kicker/charging issues

[chowder]

I'm starting to look for a culprit in my charging/ battery setup after having the batteries go dead after trolling w/ my kicker supposedly keeping things charged up. I've got a brand new Yamaha T8 which seemed to keep things charged up for the first 6 trips of the year, but the last 2 times out I've had the riggers, AP & electronics die for lack of juice. Fortunately, I can start the kicker manually if I have to or things would have been a lot worse!

I would think that a properly functioning T8 would keep 2 'good' batteries charged for a day of running the riggers,sonar,gps,and auto pilot and that the batteries would then have plenty of snap to start up the main engine to run in?

[johnnywalleye]

sounds like a bad alternator to me.take a voltage test and see what it is puttinout...or it could be as simple as a loose cable connection,,and so long 4 now;john

[spoonfed-1]

Quite sure a T8 would keep the batteries juiced if everything was as it should be Andy.

First I would check both batterys and make absolutley sure you don't have a bad one.

Glen

[ray koziatek]

what glen said on the battery (1 bad) but my honda pull has a 6 amp charger but only at higher rpm, On a dead calm day (buffy weather) my one battery (all i have ) will give me" low batt warning " on my vhf screen ... thats pary of issue with pull starts or any smaller motors ...kinda defeats the pourpose of savin gas but you could toss a small trollin bag just to keep the rpms up to a better charge rate...on breezy days with rpms up going in wind i never get the "low batt warning"

[chowder]

Ray/Glen; I'm suspicious of one of the batteries too and I pulled it out yesterday, planning to check or just replace it and go from there. -Andy

[chowder]

Well, both batteries are good so I guess I'll have to check DC voltage from the kicker at typical rpms.

[spoonfed-1]

Good luck Andy. Sorry wasn't the easy fix for you.

Glen

[ray koziatek]

just so ya know you wont read voltage off the 2 wires there is a little guy in the moter that wont turn on the power unless its hooked to a battery and voltage is needed,(load)

If your killin 2 batteries in i day of trollin your changing lures too much, or ya got the a/c set to low,or your 600watt mega bass booster amp is too loud ,or ya got a short or current draw somewhere on the boat im thinkin the last.....with my old nonchargin kicker i would get all day with 1 batt with juice to start main no problem..

[YodaMage]

600 watt mega bass booster amp..

Is that pointed up for rolling with the homies or down as a depth charge? I imagine the boat looks like this:

[chowder]

just so ya know you wont read voltage off the 2 wires there is a little guy in the moter that wont turn on the power unless its hooked to a battery and voltage is needed,(load)

If your killin 2 batteries in i day of trollin your changing lures too much, or ya got the a/c set to low,or your 600watt mega bass booster amp is too loud ,or ya got a short or current draw somewhere on the boat im thinkin the last.....with my old nonchargin kicker i would get all day with 1 batt with juice to start main no problem..

Yea Ray, I do know how to check voltage from the alternator (I are a farmer after all) As far as the total electrical draw goes, here's a couple interesting things;

1. I never got the batteries unhooked last fall, never charged them up and the boat cranked right up this spring. So if there is a constant draw, it can't be very great.

2. I went out for browns 3 times for 4-5 hrs/trip and then fished a 2 day tournament before this situation seemed to present itself. Now I can't seem to go more than a day w/ out charging the batteries.

So, I'm thinking that maybe the alternator or voltage regulator (which is probably internal anyway) in my practically brand new kicker is not working correctly.

[holy mackerel]

I had the same problem on a 9.9 Yamaha, it turned out to be the charging coil (under the flywheel) there are three seperate coils in that assembly. and you have to replace the whole assembly.

Good luck, not a bad job, an impact wrench is handy to remove the flywheel nut.

p.s. bad or dirty battery connections will also cause this.

[chowder]

Thanks Mackerel, checking voltage tomorrow, should have the verdict soon.

[chowder]

Latest installment; kicker is putting out what appears to be adequate voltage but I'm wondering about amperage. Started the main a couple times while fishing today, maybe I'm just gonna have to do this or maybe I've solved the problem by pulling the batteries and tightening stuff up?

[ray koziatek]

Great that ya got the problem fixed ....But it seems like loose bolts and connections might of been the first thing I as A non farming ,back yard mechanic, total idiot in the proper way to check for voltage type of guy,,,,,might have done.....oh well Im always learing or never learning....... PS. trolled for almost 20 hrs straight ,through the night with lights on,radio,and fishfinder couple days back and the elect system was fine with the kicker output.....But i dont got no loose bolts,,,,,maybe a few loose screws tho!!!