ProMariner ProSport Charger

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markm

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Jan 14, 2009
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Fluid Motion Model
C-24 C (Sterndrive)
Vessel Name
Mark Twain
Guys,

I have a Ranger 21 (old design) it has two batteries and a ProMariner ProSport Charger. The charger charges the non-starter battery but not the starting battery. My understanding is the charger will charge two batteries. The main switch in the pilothouse is a 1, 2 both or off switch. As far as I can tell it makes no difference what position the switch is on. Every once in a while I need to jump the starter battery. Am I doing something incorrect here.

Greatly confused

:cry:

Mark
 
Mark, I am not familar with the brand charger in your tug but my 2006 has a Guest charger which is not right for charging two batteries. I know they set the older tugs up such that the charger charges only the house battery. Both are charged by the alternator but not the on board charger. The boat is wired to start with the start #1 battery and is wired to start regardless of the switch position. You have to turn the switch to 2 in order to use the house battery. If in an emergency your start battery is down then you can put the switch to both and start the boat with the house battery. I don't think that there is the proper separator to try to charge both in the both switch position. Supposedly the cranking of the engine does not pull the #1 battery down such that 15 minutes or so of engine time will not bring it back up to full charge. On the other hand you tend to pull the #2 battery (house) down to a deeper discharge with things that may be attached so they hooked the charger to it to bring it back to full charge. The switch is not of a lot of use other than a way to access the house battery for a start if the cranking battery is down and it isolates the house battery if you had a short in something and were away from the tug. Lightening got my charger once and I talked to Andrew about this situation and he convinced me to just stay with what I had. On the new EC's they have gone with an entirely different approach, charger, switch and all.
Ron
 
I looked up this charger on the web. Go to promariner.com and enter the prosport model. I downloaded the manual for this model and there are instructions for troubleshooting the problem you described. In essence, the batteries should charge regardless of the battery switch position if (1) the charger was hooked up correctly, it bypasses this switch entirely and is direct wired to each battery bank and (2) the battery switch is hooked up correctly, that is, it intercepts the red/positive wires between the battery and the breaker panel or engine. The problems, as mentioned in the manual, could be a blown fuse from the AC panel to the charger, the cables to the batteries are not connected (missing or broken) or the charger could have an internal problem.

Your problem is fixable with a bit of analysis. Download the manual, check you connections, then check the integrity of the charger itself. Promariner is a decent brand.
 
John,

I checked the manual and it was wired correctly. I check my master switch and it was switched to "off". I turned it to "both" and let it go overnight. This morning both batteries are charged.

Sometimes you have to be smarter than the equipment you are attempting to work with!

:shock:

Thanks for the suggestions.

Mark
 
Mark:

Isn't great to be able to have access to so much advice, though? There is a wealth of knowledge on this website and I don't mind admitting some fairly knucklehead errors on my part. I'm looking forward to the R21-EC Owner's Manual for sure!

Texas Steve
 
Mark,

I'm confused. I thought the battery charger was hooked directly to the batteries and didn't go thru a battery switch. That's been the case with my boats. I also understood the both position only allowed current to flow out of the batteries and that the alternator was also hooked directly to the batteries bypassing the battery switch.

My 2009 R-21 EC has a single on/off switch for the house batteries; it is located under the helm. I checked the charging leads from my battery charger and they go directly to both battery banks. I thought my alternator charging leads did the same. I'll recheck those. There isn't a battery switch for the starting battery.

Gene
 
On the older R21's we did the setup a bit differently. We used a 1, 2 and 1+2 battery switch that allowed you to parellel the Engine and house battery together. That also allowed you to put the switch in parallel and charge both batteries with a single bank charger.

The downfall to this was we were getting alot of warranty claims for bad alternators. What was happening was some of our customers were running the engine and then turning the switch off while the engine was running and killing the diodes in the alternator. We decided to eliminate any possibilities of doing this by only have a switch for the house and using the engine key switch as your other cutoff for the engine battery.

This stuff can be very confusing, especially over text 😀 Hope this makes sense to you guys!
 
Btw. I was never aware that we used the Prosport battery charger on the R21. As far as my knowledge went was the guest "single" bank charger.

Please verify which model of prosport you have. There are many types of pro sport chargers made. This will help me determine your configuration.
 
Andrew,

Turned the switch to the "BOTH" position and both batteries are fully charged.

Thanks

Mark
😳
 
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