R23 DC breakers and battery monitoring

[sleepyboat]

Good morning,

I believe that all the Rangers, from the R 25 to the 31 have a three position switch and DC volt meter to see the status of the batteries. I am not familiar with the 21 and don’t know if they have this feature.

There is a digital meter on the 23 and I noticed it was displaying the incoming AC voltage and I didn’t investigate much further than that until I started looking at the pictures I had taken of the power panel (port side, rear wall, in the cave). All breakers are AC and not a DC breaker or switch to be found. All DC switches seem to be at the helm and are push button breaker protected. There are also, a couple of fuse blocks in the head, on the pull down access door to the back of the helm.

So if I want to kill the power to the trim tabs (which are electric) I can pull the fuse or turn the house switch off. All DC control that I was used to on the 27 are gone on the 23, unless I am really missing something.

Any thoughts from the factory, or anyone who has a 23?

John

 

[Andrew Custis]

Hello John,

On the R23 you do not have DC voltage monitoring unless you want to view it through your Garmin display (system voltage) or your Yamaha display. This will allow you to see the house power and engine power but not the thruster.

You are correct that we are moving away from the DC breaker panels on many of the boats. If you want to kill thruster power, you turn off the battery switch located in the starboard cockpit hatch. If you wanted to kill power to the tabs, you would turn the house battery switch off. We have been running our Cutwater boats this way and Ranger 29 this way for years now and seems to be much easier than always forgetting to turn that trim tab breaker on or Navigation plotter breaker on. No power changes or anything like that just a little more user friendly in the end.

Thanks John! 😀

 

[sleepyboat]

Andrew,
Thanks for your prompt response. Having had solar on my 27 and now on the 23 (delivered about 2 weeks ago) I always checked battery status after getting on the boat, then the fluids. This told me the panel did its job and the charging relays were working properly.

I was pretty sure I would get the voltage for the house on the Garmin and the same from the Yamaha display. Thruster, not so sure about that. Now I know.

It funny how things happen. I have been in contact with the new and excited owner of the second 23 delivered to Winter Island Yacht Yard. He was having an issue with his chart plotter having him in the middle of an island in Boston harbor while he was well off shore from it. He decided to power down and reboot. When he went to power up he got nothing and later noticed that plotter felt unusually warm/hot. He called the dealer and one of the first questions asked was (you guessed it) how are the batteries? Without a meter on board this could not be done. Back at the dock he called me and after some switch throwing I had him shut off all the mains and disconnect shore power and start again on Saturday. Before doing this he said the chart plotter was still hot. That all being said, he could not check the house battery from the screen.

I do see and understand the direction you are going in because in have been guilty of cursing the trim tabs for not working and discover the breaker was off. I am old but more importantly “old school” and have located a handsome Blue Sea digital DC gauge, with a three position selector switch to status all three batteries and will be my first project once I take delivery.

Thanks again Andrew,
John

 

[knotflying]

I can see eliminating breaker switches and just have fuses, but I would definitely want to see my battery voltage regularly on all batteries. Having an instrument that relies on battery voltage to operate to then give you the battery voltages seems like a catch 22. I would definitely add a meter to monitor all three batteries.

 

[Andrew Custis]

I do not disagree about having some sort of battery monitor. My personal boat doesn't have one and I have not added one because my trusty handheld volt meter works just fine for me. If someone wanted to add an analog or digital meter to the system that could be done quite easily.