Alumacraft Electric Issues

Never even got a chance to figure out why a light and our front hummingbird hooked up to the terrova quit working last year, and now the back hummingbird and motor won’t start! My dad said he tried starting the hummingbird at the console and it said low voltage and would not power on, and the 115 yamaha also would not start. He got a new battery in the fall, so I can’t see how that could be the issue.
I just don’t understand how a boat that is only a couple years old could have so many issues. Poor installation??
Anyway, I think we are gonna need somebody to help us fix it, as we are not master electricians, and if somebody has any ideas as to whats going on that would be good. I’m assuming its just a short or fuses, but we checked all the fuses to try and figure out why the front hummingbird quit working and never could figure it out yet.

Is there something that could be pulling a small draw on the battery while it is not in use? Do you have a GPS puck hooked up directly to the main battery? Something to check out.

Did your father properly store the battery he bought last fall?

Good Luck,
FDR

Take it down to holmen marine i bought a new dominator 2008 with a 2009 yamaha 115 it started doing the same thing yours did when they rigged it they had somthing bare haven’t had any trouble since

Do you have a volt meter? All is just guess work without one.

i’ve got a 175 navigator with an e-tec and had a similar battery problem that drove me nuts. inside the engine check the negative battery cable and make sure that is solidly secured. my battery cable is connected to starter via a post and the thing loosens enough that it rotates. this interrupts the ground and affects charging of the battery. after a few times on the water the fresh charge on the starter battery would be gone and sometimes it would trip the master power relay cutting off everything. no start, no power tilt and trim. after awhile it would reset and i’d be on my way. very annoying, simple fix though.

Is it possible that the battery just wont last as long on this boat as I think it should? I know the motor’s alternator should recharge it, but if we don’t make long runs with the motor running alot could it be that we just have to charge it more? Kind of sounds like a dumb question….

I just figured it was another electrical issue though, since we are having problems with the front fish finder too.

A volt meter will tell you battery charge and you can pick one up from radio shack or places like that cheap.

But yes it’s possible your short tripping it with enough restarts to deplete the battery.

I made the mistake of getting only a 2 bank on board charger for my 185 Tourny Sport and ended up on pool 4 with a dead battery.

Now I throw a trickle charger on the starting battery and let it go over night before I take the boat out.

Al

Red, constant starts with no runs in-between will take its toll on a battery. As one other posted suggested though, you should double check to make sure all connections are tight and clean to the main battery. If they aren’t you won’t get a charge from the motor. If you have a volt meter, put it on the battery and see what the voltage is. Probably going to be in the 12.2-12.8 range. Start the motor and watch it, it should jump to 13.3-14.4v. If it doesn’t then you aren’t getting a charge. If it does, then perhaps you have something else wired to that battery. You could do the simple test and just turn everything on in the boat then disconnect the battery and see what turns off. Maybe the original owner wired some lights or something else? Could be an accessory that needs to be cut off once the power is killed. The other obvious thing I suppose is to check the level of the battery. You can either get a “Load tester” or take it to a battery place and have them check it too. You might find it has good voltage but the cranking power is gone.

If all else fails, just make a 5 minute run with the boat when you’re done fishing and let it get a little charge. If you run the electronics all day and only start the motor for quick runs then you’ll probably want to throw it on the charger every other time you go out. That’s what I’ve been doing. I found myself with a dead main battery on Mille Lacs one day. That sucked! I learned my lesson though.