Battery cut off/ power options

[Zac93218]

Im running two marine deep cycle batteries hooked up to some wierd looking switch ive never seen before that has no buttons levers or switches...i was told the switch would make it to where the stereo would run off one battery and if it died the other battery would still start the boat. The guy I bought the boat from said he didnt think it was set up right. How do I check it?

Plus my stereo only turns on with the key on causing my hour meter to keep ticking...how do I change this. My 98 tige only has 200 hours and I dont want to add up a bunch of fake hours to the meter.

[skippabcool]

Pictures would help us determine what you have and what you need to do.

[Zac93218]

Ill try to get some pics in a couple hours

[Zac93218]

[IMG][/IMG]

[Zac93218]

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These are the best pics I could get seeing as how I have to completely crawl into my storage space to get to them :/

[chpthril]

What you have is a simple Heavy-duty continuous duty solenoid. It will close and combine the batteries when the key is on and open to isolate the batteries when the key is off. If done right, its a simple way of allowing the house (stereo) battery to be charged when the engine is running, but not allow the stereo to draw from the starting battery when the engine is off. I put one in my work van 2.5 years ago. I run a 3K watt inverter that power a laptop, light, soldering iron, cellphone charger, drop lamp, etc. The inverter is run off a group-29 deep-cycle.

The fact that your stereo is only on when the key is on, makes me wonder how the whole setup is wired. Im willing to bet that that solenoid is also energised with the key on, therefore, your stereo is pulling off both.

A volt meter would go along way in finding out how the system is wired. Its also easy to relocate the stereo so its on its own toggle switch.

[Zac93218]

well i just wired in a new stereo head unit last weekend. When doing so i noticed that the power wire for the old head unit was hooked up to the ignition (just like a car or truck would be). i went ahead and hooked up the same because i didnt know how to trouble shoot and hook it up the way i wanted at the time.

If i bypassed the power wire to the ignition and hooked it straight to the battery would it then just work by simply turning the head unit on or off? thus making it to where the key does not have to be on...let me know if that isnt the proper way of doing it. Im still waiting on my new starter to get here on tuesday so sometime this weekend im gonna crawl in there and check my batteries with a volt meter and see whats going where....but im not sure how to determine all this.

I was told by a family friend who likes to jimmy rig EVERYTHING that all i need to do is disconnect one battery at a time and try starting the boat to see which one cranks it and then hook up the power wire from the head unit to the other battery solving my stereo battery problem....but then i would still need to find out if the solenoid. will this method work?

[chpthril]

well i just wired in a new stereo head unit last weekend. When doing so i noticed that the power wire for the old head unit was hooked up to the ignition (just like a car or truck would be). i went ahead and hooked up the same because i didnt know how to trouble shoot and hook it up the way i wanted at the time.

If i bypassed the power wire to the ignition and hooked it straight to the battery would it then just work by simply turning the head unit on or off? thus making it to where the key does not have to be on...let me know if that isnt the proper way of doing it. Im still waiting on my new starter to get here on tuesday so sometime this weekend im gonna crawl in there and check my batteries with a volt meter and see whats going where....but im not sure how to determine all this.

I was told by a family friend who likes to jimmy rig EVERYTHING that all i need to do is disconnect one battery at a time and try starting the boat to see which one cranks it and then hook up the power wire from the head unit to the other battery solving my stereo battery problem....but then i would still need to find out if the solenoid. will this method work?

Well, I can already tell you that the battery on the right in your pic above is the one wired as the primary starting battery. But, if that solenoid is wired to the "Ignition/ON" terminal of the key switch, then its closing when the key is on, and the batteries are combined.

As far as the head-unit goes. Its got a yellow B+/MEM wire that needs to be wired to the "House" battery and a small red remote turn-on wire that needs to be switched by either the key switch or a toggle switch. Now, you can run that red wired direct to the battery, then use the on/off button on the head-unit.