www.iFourWinns.com

Guys, you have always given me the necessary input to solve problems. I trust you also this time. I am the Swedish guy with the Vista 278 from 2006.

On shorepower my Guest battery charger (2 x 10 A) charges the start battery. So far so good. The problem is that the house battery gets no charging. I have tested the voltage deliveret to the battery when the charger is on and it is only on the cables to the start battery that the voltage increases to some 13,4 volts. The house battery remains on the same voltage as before the charger was turned on. I have also tried to leave the charger on shore power for two days, but same result. No charge was delivered to the house battery. In fact - some decimals of voltage was drained from the house battery.....

On the charger, two green indicators ligths up when the charger is turned on.

I have checked the connections to the battery. They are really tight.

Your input will be much appreciated.

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Four Winns 278 Vista (2006)

lots of charger problems! Check the circuit breakers, there is one for the input and one for each output. Read the other charging thread for a little more detail.

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2008 V358 Two-tone Blue V/P Dual Prop 320 HP
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

There are fuses inside the charger for each output leg... i would check to make sure one of them isn't blown. We have seen that a few times here.

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Bryan Mutter

http://www.twincitymarine.com
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Thanks - this is interesting input. I do not find a manual for the Guest 2 x 10 A. Do you know where I can find it - or maybe you can tell me where to find the fuses inside the Guest charger?

BR /Rolf

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Four Winns 278 Vista (2006)

I can't remeber if there is a door on a Guest Charger or if you have to take the cover off. But the fuses are located near all the wire connections inside the charger.

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Bryan Mutter

http://www.twincitymarine.com
http://www.facebook.com/twincitymarineinc
http://www.youtube.com/user/twincitymarine
http://www.twitter.com/twincitymarine

Thanks. I had a closer look at the charger but could not find any fuses. It was only possible to open the lower part of it where the cables for AC in, and DC #1 and #2 out are connected.

It was not possible to open the charger from behind. The only place I could not check was the bottom of the charger (under where the cables are connected). Maybe I should disconnect the cables to fully check the charger to find the fuses.

But, on the other hand, would both "ready" lights be on if the fuse was damaged?

/Rolf

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Four Winns 278 Vista (2006)

Hi,

I see you have exactly the same boat ('06 v278) as me and exactly the same problem!
My house battery is dead (10.5v) yet my starter battery is charging. I'm not sure if its the charger or the battery being drained by ome other fault.
Did you check the volts when connected to shore power with a multi meter? I'm slightly nervous of playing around with 220v flowing. Did you find the fuses? I'm happy to scan the users manual and email it to you if required.

Any other tips?

Thanks,

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Oliver
'06 V278
Singapore

Same charger on my 248 and I had the same problem. lights on the charger but one battery wasnt getting charged.

Read on the forums the charger had internal fuses but I couldnt find any, probed the wires at the charger and both had output to the battery. I ended up taking off the panel that the battery switch is on and there were two 15A inline ATC fuses from the charger to the battery switch and one was blown. Kind of a silly place to hide fuses IMO, not sure if the 278 is the same or not.

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2006 Vista 248 5.7DP - SOLD
2011 Crownline E6 - SOLD
2007 Sea Ray 260 Sundancer

So just behind the red battery selector as you step from the transom into the seating area?
Weird place to put it but at least that should be easier to get to than in the engine room.

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Oliver
'06 V278
Singapore

Hi guys,

Another question in the quest to find my power failure...
My house battery has been drained and is reading sub 11v....

Anyway, even if Im connected to shore power my radio and even the bilge pumps are not running as the battery is dead. Should these not be running on shore power when its available? They work when the engine is running.

If so does the 220v (or 110v in US) come in via the battery switch to the charger and then onto the rest of the boat? ie if the charger fuse is blown could that stop the flow to the radio?

Clueless....

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Oliver
'06 V278
Singapore

Yes, the battery switch on mine is mounted to a small panel with a couple circuit breakers, four screws and the whole panel comes off.

This is how I went about it: boat running both, batteries @ 14v. Boat not running, nothing on, both batteries @ 13.2v. Plug in shore power, one battery @ 14.4v and the other at 13.2v, both green 'ready' lights were lit on the charger. My GPS has a voltmeter so its easy to see whats going on.

So I did some research into the Guest 2x10 charger and a lot of people said it has internal fuses, I took apart whatever I could and saw nothing related to fuses. So I disconnected both batteries, with the charger plugged in only one batterv was getting voltage measuring off the disconnected positive terminal. Both red wires out of the charger were getting voltage so I followed the wires from the charger assuming they went right to the batteries, but the wires went to the battery switch, when I pulled off that panel there were three inline fuses, two from the charger and one smaller one to the cig lighter plug on the panel. One of the 15A fuses from the charger was blown, replaced it and all is well for a season.

The 12v acessories do not run directly from shore power (unless they are plugged into an AC outlet with its own transformer), they run off the battery and the battery charger is supposed to keep the battery up to charge. Naturally if you have a 10 amp charger and are using 20 amps worth of 12v power the charger cant keep up and you will start draining the battery.

So after checking the fuses which were A-OK I finally realized the charger is not even lighting up when the shore power is on. The main control panel is reading 220v (Im in Singapore) so shore power is working but the charger is dead. Any ideas ?

How does the charger connect to the main? I'm guessing I should not mess with the 220v end of the charger? Any tips or should I be leaving this to a professional?

My starter battery is still showing 12.5v - could this have survived a long time without a proper shore charge? The hous e battery is dead complement to the radio and windlass...

Cheers
Oliver

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Oliver
'06 V278
Singapore

Hi to all!!

I read MOST of the past posting. First off, all charger must have some form of protection, a fuse or breaker. I use ProMariner and they have in-line-fuses at the battery end of the cables. Guest could use some form of a self-resetting breaker. By disconnecting ALL power (AC & DC) for 10 to 20min it could reset it self. If there are no fuses or breakers, it is a very poor charger!!!!

In general, I would check the battery for "some" voltage. In other words, it did not short it self out. The charger should be putting out "about" 14.5-14.7 volts, off the top of my head. Check the specs on your model. If not, thats a problem!!! Also, "How old is you're battery??" Most wet cells are only good for 3 years. The AGM type last 2 to 3 times longer, with more out-put current. Also, check the the charger is, getting 120 or 220 volts in?

Hope this helps!!!
Paul

HellO!
Schamatic 1995 238/258 Vista Dual Battery which may help.
I was reviewing the electrical schematic. The way it shows output power from the Charger is a follows.
Shore Power Switch ON
Charger Terminal #1 red wire to Terminal #1 on the Battery switch= Direct DC flow to the battery#1= Charge
Battery#1
There is also red wire from Charger Terminal#1 AFT fuse box which in turn powers up the AFT BILGE-RADIO-REFRIG
Charger Terminal #2 red wire to Terminal #2 on the Battery switch= Direct DC flow to the battery#2= Charge
Battery#2
GUEST MANUAL
Green and red led lights blink on and off= Blown DC output fuses due to the charger being attached tot he batteries backwards - Replace fuses-Unplug Ac power-Remove charge cover-Inspect both fuses- Use ONLY a Buss ATO 20 amp.
CAP'T ZERO

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CAPTAIN ZERO

Since I am the one who started this topic I just wanted to give you guys a summary from my side.

I took out the Guest charger from the engine compartment and realized that it had no fuses. This is the case with all Guest chargers that were factory installed on the 2006 model. (and probably also other models). This is an OEM version of the Guest charger. OEM versions from Guest has no fuses inside the charger.

I was sure that the charger was damaged. I made a complaint to Guest and got a new one for free. Impressing service from their side. I only had to pay freight to get it to Sweden. And it was delivered on my door by UPS. I even did not have to send the "damaged" one back.

When I had connected the new one in the engine compartment the problem was still there. Only one of the batteries was charged.

The solution to my problem was found in the post written by kp47; one of the fuses behind the battery switch was blown. Please follow the instructions as listed in the post by kp47 posted on Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:02 am.

Case closed from my side. Thanks to all who gave input and helped me solve this.

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Four Winns 278 Vista (2006)