www.iFourWinns.com

I have my 268 hooked up to shore power and was wondering if the "ships systems" toggle switch needs to be on or off to charge the batteries? Everything is working just doesnt seem to be charging very well if at all.

Thanks for your input, been reading the manual so much don't remember what exactly it said on it.

Mark

Our 268 allways charged even when the ship system breaker was off. You may want to check at the charger its self, there should be a green light on if its working, red if not, if no light at all its not getting power.

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Current Boat - '04 328 Vista "Be As You Are"

Previous Boats
'04 268 Vista
'97 238 Vista
'94 210 Marada
'88 175 Sunbird

Your charger is 120v A.C. The Ships System is 12v D.C. Two complete different things.

As a starting point, make sure the you have 120v A.C. at the panel and the main must be on. Then make sure the breaker for the charger is on too. Than I would check the charger to make sure it's power light is on. If not, than check for 120v at the charger. You may have a bad charger or a break in the wire to the panel.

I suggest buying a multimeter, I couldn't imagine not having one handy on the boat for the kind of question you have. Set to DC volts and the probes on the battery battery terminals you can check the voltage with the charger off and in charging mode. The $10 multimeters work fine for this kind of application.
A secondary voltmeter for the house battery on the dashboard is another option.

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John
2006 Four Winns Vista 278 (sold)

I assume in your electrical panel that you have a 12 volt gauge?

If so, you could turn your battery charger off and turn your ship systems switch off and then turn your battery charger back on and see if your 12 volt gauge spikes up a bit. "A bit" will depend on the state of your battery charge and the accuracy of your 12 volt gauge itself. This would be a quick check to see if your battery charger is intended to work with the ship system off.

A better check would be as previously suggested use a volt meter to verify your battery voltages before, during and after a charge.

Mike.

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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

To answer the question of the correct position of the ship's system switch during charging, it should work either way.
The battery charger on my Vista is wired so that the positive wires from the charger are in effect wired directly to the battery without switching. The diagram explains it.

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John
2006 Four Winns Vista 278 (sold)