Main breaker tripping?

[markmonkey1]

While running on engine power, my friend's boat tripped the main breaker (red push button at engine) minutes after turning on a set of halogen lights, installed by previous owner. everything shut down, including engine. (Not a good feeling 8 miles offshore in the dark!). The halogen lights work fine when we're plugged in at dock.

What would cause this trip? Bad wiring? Need bigger alternator? Where should we start looking to correct? Thanks!

[L&M]

Wire them into a separate fused buss bar off the battery or fused directly to the battery. If I were to guess they have them wired into the ignition/start circuit that runs thu the engine breaker your referring too.

[ray koziatek]

whew ...if the battery was weak the big draw could draw reserve faster than engine can charge,putting large continious draw.... connections and wire size are important,,,,breakers (most all I know) trip due to heat caused by amperage draw. so its as simple as that...If the lights are your biggest (main) power draw still causing issues after checking all wire and connections ya might consider LED lights .thay ain't cheep but draw just a fraction of power as your current lights.

[ray koziatek]

oh what he said too never thought about poor install..

[markmonkey1]

I don't want to wire directly to battery; when we're at dock and plugged in, I want the ship-to-shore power to run them. Will try wiring to fuse block behind dash. Thanks.

Edited August 5, 2014 by markmonkey1

[ray koziatek]

Like I said POOR INSTALL ,could be a issue,,Just so you know Hank....L&M has been doing all phases of boat maintiance for longer than most of us have been alive....and it is a well shared opinion that he is one of the best on lake O,and safe to say NY..But with that said keep doing what yer doing the way ya wanna,,,, the good news is you will only be in the dark till sun up ,,unless ya fry the wires and have a nice electrical fire that should give off enuf light to set rods..

[jigstick]

First off, throw those halogen lights in the trash.  they get blazing hot and pull a crazy amount of amps.  If you are running a lot of electronics, ie big sonar display, autopilot, temp probe, radio, vhf, flood lights, deck lights, running lights, cell phone charger, etc...i bet you are getting low voltage for sure, even if your alternator is large.  that is a tremendous rapid drain on a deep cycle battery.

 

replace those halogens with some of the newer LED spreader lights.  They are just as bright, and pull about 1amp, which is nothing. And they dont get hot.

 

If you insist on keeping the halogens, I would be looking into a larger deep cycle battery, new 4g wire, new Blue Sea Systems fuse panel, and updated thicker wire to all of your electronics, especially those lights.

 

The breaker most likely tripped because they pulled too much power or the amperage fluctuated so bad that there wasnt enough juice to run anything else.

Edited August 5, 2014 by jigstick