With much cursing and swearing, Liam spent a good hour in the engine bay, fiddling with wires and connections at arms length before declaring it installed.
We plug in the boat, turn on the battery charger and watch the ammeter and voltmeter with bated breath................and nothing happens. Hmm. Heads scratched, wiring to the charger checked, all seems good, the charger claims to be charging the batteries but still no sign on the ammeter or voltmeter.
It was getting a bit late in the day now for further fiddling, the light was fading and Liam had had enough, so we shut the engine hatch, reassemble the cockpit upholstery and sit down to think about what could possibly be amiss now.
Our current thinking is perhaps a fault with the wiring to the ammeter and voltmeter which is giving false readings on the gauges. We will find out tonight when we get back to the boat as we have left the boat plugged in with the charger turned on and the fridge turned on. Now according to the ammeter and voltmeter the batteries were registering just 12v this morning, pretty damn flat, so in theory if the ammeter and voltmeter are right the batteries will be completely dead this evening when we get back to the boat. On the other hand if our theory is right and the wiring to the ammeter is at fault then the batteries will still be working the fridge and the battery charger should have switched itself into float mode. I suppose we will find out tonight who is right!
It does look as though we have gone the long, and expensive way around finding out the charger wasn't at fault though. Liam has taken our old Newmar charger to work and found it is functioning as it should be, currently charging up a battery on a classic car in the workshop. Oops!
Looks like we now have two battery chargers!
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