Fish-Hawk.Net

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz
I wonder where the birdies is?

Birdies make a lovely sound
I love it when they hit the ground.

All this talk in the last few weeks had me out visiting my hibernating boat. Low and behold, it became painfully obvious I had some work to do. As I watch the snow drifts, knowing the SW boys are doing river drifts, I put on boots and my FH toque and headed into the tempo garage.

As I mentioned before, I have one heck of a wiring mess to clean up.
Well, here is the mess that is the wiring in my boat ...
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

So, rather than try to clean that up, I decided instead to try adding the volt gauges that I picked up. (Cleaning sucks)
Scored these at Princess Auto for 8 bucks a pop. Decided since I was not sure if the ProXtraII was actually working, I'd install 2 gauges, 1 for the cranking battery, and 1 for the deep cycle.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

Here is the view from the driver's seat of where I see the gauges going.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">
Here is the underside of the console where the holes will come through.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

I had an old trailer wiring harness laying around. I dissected it and attached wire connectors for the battery side and the gauge. (I'm sure if there are any folks from the automotive industry they are going to cringe when they see my crimping and taping job).
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

Now, because this was a fresh start and I was running the wires down the passenger side as opposed to the driver's side, I figured I keep the wires neat, so as not to create the same mess I need to clean up on the other side (like pic 2). So I covered it all up in wireloom and used actual cable brackets.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

Fed the wires through, locked everything down, and then did a quick test to see if it worked. Deep cycle battery sitting nicely just above the 12v mark.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... _small.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

Now comes the part I hate. Time to drill holes in my perfectly good boat. Brings a tear to my eye everytime I consider it.
Second part of my dilemma is that if I mount the gauges flush into the console, I will not get a great view. So, now I am toying with the notion of somehow putting in a plate to mount the gauges on that will aim/ angle them towards the driver's seat so I can see better.

If anyone has any tips or tricks I should consider, now would be the time to offer them.
And, btw, not one word about how filthy my boat is ... I KNOW!!! I may make cleaning the boat a project for next spring. Too busy having fun adding stuff this year.

M.T. Livewell

for tilting the guage towards you, try searching www.Jegs.com , www.jcwhitney.com , www.guagepods.com and other places for aftermarket car guages... i believe that the guage there is 2 1/16", i'm positive i've seen tilting cups around somewhere, just can't remember wehre

autometer also makes guages aswell as faze, wonder if perhaps they'd have what you're looking for....

MT:

A reading of "just above the 12v mark" indicates that your battery is almost fully discharged. Looks that way from the guage. A fully charged battery should give a reading of approx. 12.6 volts.

You may want to take a close look at that battery

CCB

Those guages might not be the best bet for you. My experience has shown auto parts don't last worth a #@*%& in the boat. Depends how much you use the boat though I suppose. I've learned to bite the bullet first time so I don't hafta re-install later on....

G

I'm confused as to why you need these in the first place MT..... ...if the motor starts....you've got juice...

When your trolling motor starts to slow down....its time to charge your battery....

If that guage is supposed to read 12.6.......what is it reading now?

RJ

That guage is reading half way between 12 & 13 V,it only looks more towards 12 because of the angle .battery looks good to me.

Cancatchbass wrote:MT:

A reading of "just above the 12v mark" indicates that your battery is almost fully discharged. Looks that way from the guage. A fully charged battery should give a reading of approx. 12.6 volts.

You may want to take a close look at that battery

CCB

Tom, please explain for us simpletons!! Isn't just above the 12 possibly 12.6??? What'd I miss??? I think RJ's wondering the same no???

Thanks,

WIG

MT, voltage is not a good indication of a batteries condition. Bad batteries will read 12.5 volts or fully charged. However, these gauges should work for determining whether charger is working properly.

Batteries have a tendency to having an avalanche voltage drop off. That is, a battery's voltage will read just fine (12v) and then all at once drop to 3 volts. High current load tests are the only way of testing a batteries capacity and condition.

I just did not want others to think battery voltage was a good indication of its condition.

Good luck,
G

All I am saying is :

A fully charged deep cycle, lead acid battery will have a voltage of 12.6 volts or higher when measured across the terminals.

MT stated the guage read "just above the 12 volt mark". From the photo, angle or not, it doesn't look to me that the battery is showing a full charge. Only MT could tell if it was 12.2 or 12.6.

If 12.2 or 12.3 is what he meant by "just above the 12 volt mark", then he should maybe take a closer look at the battery- get out the ol' hydrometer, or take it in to be load-tested.

CCB

I have to ask why bother installing a volt meter at all.. what are they really going to tell you other than you're battery is plugged in.

If I may...

I believe CCB is trying to say this:

Yeppers!

That's exactly what I was getting at, R.U.K.!

CCB

Thanks again guys.

The battery reads about 12.2 (I'll say just from the pic). A couple of possible scenarios ...
1) I have not recharged my batteries in about a month, so probably do for another top up.
2) The connectors were NOT tightened to the terminals. Just layed on there to test the wiring and the gauge.
3) The battery is not new. In fact, is likely due for replacement this year, or at least a tune up.

So, now the why ...

1) I want to see the ProXtra2 kick in. Which means, when the chargers kicks over (on the water at 40mph BTW), I will see the gauge jump to 13+ volts, indicating a charge. I would have been just as happy with an LED. There are LEDs on the unit, but that does not do any good in my bilge area. Wish they had a cable run so that I could mount dash LEDs or something.
2) I suppose an ammeter would have been just as good to indicate a charge function
3) And most importantly, you guys have all just proved my point (well sort of). Will an LED tell me if my battery is sick - No. Will a dead battery tell me if my battery is sick - Yes, but too late.
I like gauges, they give a good real time idea of how the pieces of my boat are working. In fact, I'll add a lot more gauges if I can find the space and the money. Water pressure, oil pressure, water temp, etc. Right now, I am banking on an alarm to tell when it is too late.

Thanks guys. Any more advice is more than welcome.

M.T. Livewell

MT, a digital meter would probably be better since it would provide the exact voltage. A digital meter may draw more current or maybe less, not sure.

An amp meter would really be the ticket, it would tell if the battery was in the charging mode and would probably better indicate a sick battery by excessive or minimal current draws. The negative would be that the amp meter needs to be in series with the battery requiring heavy gauge wire to the meter.

I saw BPS has a battery gauge that lets you select between multiple batteries. I think they were $29.

G

He's a picture of MT's dashboard when everything is all said and done...

There's a steering wheel for everyone in the family...