Nautique and triping breakers

(jonblarc7) · (jonblarc7) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 07-12-2007, 6:50 AM

Normally my boat runs great but the past few times this year it has triped the 60 breaker which kills the whole boat. Which also means I can't raise the back hatch to get to the motor so I have to take the back seat out crawl into the motor compartment through the back of the seat and trip the the breaker!!!! This only happen after I shut the boat off never while I'm running any idea's what could be setting this off

P.S. I installed a ballest system this year but the pump is wired directly to the batteries Upload

(peter_c) · (peter_c) **Join Date: Sep 2001** 07-12-2007, 7:36 AM

You need to find out what the current draw is. It could be a high current draw or simply a defective breaker.

When you are accessing your rear hatch do you reach in and pull the pin, then open the hatch manually?

(jonblarc7) · (jonblarc7) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 07-12-2007, 8:25 AM

I have pulled the pin but usually I just try to reach the breaker from the other side.(I have long arms)

(peter_c) · (peter_c) **Join Date: Sep 2001** 07-12-2007, 8:31 AM

Immediately after it blows is the circuit breaker housing hot? That would show a high current draw. Find someone with an amp meter that will read to at least 40 amps and see what that puppy is drawing. It should not be drawing even 40 amps.

Check to see what you leave on, like blower, lights, stereo (How big of a system?), and other components.

There could also be something that goes right to ground every once in a while and pop goes the breaker. The wiggle test would help determine if that is the cause. Did it die going over a wake?

(jonblarc7) · (jonblarc7) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 07-12-2007, 9:46 AM

No never dies while the engine is on just once I turn it off. Then when I go to push in the ignision switch I get nothing.

(jonblarc7) · (jonblarc7) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 07-12-2007, 9:48 AM

do I need to have the boat running when I check the current

(rodmcinnis) · (rodmcinnis) **Join Date: Sep 2002** 07-13-2007, 11:50 AM

Do you have amps installed and are they connected through the same breaker?

Here is the deal with that breaker: the alternator feeds the circuit on the load side, not the battery side (which I think is stupid, but thats the standard way its done).

Because the alternator feeds the load side directly it will provide power to the circuit that does not pass through the breaker. So let's say you are cranking the stereo and your amps are pulling around 80 amps from the 12 volt line. When your engine is running the alternator will provide 40 amps or more of that demand, which means that the battery supplies the rest (40 or less). The circuit breaker only sees the current coming from the battery, and being a 60 amp breaker it is happy.

Now you shut the engine off and the alternator output goes to zero. Now all 80 amps has to come from the battery, and the circuit breaker sees it all.

If you have amps installed then I highly recommend that you wire them to a dedicated fuse/circuit breaker that connects directly to the battery istead of overloading the boats original electrical system.

Rod

(sbt3) · (sbt3) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 07-13-2007, 12:21 PM

It could be just a bad breaker. I had something similar happen to my old mastercraft years ago and the breaker was just bad and would pop from time to time. I put a new one in and didn't have any more problems.

(jonblarc7) · (jonblarc7) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 07-13-2007, 1:06 PM

Rod I have one amp but its running directly to the battery. Last night I went out to a local lake and rode for about 3 hour with no problems so I think it might be what sbt3 said and the breaker just went bad. Thanks for the input though, sound like you know what your talking about.