Changing onboard 3bank charger

[reata]

I'm replacing my ranger special edition 3 bank pro charger with a minn kota 330d charger and the cranking battery is connected by a 20ft cable hidden in the boat cavity. I disconnected cable from battery then cut the cable from old charger and was going to cut short 6ft cable from new charger and splice red 12ga wire to red and black to black. When I skinned back insulation to expose red and black wire, there is also 2 little black 20ga wires. before I cut new charger cable was wondering what purpose those 2 little black wires provided?

[delcecchi]

Did they go anywhere at the cranking battery?  Or are they just a remote voltage feedback to the charger so as to compensate for voltage drop in that long cable?  That is called "remote sense" in computer power supplies.  

 

Sounds like a call or email to Ranger might be the best thing.  

[reata]

You can't see them at the battery end, they must stop at the y junction where the red and black wires are exposed and each goes into an inline fuse then battery terminals.

[delcecchi]

2 hours ago, reata said:

You can't see them at the battery end, they must stop at the y junction where the red and black wires are exposed and each goes into an inline fuse then battery terminals.

They don't go anywhere?    That's strange.   Maybe some ranger guru on here will speak up.   

 

Sorry.  I know electricity but I don't know rangers.   

[reata]

thanks, I'm gonna cut the new cable and splice the red and black with heat shrink splices and if new cable has the 2 little wires I'll connect them too, and hope for the best.

[delcecchi]

Is it a ranger charger?  Now I am curious about the little wires.   A manual for the charger should be online, and the instructions might mention those wires. 

 

Got it....

From the manual I found online....

Quote

6

Each charge cable assembly is equipped with a temperature sensor located at the junction of each set of ring terminals.

So, the little black wires go to a temperature sensor in the cable.   Why they have that temp sensor is another question.   

 

So unless the new charger also uses the temp sensor, just forget them. 

 

http://www.dualpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/7-XL-Series.pdf

 

Edited February 18, 2017 by delcecchi

[reata]

thanks delcecchi, I'm going to do the install tomorrow, I'll let you know how it works out

[reata]

The new minn kota 300d didn't have the two 20ga wires so just spliced the black  to black and red to white from the charging cables, hooked all the batteries back up and everything is working again.

 

 

[Papa Bear]

On 2/18/2017 at 4:11 PM, delcecchi said:

Why they have that temp sensor is another question.   

 

 

 

Have seen this on some larger capacity chargers at work. Never have been completely clear on why it's needed either. Similar purpose to the temp sense on most cordless power tool chargers is my best guess. If the battery temp is above or below a set temp range it won't charge.