www.iFourWinns.com

My (new to me) 278 Vista has given me its first 'gift of the boating season"

I noticed yesterday that my battery charger breaker was off. I always leave it on, when on shorepower. Ive had no problems with the battery charger whatsoever until yesterday.

Turned it back on, the breaker instantly tripped. I opened the compartment where the battery charger is and inspected it. I turned the breaker on again and it tripped instantly. I also started the genset and tried (thinking maybe it was a less than stellar shorepower ground or voltage, et al) but same thing Fearing the worst, I stopped trying and we went and overnighted on the hook.

I have two group size 31 AGM batteries (new). I dont know if this makes any difference.

Anyways, as far as I can tell its a Guest 2815 dual bank 30a charger. Im certain its the one installed from the factory (I am close friends with the past owners and the boat only has 90 hours on it!).

How to troubleshoot? Are these chargers known for dying suddenly like this? Help?

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Ok I went out with a multimeter and Im getting 12v IN to the charger, when the breaker is on. However, the only readings I get from the outputs are the battery voltage (i.e. its not putting out anything) and neither lights are on the charger.

I guess the silver lining to the story is West Marine is having a charger sale this week.

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Ok so Im the only one who has replied so far so in case anybody reads this in the future...lol..I went out and bought a Mastervolt 20a 3 bank charger for $269 at West Marine. Have a friend who installed the same charger 2-3 years ago and it came highly recommended. The install was easy and its definitely a 'smarter' charger than what I had in there from Four Winns circa 1997!!

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Well, I will reply to just to thank you for the information. I wish others would give some input with their experience with this.

Considering that I just located mine and it is so rusted that the housing is gone!

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1992 Baja 38 Special Twin 502 Mags

03 Stingray 3.0
88 261 Liberator 460 King Cobras
95 Bayliner 1850 3.0
77 Fiber Form 20ft 350/385hp
70 Wescraft 1800 SS 455 Jet

Lead, Follow, or get the Hell out of the Way!

I may be late here since you already purchased another charger but the problem may not have been your charger in the first place. Did you check the size of the circuit breaker that is tripping? I believe that Four Winns frequently undersizes wire gauge and circuit breakers. I could not find the manual for you Guest charger on their website but I did review the current model 30 amp dual battery charger, it states that the 20 amp circuit should have a 25 amp circuit breaker and the 10 amp circuit should have a 15 amp circuit breaker. My 3 battery Guest charger was 20/5/5 amp charger, Four Winns installed 20/5/5 circuit breakers when they should have been upsized 5 amps each. The result is that you will frequently get nuisance circuit breaks by using the undersized circuit breakers. I would also check the existing gauge of wire and compare it to the reccommed length for DC connections.

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2004 Vista 298
Twin 5.7L Volvo Penta GXi-E

So very true! I would have first looked for a bad connection on the AC side, but you have already replaced it.

I I have been using ProMariner for the past 3 years. So far so good. What I like about them, they will load share. So in this case, 3 banks & a 30a charger. It will split the 30amp to were it is needed the most. So if one battery needs 20amps and the othe two 5 amps each. The ProMariner charger will do it.

Thanks guys. I multimetered the battery charger before I replaced it and it was getting 12v AC IN. Just outputting nothing, no green/red light, no activity.

Well, after I removed the GUEST battery charger, I could see why

I took the heatsink off the bank and the big grey case off, a big piece of the inside circuit board (2" x 2") was completely melted. It looked like a mini-nuke bomb went off inside there...lol.

In my case, the 15 year old charger gave up the ghost. The new Mastervolt 20a charger is doing an outstanding job.

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Good, you found the problem!