Bass Tracker Cranking Battery/Charging Problem

[richg99]

Throw the Guest charger away and buy a quality charger

What brand do you suggest?

[mrc.in.wi]

Throw the Guest charger away and buy a quality charger

What brand do you suggest?

Minn Kota or Dual Pro

[TritonTRXV8]

The guest charger does leave alot to be desired. Dual pro sportsman.

[G4bama]

I use a 3 bank ProMariner ProSport Gen3 20AMP onboard charger. Cheapest place that I found when I bought mine was Amazon

[Lape0019]

What size battery? If it came from the factory, it'll be a 24 but what are the CCa's and RC numbers?

I can't tell you that you don't have other problems but a 3 year old group 24 will have issues running all of that. I've had the same issues when running 2 graphs. And the flicker of the lights when trimming up or down is normal. It may. It be as noticeable with a bigger battery though.

[berudd]

So, you said at WOT you are only seeing 10v? That is almost certainly not correct. When that happened to me, it was because I had blown a fuseable link coming off the alternator. But I have an Optimax 15 so there is no way for me to know if that even remotely applies to your motor. I'd want to check with Don in the Mercury Fourstroke section. I did have a 2004 60 fourstroke and it had a voltage regulator go out. If was cracked open perhaps due to over heating caused by a bad thermostat which was causing me vapor lock like issues. But I digress...

Here's my thread of chasing a similar issue with my 150. Note that my actions are what blew the fuseable link so think if it's possible you did something similar. http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=802998

I'd suspect you need a new battery. The Grp24 is marginal at best. I like to Autozone Duralast Grp27 DP. There is a 5 year old one in my Tracker that my dad still uses and I just put one in my Triton. Two thumbs up. But, consider the Duracell and Napa commercial batteries. They are both Grp 31 batteries and have specs that seem excellent. People here have given them good feedback. I'd probably have tried one of them if I had not discovered them the day AFTER I bought my latest Duralast.

Your charger may, or may not, be up to the task but I don't think it is the root cause of your issue. I think you just have a worn out battery that was only barely able to do the job to begin with and a motor that is not charging correctly. If you resolve those to things and you still don't get a full day on the water, consider a new charger but I would not start there. And I'm not sure I trust the battery testing you can get a most places. I tool my PM-1 back to Sears and after running the test for a couple of hours they told me it was fine. That's why I chased other ideas before getting a new battery. Well, they were wrong. After putting in a new Duralast all my problem went away.

[monty97]

I had the same issue as berudd. I have a opti 115 that was not charging and it was the 100 amp fuse on the cable that runs from the alternator to the battery. Find your alternator and trace the red wire until you find your fuse.

[Fuentes2807]

Hey guys thanks for all the info. So I took her to the dealer, battery tested "good" with their load tester. Started the motor, wasn't charging the battery at all. He then checked under the engine cowl and found a BLOWN FUSE! Son of a... I'm embarrassed to say but hopefully this will help others in the future but I didn't know there were more fuses under engine cowl. My mistake. Had I known, I would of found it and replaced it myself and saved me a trip to the dealer. Noobie mistake right there. Anyway they replaced the fuse, no charge. And verified that the charging system was operating properly. Awesome. I'll replace the cranking battery with a larger one once it goes out.

[Fuentes2807]

Oh and one more thing...
When I got home, I plugged the charger in and noticed the LED indicator lights on the Guest charger weren't coming on. New problem. Looks like I'll be in the market for a new and better on board charger. G4bama, I think I'll look into your recommendation of the Promariner on Amazon. Might as well put a 3 bank charger in it in case I decide to add a 3rd battery in the future.

[richg99]

Thanks for re-posting. We all learn something on this site, every day!

richg99

[berudd]

Hey guys thanks for all the info. So I took her to the dealer, battery tested "good" with their load tester. Started the motor, wasn't charging the battery at all. He then checked under the engine cowl and found a BLOWN FUSE! Son of a... I'm embarrassed to say but hopefully this will help others in the future but I didn't know there were more fuses under engine cowl. My mistake. Had I known, I would of found it and replaced it myself and saved me a trip to the dealer. Noobie mistake right there. Anyway they replaced the fuse, no charge. And verified that the charging system was operating properly. Awesome. I'll replace the cranking battery with a larger one once it goes out.

Did he say what fuse it was? If it is the same one that I blew then it can not be visually inspected. On mine you can't even see the fuse without taking it off the motor. You have to run the motor and check voltage across the alternator which will be around 24v if the fuse is blown. So, nothing to feel bad about here if it is the same thing.

[Basskisser]

It might be as simple as a blown fuse. When I had my 2013 PT 175, it stopped charging the battery. I could run down the lake and watch the voltage drop. Turns out it was a blown fuse. It was under the cowling towards the front.

I had a 24 series battery in the Tracker and I couldn't run my Helix 5 and 7 together without it running the battery down. I have a 27 in my Ranger and haven't had any problems.

Looks like I got one right!!! First time for everything.
Glad it got fixed. Like I said, it happened to me. I took it to the dealer, also.

[Weez556]

Could anybody post photos of where this fuse is on motor ? So others know where to look esp. if out on water or a nice vacation trip. Will location of fuse vary on motor HP and year of motor ? Don't forget to carry extra fuses in boat.

[Fuentes2807]

I'll post a pic when I get home. Not a bad idea.

[berudd]

Could anybody post photos of where this fuse is on motor ? So others know where to look esp. if out on water or a nice vacation trip. Will location of fuse vary on motor HP and year of motor ? Don't forget to carry extra fuses in boat.

Well, like I was saying, its not just a fuse that you just pop out and replace. It is a cable with a built in fuse that goes from the alternator, across the top of the engine and connects to a post with several other cables on the other side of the engine. It's also not something I would enjoy changing while leaning off the back of my boat on the water. Feeding it through and getting all stuff wired tied back up was enough of a pain in the driveway. But, that was just my 150 and not sure about the 60.

[Fuentes2807]

So I tried to upload some pictures of fuse locations on the motor over my phone but it's not letting me says file too big.

[Fuentes2807]

Aha. Figured it out. So the picture is taken of the front of the motor. The picture in the left shows the two fuse boxes with the caps on and the pic on the right shows the fuse boxes with the caps off.

[berudd]

Yeah, that is definitely not what I had to deal with LOL.

[Fuentes2807]

True. Super simple. I should have known to check under the cowl.

And I just received my new on board battery charger. I went with the ProMariner ProSport 20+ Generation 3 20 Amp charger Amazon delivered it today. Sunday. Awesome. Anyways, holy crap this thing is huge compared to the one that came from the dealer. Any mounting ideas? It will certainly not fit on the transom in the same spot as the guest charger

[richg99]

The reason that I went with a 2x charger instead of the 3x charger was size. I couldn't get the 3x in my available space on the back of the battery well.