www.iFourWinns.com

Hi guys,

I know there is an electrical forum, but I though i'd post in the Vista forum as I believe the Vista's are the only FW's with shore power systems.

Anyway, We have a 2005 248 and because even in Florida, it hasn't been any good boating weather over the winter, I haven't taken the boat off the lift for a couple of months. We wanted to take it out last weekend and we saw that the batteries are dead. The selector was on OFF for the break period. I believe the Volt Meter shows something like 3 V and even the blower doesnt come on (instruments and radio do work). I have a very small little 1 Amp 12 V charger and because I am not too "electrical" I hooked it up to the batteries for charging. However, the boat has been hooked up for 36 hours or so and the meters still dont indicate any improvement...

I have read there are a couple of different systems, so let me try to describe what we have. We have a single engine, dual bateries and a switch that says OFF / 1 anf BOTH. ( I guess it must say 2 somewhere as well, but I havent seen it and I am not at the boat right now). So now my question is if we can charge the batteries by just hooking up the boats' shorepower? Would the Vista 248 have come with a charger that would allow that? What to check for to make sure? Are there switches to position? And if not, what would be a good battery charger? We really take out the boat almost every couple of days and don't need a lot of charging, so we don't want to overkill it...

As always,

Thanks guys,

Richard

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Richard - FL - 2005 Vista 248

Your 248 should have a charger. When on shorepower, you have to have the top left switch(on our 268 at least) on the cabin breaker panel on, or it will not utilize the shore power connection, your boat will be on DC only, and the batteries won't charge.


You should also have a master switch on the battery switch panel, that can be turned off when not using the boat (in storage) This will cut all power to the boat, so any DC powered equipment will not drain the batteries.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Cap'n
Have you a close up pic of your breaker panel, showing this master switch?

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Regards
Beyond the Blue

"If we improve with age I'm now excellent"


Ex 1998 238 Vista 5.0Gi SX DP
Lexus RX300

Sorry, I don't have a picture of my battery switch panel. The information can be found in the FW manual for the 248/268. My explanation was not very good. I apologize for that. Per the manual, it is actually called the "Ships System" circuit breaker .

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

I can tell you that on my 2000 v248 I have a double pole shore power switch. This needs to be on in order
for the charger to work. My battery master has positions off 1 2 and both. On my 248 when charging, there's
a red light illuminated on the charger, there are 2 chargers on on board. When fully charged this light turns green.

I would caution you though, that putting on an external charger I would make sure that the shore power is off before
attaching or risk "possible" damage to the electrical system.

Forgive me if this sounds simplistic, but I had a similar problem this summer except that the #1 battery was not charging
so I needed a new battery and everything was back to normal, I would also re tighten the battery connectors just to
be sure.

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2011 Bennington 2075 GLi
2012 Key West 211 DC
2005 Four winns 180 Horizon LE
1997 Horizon QXsold
2000 248 Vistasold
2002 Key West 2020WA sold

Thanks all,

I haven't gotten onto the boat yet, but surely will this weekend.

Richard

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Richard - FL - 2005 Vista 248

Depending on age and exactly how far they drained (below11.5 to 12 volts) most likely the batteries are junk. They will not hold a charge once we let them drain down too far and let them sit without charging back to capacity.

A 1 amp charger would make a great trickle charger, but disconnect or remove batteries before using.

I recommend charging / topping of batteries once per month to prolong battery life.

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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
Videos

Thanks all.

The batteries charged nicely once the shorepower connected... I think you are right though in that they might be shot as they seem to discharge pretty fast now...

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Richard - FL - 2005 Vista 248