Bad Bow Thruster Power Cable on 2009 R25

J

jackxjoy

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Sep 13, 2021
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C-26
A few days ago my bow thruster and windlass went out on me. To skip over the various trouble shooting I did, I finally isolated the issue to the power cable running from the fuse to the thruster. I'm certain this cable is the issue as I jumpered over it with a couple of auto battery jumper cables, and both the thruster and the windlass work fine. Also, the resistance I measured across the cable is about 200 ohms, should be more like 0.020 ohms.

Anyhow, my issue now is what to do about it. Seems I can't find a way to non-destructively remove the cable and replace it. Anyone out there ever have a similar experience and solution?

A side curiosity is what would have caused the failure. I spoke with Ivan at Ranger Tug and he says the cable should just be a single line all the way, no splices, no junctions. Anyone have thoughts on that?
 
Replace the connectors on both ends. Corrosion inside them that can not be seen in a visual inspection could be the cause. Other option is the insulation was damaged and the wire corroded.
 
Assuming it is a single wire, it is unusual to have it fail. I would suspect the connections on either end. Some multimeters have very sharp leads on them to penetrate through the insulation on the wire. You could substitute using a small needle for a sharp test lead. Do be careful, small spaces and sharp objects do not always work well together, not that I would admit to any personal experience with stabbing my self with test leads. If it is the wire, you might be able to narrow down the location of the problem by probing along different sections of the wire
 
Thanks for your comments on the end terminals. I neglected to mention that I stripped back the insulation and measured the resistance from bare wire to bare wire, end to end. I will try moving down the cable, but there's not much access to be had.

Still a mystery to me.
 
Mystery solved. Today I was able to remove the cable - must access under the port-side seat and remove both end panels in the storage bay. Last year after I took possession of the boat, I found several rat droppings in the storage locker. Indeed, rats gnawed on the cable, it was corroded and by the time I was finished tugging to remove it, it had severed completely. The cable was wet around that spot, and it shouldn't be, so one more thing to chase down. Maybe the rat(s) gnawed on the fresh water hose as well. The decking in the storage bay - a single sheet of ply, which cannot be removed - needs to be tilted up to inspect underneath. Ground cable may have been gnawed on as well.
 
jackxjoy":2jnnllgi said:
Maybe the rat(s) gnawed on the fresh water hose as well.
Click to expand...

I believe all fresh water plumbing is on the starboard side of the R25. The thruster cables as you stated are on the port. The described damage to the 12 Volt cable may indicate years of moisture in the cable and or it was not marine tinned wire. The moisture and wet cable to me indicates an exterior leak possibly salt water intrusion. I would inspect the rub rail fasteners and all deck fitting fasteners for leaks. The damage that you described I have found in boats that have had high water at one time or other. Many times the type of damage that you found in one or two cables is not the end. I have purchased a few boats that I knew had a history of being wet. I purchased them for a restoration project. I went in knowing I may have to replace all 12V and 120 volt wiring. The boats that I found the worst damage to wiring were the boats that the manufacture did not use tinned boat cable. I have found tinned cable after the boat got wet from high water to have wire that was completely destroyed too. Many times the damage was found in a well encased section of the wire. When I cut into the wire the copper strands were green and just crumbled.

If I found the issue you found on my boat I would inspect other areas of the thruster cable that you removed. Inspect the wire under the insulation. If you find good tinned copper wire strands through out the cable this would indicate the damage was caused from the rat chewing the insulation off and an exterior leak causing the cable to deteriorate from continual moisture. This is probably the case and it is not caused from a wet boat. I thought I would mention this because I have seen this issue before after a boat got wet from high water. Hopefully the rat is gone and it was a one and done issue.
 
If I could figure out how to insert photos, I'd insert my image of the corroded cable, pretty yucky, completely severed and oozing green goop. Clear signs of tooth marks.

I managed to elevate the deck slightly, enough to snake in an endoscope ($20 from Amazon, everyone should have one). I found the ground cable also had a slight nibble on it, but no corrosion. After making sure there was no obstructions underneath, I cut out two holes for inspection ports, one over the ground cable. I cleaned the cable and slathered it with 3M 5200. Tomorrow I'll thread in a new power cable (26' @ $7/ft. West Marine, ouch!).

As for the water, I'm pretty sure it is fresh water - it didn't taste well, but not salty! I think the scuppers haven't been handling wash downs and rain. On the aft, port side there is enough of a "compartment" under the batteries and generator and partially under the storage compartment to hold an inch of water, which doesn't drain to the bilge. Seems to be a poor design to me, but maybe I'm missing something here. Anyone else have experience with this? Any solutions? Could be the same issue on the port side, I need to check that.

As a side note, in vacuuming out the area under the deck, I recoved the remains of Mr. Rat. Apparently he was not making the boat his home, but looks like he got trapped in there. I gave him a burial at sea.
 
The water under the compartments is trapped and will not drain if the limber holes are plugged. The Rangers and Cutwaters have a grid stringer system. If water gets into the storage compartments the only way out is through the limber holes. The limber holes in the Rangers and Cutwaters are basically 1/2" or 3/4" PVC pipe molded into the grid system. Many of they passages were plugged during manufacturing. (It is now on the inspection sheet to be inspected before leaving the factory) When I took delivery of my 2016 Cutwater the limber holes were full of closed cell foam and build debris from the factory. Many Ranger tug owners have had to replace all the wood in the storage compartments because of poor flowing or completely plugged limber holes. The water sits trapped and causes moisture and mildew eventually leading to rot. It is a good idea to get familiar with the location of theses "drains" and do a yearly inspection of them to maintain good drainage. I will post a picture of the location in the Cutwater. The Cutwater grid design is the same design used in the Rangers. Obviously not he same fit but same design. The location of the limber holes is about the same.

The starboard side limber holes mirror the port side. The only way for water trapped outboard side of the grid to get to the center bilge is by way of the limber holes.
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=69456

The cockpit drain system was and still is in my opinion a poor design. It relies on the cockpit troughs under the hatches to drain properly. They don't! If the boat has a list, (All Rangers and Cutwaters do) Mostly a port list! The Port side hatches will drain properly but starboard does not. The drains are located at the outboard side of the hatches. When the boat list to starboard .the trough fills with water and drains properly but the port side hatch troughs fills and over flows into the storage if the hatch seals are not sealing properly.

Aft starboard drain works good if the boat is floating level or listing starboard but if it is listing port the water will fill the trough and overflow into the compartment.
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=51081&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Aft port drains good if the boat is floating level or port list but if starboard list port side trough over flows and leaks water into the compartment.

Drain maintenance yearly and Limber hole maintenance yearly will help prevent water sitting in areas it should not be.
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=51087&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

I hope this helps you to understand the drainage system in the boat. I agree with your assessment
jackxjoy":3jwwdmdo said:
Seems to be a poor design to me, but maybe I'm missing something here. Anyone else have experience with this?
Click to expand...
 
@ Brian Brown: Thanks for the great info on the limber holes, I was completely unaware of their existance. I'll search around for them. Must be the problem. I pulled about 3 gallons of water out of the compartment. I'm not now so sure of my initial assessment of fresh water, so I intend to boil down a sample to see if salt deposits remain.

On the power cable, today I did snake the new one through the same passage as the old one. Thruster works fine. Now, to reassemble the boat...
 
Another potential source of leaks are the deck/accent lights low on the sides of the cabin and the trailering/running lights on the hull. On my boat they were just sealed with rubber gaskets which have long since dried out and are ineffective.
 
Yes, the rubber gaskets on my lights are half passed dead. I'll redouble my efforts to replace them. Thanks for the reminder.
 
I did find the limber holes. The one on the starboard side appears fine. The one on the port side is accessable by endoscope only. Hard to tell if it's plugged. I'm going to rig up an attachment on the endo to snake out the hole.
 
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