www.iFourWinns.com

I store my boat on a trailer in dry storage. Put the boat in Sunday and when I was on my way I noticed my battery gauge was showing 10 v. Headed back to the marina in the the morning and the gauges were showing 8 v. I parked the boat turned off the boat and looked in the engine compartment I noticed that two black breakers had popped next to my isolater. I reset the breakers started the motors and nothing. Changed switch to emergency start and was able to start the motors. I then started the gen and charged the batteries. The gauges were showing 12 + v. Went for a run and the breakers popped within 5 minutes. Went back to marina plugged the boat in and charged overnight. Batteries charged 100% went for a run and no problems. My question is do I need to replace my isolater or? Thank you for your advice.

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1996 278 Vista Dlx Twin 5.0
1999 Sea Ray 215 ex cruiser (sold)
1989 Seaswirl (sold)

Well that volt gauge is not a "full empty" gauge like a fuel tank that is telling me you have an alternator issue. I am willing to bet the that the alternator is bad. I would start from the beginning, hook a multimeter to the alternator and meter the output. (To weed out faulty gauge) then check wiring. If alternator has a spike and say is outputting 16v for example when should be charging at 14 it will blow a breaker so that you do not overcharge and explode a battery causing a fire. I'm willing to bet you have alternator failure. Also given that you had to use reserve battery to start the motor.

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Not Penny's Boat

1993 190 Horizon 5.0L EFI
http://www.smwebhead.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11136
1977 14' CMF Skiff SOLD
2015 Emotion Stealth Angler 11

I'd almost bet money it's the breakers.. Age and environment are not good on them.. I had similar situation, one that would pop occasionally, and one that flat out, wouldn't reset. Replaced both, and all is good.. Would recommend metering the alternators (as mentioned before) though before spending the money. I'm assuming you're talking about the breakers (70 amp in my case) between the alternators and the battery isolator...

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2004 Four Winns 328 Vista
1997 Larson Cabrio 290 - sold
1988 Rinker Fiesta Vee 248 - sold

As in above, after the ALT also meter the isolators too to see what there outputing.

I noticed on my friends 94 Vista he does not have breakers for his batteries. Do I need to have these breakers/isolator? On the boats from my past the wiring went from the engine to the switch to the battery. I do have three batteries on the boat so I believe I am able to dedicate each battery to the switch?

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1996 278 Vista Dlx Twin 5.0
1999 Sea Ray 215 ex cruiser (sold)
1989 Seaswirl (sold)

Breakers and isolators are 2 different things. A isolator will charge 2 batteries from an ALT, but if a load is put on one of these batteries. it will not draw anything from the 2nd battery. This will keep them seperated, load wise.