Pro-Mariner 2 bank charger and a bad battery?

[MuleShack]

a few weeks ago I put my 2 batteries in the boat to hook up the 24v trolling motor system. I have a 2 bank pro mariner charger mounted in the boat and wired to these 2 batteries. It was in since 07 and worked fine. I hooked up the + and - lines for each battery, then hooked up the + and - wires for each charger bank to each battery and then run the jumper wire accross to get the 24v. I tested it and the trolling motor worked and the lights lit up on the charger so I left it alone.

3 weeks later I was making sure the batteries were charged for my first trip out this year to mille lacs. There were no lights on the charger...it looked dead. I hooked up my car charger to each battery individually to put a charge on them so they would be full for my trip the next day. (Yes I removed the jumper before charging) The first battery looked fine spiking up to 10volts on the meter and then settling down during the charge.

The second battery jumped up to 30 when the 10a charge was applied and then slowly settled down to 12 on the gauge. I'm assuming that this battery is bad cause i never saw a battery do this before. Can a bad battery wreck my pro mariner charger? Is there a wrong way to wire the chager lines up?

They have the wiring diagram in the boat but that is for the 24v...cant remember if I did something different last year with the charger wires.

[walleyemaniac]

I've got that setup in my boat. ProMariner ProTournament 100 I've only got one light on mine though red when charging green when fully charged. Wired the same as you though, jumper wire btween the two batteries to make 24v. Red wires on charger to positive terminals on both batteries and yellow wires to the negetives. In the manual it says to wire 24v this way each battery (or bank) is isolated. I wouldn't think a bad battery would wreck the charger cause one of the inline fuses should have blown before any damage would have been caused. Did you check those? Don't know about that 30v spike though never had one do that before, but if it settled down to 12v and held there, I would say it's fine. Usually if you have a bad cell or something like that I think they read weak. I would have that battery load tested just to be sure the battery is good yet. Did you try your trolling motor, is it working fine? I know if I have a battery go bad it only runs about half open like your running on drained batteries.

[MuleShack]

The trolling motor still runs but its not on a full charge.

I just checked the front gauge and batt #2 shows 60% and batt #1 shows about 25% so neither one can hold a charge very well, but #1 is really bad. I didn't get a chance to use the trolling motor on Sunday due to the high winds so it drained down with out any use.

I guess I should start with new batteries but still wonder why the charger died. I did check the fuses and they were both good, so it didn't have a surge or anything. I guess I'll have to pull that out and check it out sometime.

[Hoffer]

Hey guys - I have the same promariner charger I think. Its a 2 bank. It was working fine today and then I went out tonight and the green power light was off and wont come back on. I unhooked it for awhile to let things settle down and still nothing. You both mentioned fuses. Where are the fuses on this charger?? i followed all the wires back and looked on the charger itself and everything is self contained...I figured I may have just blown a fuse - but sure cant find any fuses?? (I didnt install this so I wouldnt know where to look unless they were on one of the cords to the batteries (which i checked) or else somewhere I just cant see?

Thanks-

Hoffer

[Whoaru99]

Mebbe the charger isn't bad, but rather staying off to protect itself from damage.

My older Minnkota charger seemed to need to be disconnected from batteries and from the AC for a minute or two to clear its brain from a fault detected on battery output.

[walleyemaniac]

My Promariner has the fuses about 4 o5 inches from the battery hookups. The fuse holders are red with the spade type fuses. I hope whoever installed it didn't cut the cords to fit cause the fuses would be gone then.

[jeffreyd]

http://www. pmariner.com/images/ProductPhotos/images/protournament.jpg

[jeffreyd]

Have you looked at the manufacters HSOforum? there is a ton of info on there.

[MuleShack]

I have the prosport 12 and it does say to remove the cables to each battery then to plug back in to AC and see if there is current. I haven't tried this and will test it tomorrow...hopefully it is just vapor lock.

I did replace my bad battery, but also read that they should both be replaced....more $$$$