www.iFourWinns.com

I was replacing my batteries today because 1 went bad. I am still trying to figure out how the batteries are isolated so I had the battery switch set to OFF disconnected 1 battery flipped the breaker and the internal systems came on. I reconnected the battery and disconnected the other flipped the systems breaker and all the systems came on. So now it looks like the 12v systems draw off of both batteries. Now I am confused and wondering if my starting battery is really isolated from the house battery. Anyone have any thoughts?

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2000 268 Vista "Reely Nauti"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rivercruiser

Your batteries all need to run your 12 Volt systems because of the position your battery switch is in otherwise you wouldn't be able to use one battery as a backup for the others. For example if your on Bat1 then you are feeding the complete boat with only this battery. Bat 2 feeds only from that (or those) batteries. Both draws from ALL batteries.
The switch is a true disconnect/isolator or combiner depending on it's position. This is why it is critical to place your switch on Bat1 to start the engine, switch to BOTH while running so that you charge all your batteries and then switch to Bat2 while anchored so that you are drawing off your 'house' batteries. This way you always have your starting battery available to start your engine and then charge the house bats (by switching to Bat2 or ALL)

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Marc, Kathlin & Nathalie


'89 Chaparral Laser 32

'93 Vista 245, 5.8L w/ King Cobra

Former Boats
'01 H260, 7.4 VP Duoprop
'98 H200, 5.0 GL w/VP SX drive

The switch on the 268 vista is different, you have "off" "on" "parallel" and "ship systems" On is the recommended position for normal operation, in that mode the alternator is supposed to charge both batteries but not allow the start battery to be drawn down. Or that is what they say...

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2000 268 Vista "Reely Nauti"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rivercruiser

First ... here's how you should be using the various battery selector switches, on the 268 Vistas:

You should have the main battery selector AND a circuit breaker switch, on the electrical panel. The circuit breaker switch is for "Ship's Systems" and powers all of the accessory 12-volt systems on the vessel.

Normal operation is to turn the battery selector switch to "ON". This will power up the engine systems via the starting battery. Turn the Ship Systems breaker switch to "ON". This will power up everything else. In these positions, all 12-volt systems are operational and all batteries will be charged, when the engine is running. When the engine is not running, all of the non-engine 12-volt systems will pull from the "house" battery (or, ship systems). The starting battery will be isolated automatically.

If you turn the battery selector to "OFF", this will disconnect all batteries from THE ENGINE SYSTEMS. However, if the ship-systems breaker is still ON, all of the 12-volt ship systems will still be operational, via the house battery (batteries). If you also turn off the ship-systems breaker, then all 12-volt systems (except the bilge pumps) will be OFF.

Your normal running settings should be to have the battery selector set to ON and the ship systems breaker ON. If you had a dead starting battery (for what ever reason), you can set the battery selector to PARALLEL (or BOTH) and then you will have the house battery in parallel with the starting battery .... in effect giving the starting battery a "jump" so you can start the engine. In this position all batteries are in parallel and are powering everything. Once started, return the selector to ON ...... This will re-isolate the house and starting batteries and all batteries will be charged.

Here's a bit of info, from the owner's manual on the wiring and the function of the system:

http://www.fourwinns.net/ownman/248-268VOwnMan/Sec-h248268lr.pdf

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Gordon Arnold
New Hampshire

2003 268 Vista ..................................................................Prior: 97 245 Sundowner

Wow! I guess I shouldn't have assumed the switches are all the same.... My theory stands for the Horizons anyways! Thanks for the information (aka bailout) M3eater.

What is the "Ship's Systems" position for? Is this the position that will only draw from the house batteries without relying on the integral isolator of the "on" postion?

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Marc, Kathlin & Nathalie


'89 Chaparral Laser 32

'93 Vista 245, 5.8L w/ King Cobra

Former Boats
'01 H260, 7.4 VP Duoprop
'98 H200, 5.0 GL w/VP SX drive

The Ship systems switch/breaker just turns on the non-engine 12-volt systems, from the house battery, only. The starting (engine systems) battery is fully isolated.

With the main battery selector switch in the ON position, only the starting battery is connected to the engine systems .... there will be no "house" power connected at all. You must turn on the ship systems breaker/switch for the ship systems to function.

The house and the starting batteries are always isolated (for discharge) unless the selector switch is set to PARALLEL.

and .....

All batteries will always charge, no matter what, unless the main selector is set to OFF.

Aside from the info in the owner's manual that describes this (can be confusing though), this was one of the first things that the dealer (Melvin Village) made sure that we understood.

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Gordon Arnold
New Hampshire

2003 268 Vista ..................................................................Prior: 97 245 Sundowner

Thanks for the write up Gordon!

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

Thank you for the information, now lets see if there is a problem.
2 batteries A,B

Disconnect "A" battery turn switch to "On" engine does not have power, turn systems breaker on house has 12V power. This should establish battery "A" as starting battery and "B" as house battery. correct??

Reconnect "A" disconnect "B" turn switch to "On" engine has power. Turn systems breaker on house has 12v power.

"A" should be my starting battery and isolated from the house systems if I have read everything correct. By having house power supplied when ONLY the starting battery is connected does that indicate a bad isolator or a bad battery switch?

This is where the confusion is, I am getting house power when the breaker is on when I only have either the house or starting battery connected.

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2000 268 Vista "Reely Nauti"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rivercruiser

Thank you for the information, now lets see if there is a problem.
2 batteries A,B

Disconnect "A" battery turn switch to "On" engine does not have power, turn systems breaker on house has 12V power. This should establish battery "A" as starting battery and "B" as house battery. correct??

YES

Reconnect "A" disconnect "B" turn switch to "On" engine has power. Turn systems breaker on house has 12v power.

NO .. House SHOULD NOT have power

"A" should be my starting battery and isolated from the house systems if I have read everything correct. By having house power supplied when ONLY the starting battery is connected does that indicate a bad isolator or a bad battery switch?

This is where the confusion is, I am getting house power when the breaker is on when I only have either the house or starting battery connected.[/quote]

Well .... HOUSE should never pull from the starting battery if the selector switch is in the ON position ..... And, HOUSE should never have power if the SHIP SYSTEMS breaker is off.

Soooo .... I would guess (from afar) that the isolator is not right, or the battery cable set-up, to the isolator, is incorrect.

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Gordon Arnold
New Hampshire

2003 268 Vista ..................................................................Prior: 97 245 Sundowner

Worked on this a bit more over the weekend. I switched my positive wires and besides making the once house battery the starting and vice versa everything remained the same. I am wondering if the switch has a voltage sensitive relay in it?

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2000 268 Vista "Reely Nauti"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rivercruiser

This is a timely topic. I read this while on the boat this weekend as I was working on my batteries. As a reference here is the battery switch for my Vista 278 which has a starting battery and a house battery.



I was replacing my house battery because I seemed to be getting no life out of the house battery at all. After a lot of troubleshooting and coming up empty I made the decision to try a new battery. I replaced only the house battery with a group 29 marine battery. I thought that would be the end of my problems however I encountered the same results with the new battery leaving me to believe the old battery was not bad at all.

I do have a battery voltage indicator that plugs into the 12V receptacle on the boat dash. The indicator rarely goes above about 12.7V and this afternoon I watched it quickly go from 12.45 down to 11.4 in the span of about an hour. This causes a number of problems in the boat including me needing to get up last night at 2AM to shut down the pump and vac flush system because of the low voltage. My refrigerator does make some strange sounds when running on the battery so I'm wondering if that could be part of the problem. How do you know when a refrigerator goes bad? Can it be drawing the battery down prematurely.

It seems to me when the boat was new I could spend the night and my battery would be low but still operational in the morning. I make it a point to run the genset in the evening while preparing dinner to charge the bats and usually will leave it on for a couple of hours before shutting down for the evening. I know there was some discussion before about life everyone was getting from there batteries but I swear mine has diminished greatly.

I am having radio problems also but I don't think that is related to this issue. The darn thing will actually come on and cycle in the middle of the night. Now I can't even get the controls to work on the face of the thing. I'll post more about that problem in a different thread.

I'm going to have my electrician friend go through the boat with me next weekend but he has looked at this with me before and we couldn't come up with anything. Maybe someone else here has experienced this or has an idea where I can look next.

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2008 Vista 278 Volvo Penta 8.1 Gi 375 hp
1999 Horizon 220 5.7 GSi

Dennis something must be wrong. We were out over the weekend, and I barely ran the gen. Fridge was on all night, and I have small group 24's right now.

Best bet for both of you is to pull out the factory wiring diagram and start verifying its correct. Turns out my holding tank gauge was wired incorrectly from the factory.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

With our 2 group 27s we can stay on batteries for 3 days with the refrigerator on, listening to music, and watching movies at night. I just replaced both batteries and and switched from a 27 for the house to a 31, now I have all kinds of power. If I can just get my battery isolation problem fixed I will be a happy camper.

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2000 268 Vista "Reely Nauti"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rivercruiser

Did you have the problem before you switched batteries?

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

Yes I did that's why I thought the old battery was weak. I plan to take a multi-meter to the boat and go through the fuse block one by one. I'll turn everything off and see if I have any draw going through it. If I don't have a leak I plan to check the refrigerator and radio circuits next. I'll just start eliminating stuff one by one.

I really didn't have much time over the labor day weekend to troubleshoot. My wife will be on a trip this weekend so I'll have time to check everything out. I still can't help but wonder if that fridge isn't going out. I guess I need to find out what that should be drawing on the DC side. Better start looking for the manual.

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2008 Vista 278 Volvo Penta 8.1 Gi 375 hp
1999 Horizon 220 5.7 GSi