Charger / Inverter protective Shield

[dbsea]

Has anyone devised a plastic shield of any sort to protect the inverter charger in your boat? Mine is in the starboard cockpit lazarette on my c30-CB, and when it’s pissing down rain and I open it, water inevitably drips on the charger. That can’t be good!

When we returned from cruising in Puget sound last night the charger had some gremlins- showed power to the panel (ac main light was on), but zero AC voltage after I plugged in the shore power. Charging Cable led light was lit up. Powered the charger on and off a few times, nothing. Swapped cables, nothing. Inverter mode worked fine. I left it on and after a few mins it kicked into charge mode. Not sure if the water question is cause and effect here but…

Picture of my setup here:

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0hG6XBubsGED9

 

[GaylesFaerie]

I had a similar issue with water intrusion through the port seat/hatch and dripping onto the generator causing corrosion. I found some thin sturdy plastic sheet like that used for those roll up cutting boards and fabricated a drip shield to cover the generator. I fastened it with zip ties to some cables running horizontally behind the generator, so now any water drips onto the locker floor and out the drains. Next time I'm at the boat I take a picture so you can get a better idea of what it looks like. Gary

 

[knotflying]

As a precaution I bought a 2X4 light fixture plastic panel at Home Depot. I cut it a bit longer than the length of the inverter and a bit larger to go from the floor to the underside of the gutter. You have to bend it slightly to get it under the gutter and It stays in place perfectly and any water that may overrun the gutter just slides down the plastic.

 

[GaylesFaerie]

Here is a picture of the generator shield I created:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/09ryBpl ... 6HCBv_RbPg

The main goal was to prevent salt water that enters from the seat hatch above from dripping onto the generator and down onto its back side where the starter hot and ground wires are located and unaccessible. The ground connection had corroded so much that the generator would not start and the whole genset had to be removed to fix it. While on the shop bench I had the service do a full maintenance and clean up as well.

I bought the material at Home Depot for $10 and fabricated it so that there is a one inch rim around 3 sides so that water drains off the front. I used pop rivets and small bolts to make the corners and sealed them with 4200. I punched one hole in the back lip and ran a zip tie through it and fastened it to some heavy gauge wire that runs behind the genset. I don't actually insert the end of the tie into the locking end to make it easy to remove. When the seat/locker lid is closed it prevents the shield from going anywhere.

HTH, Gary

 

[dbsea]

thanks both. TAP plastics will do custom plastic work fairly cheaply. I'll probably do something similar to what both of you have described. Need to take some measurements and get to it. So many projects! Can it just be summer again already and be back in the Islands?!? 🙂