to the voltage at the central alternator terminal when the engine is running)