Marinette Boat Forum

When we went up to do the bottom paint last weekend I noticed quite a bit more corrosion than I previously had seen. It was all on the port side from the area under the batteries forward to the front. The previous owner had started a lot of "upgrades" at the same time, some of the wiring being one of them. I have everything hooked back up and working but I am not sure what the best way is to find my voltage leak. Does anyone have any ideas how to proceed? Thanks, Mike

Curious about this as well.

Boatin2 wrote:When we went up to do the bottom paint last weekend I noticed quite a bit more corrosion than I previously had seen. It was all on the port side from the area under the batteries forward to the front. The previous owner had started a lot of "upgrades" at the same time, some of the wiring being one of them. I have everything hooked back up and working but I am not sure what the best way is to find my voltage leak. Does anyone have any ideas how to proceed? Thanks, Mike

We need more information including some photos, in water with electric hookup how batteries are hooked up and installed, wiring etc.



safe boating,

dave

How do I post photos? Every time I have tried it says file size too large, even on my lowest resolution. The batteries are in a wood tray. There are several wires running to them directly. I have yet to identify all of them but I know the battery charger and I am assuming the bilge pump, wiring harness. In the water I usually leave the shore power on and the battery charger on all the time as I live 3 hours away and sometimes its a couple of weeks between trips. My dock neighbor was having a lot of issues last season so I am not positive the problem is on my boat but it seems likely.

Mike

Is your dock neighbor on your port side? If so, and you don't have an isolation transformer on your boat, than I would put money on your boat being the ground path for your neighbor's. I will not leave my boat plugged in until I get an isolation transformer.

He is on my port side. Yes, I do have a galvanic isolater.

Since you did not say I assume your boat does not have the capac corrosion monitor system. If it does what readings are you used to seeing, as in late last summer.

Yes I have a capac meter. When I first launched it was reading 0.9 and after I was in my dock it read 0.65 the rest of the summer. I did hook up a fresh water pump, and the spot light then. I should of checked it after leaving the marina but never thought too.

isolation transformer

I can tell you this. When I restored mine last year I was shocked to see the damage. My struts (see post I made with pictures last year) were severely eaten up and bottom damage was concentrated in spots where I couldn't determine why. Turned out upon close inspection cutlass bearings were brass and every sacrificial anode was of an incorrect material. That combined with what had to be stray current in former owners marina wreaked havoc on the aluminum. Interesting enough after restoration, she now lives in salt water, the zincs I purchased from Boat Zincs are actually deteriorating right on schedule and we are now have approaching 6 months. I intend to pull her out and inspect closely soon. Oh and the readings have been all over the place I think because with all the flooding the Colorado River keeps the intercoastal and the marina water all over the place.