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My 1993 Vista 245's original battery charger finally packed it in over the weekend. It was a Guest charger (I believe model 2145) and put out 15 amps total into two banks. My question involves integrating the new charger into the shore power system. Assuming I get a charger with the same output/number of banks etc, am I....

1) Able to use the pre-existing wiring?

2) Since the on board chargers I've looked at come with a UL three prong plug, do I cut this off and hardwire directly?

3) Is this a bad idea and will I burn down the house and boat?

I broke out my trusty voltmeter and verified there is 120v to the charger, zilch coming out the other end. Besides, its time to upgrade. There do not appear to be any fuses anywhere, just the breaker itself. It seems easy enough to swap the old one out with a new one. Thoughts, suggestions??

_________________
-Todd

1993 Vista 245
351 CID, OMC King Cobra

1. Maybe - Some charges come with wiring and some don't.

2. Yes

3. No.

I use AGM batteries, so I replaced mine with a Promariner. I must say they stand behind it!!! It was rewired, so I cut off the AC plug & used butt connectors. I removed all of the old charge wiring to the batteries. About 6 months later, the charger died. I called them up and they said to send it in OR drive up to us. There in NH, a 50min drive for me. When he saw that I cut the plug off, he said "Thats not a problem, we expect that." MOST chargers are hard wired into a boat. You could add a plug to the AC wires that feed the old charger, but I would just hard wire it. As long as you wire it right, I would not worry about a fire!

What I like about this charger is, it will load share. It is a 20amp charger, if battery#1 needs 2amps, and battery #2 needs 17amps. This charger can do it!!! It will give the battery what ever it needs, up to a total of 20amps. I have had it for the past 2yrs, no problems!!

Thanks for the info. That is exactly the info I wanted to hear. By chance, did you go with the Promariner 20 Gen 2? That is the one I have been leaning towards. I also had considered the "add a female receptacle" idea in the event I had to return it. The old charger and its wiring are very well labeled, so wiring should be straight forward. Thanks again.

_________________
-Todd

1993 Vista 245
351 CID, OMC King Cobra

Wellll, I bought the 12amp one. When I went to there repair center, they were all out of them. So they upgraded me the Gen2 20amp one. I have 2 chargers from them onboard. The other one is a 6 amp charger, about 3 yrs old. It works and I only had that one problem with the 2 chargers in 3 years. So it HARD to complain, since they even upgraded the broken one for me.