House battery charging from twin DF175 Suzuki's

[Any_Weather]

Gday guys, just interested in how people with twin 175hp Suzuki's are charging their house battery?
My reason for asking is I am blowing fuse links on my aux charging circuits. A bit of background info, motors are 2012 models, pre lean burn. Fitted to boat in late 2014. Reputable dealer fitted engines and fully wired new boat. After 18 months and 200 hours, I was out at Musgrave with a flat house battery. No dramas, swap house wiring over to a start battery for rest of trip. When back on sure found both aux charge fuses blown. Lucky this was our last trip of a 2 week stay.Ring dealer and got new fuses and some spares. No explanation found? 12 months later after another 100 hours, same place and they both blew again? Rang dealer and was told that he has had a few of this same scenario recently and is chasing Suzuki for some info. The short term fix was to remove one of the fuses and only charge from 1 engine as the issue is only on twins.
I did this and the 2nd trip out after holiday was last Sunday and I have blown the single fuse?
What I am interested in is how should I be charging this battery? Some people are now telling me I should not be using this aux charging setup and should be going from my start battery to my house battery via a VSR? If anyone is using the aux circuit, would it be too much trouble to have a look and tell me what position your fuses are in? Originally the fuses were in both the standard and optional positions. After blowing them the first time I put them back as they were. When they blew a month ago I put one in the standard position in one engine and one in the optional position in the other engine. I am now thinking they should both have a fuse in the standard position and only one with the optional position.
The start batteries are consistently 14.6/14.8 volts when running with blown fuses on the optional circuit.

Any info is greatly appreciated whilst I wait for Suzuki to get back to me.

Cheers
Lee


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[Chimo]

Lee

"people are now telling me I should not be using this aux charging setup and should be going from my start battery to my house battery via a VSR"

This is how my twin motor set up was wired by a marine electrician years ago. He actually builds a automatic battery controller that he wired into the boat. No switches or controls that I have to operate. It simply connects the house battery to one of the start batteries after the motor has started and disconnects the house battery
a when the motor is started (to protect the electronics in the boat and
b if the house battery voltage drops too low so the start battery always has sufficient power to start the motor.

Simple cheap and after 17 years use i can say its durable too.

Who ever told you what they told you is probably on the right track so sticking with a system that seems to have issues does not appear to be the way to go IMHO

Cheers
Chimo

[Any_Weather]

Thanks for that Chimo, might be time to investigate the change.
Thanks for the reply
Lee


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[NomadNoosa]

I have no idea of your set up but what gauge wiring is running to your house batteries and have you added anything to the house circuits that may be draining them faster? The only (uneducated) reason I can come up with is that your house batteries may be drained somewhat and drawing more power than the fuses can handle.

Also have you checked you haven't dropped a cell in your house batteries that may also be causing the same problem? It may be worth checking that by pulling them out and charging them/it and seeing how fast they/it drop voltage.

I agree with Chimo that a vsr should be able to solve your issues but it sucks when a designed system doesn't work properly.

Good luck with it.

[Any_Weather]

Gday Nomad, mate nothing extra. Just the basic sounder, gps, bait tank pump etc. No winch or fridge or anything that would drain big power. I gave it a full charge yesterday so I will see how it holds. It is heavy gauge wire, bigger than 6mm2, maybe 10mm2 if that is a size. Only a very short run of maybe 1 meter so should be up to the task.
A VSR seems to be the answer but as you say, it is designed to charge a house battery so yeh, disappointing .
Cheers
Lee


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[Noelm]

The 175 has built in extra charge facility I think doesn't it? If this is what you are using, then there is something wrong, no need to add extra "stuff" to complicate what you have.

[Any_Weather]

Gday Noelm, yes that is correct. They have the provision for an additional charge circuit which is what I have been using. I am not sure the issue really, some say charging 1 battery with 2 currents may be an issue? I have been googling and found a BEP battery cluster in America that I think is designed to charge 1 house battery with 2 engines. It has 2 VSR's. It is BEP part #CC-803N. I haven't found anywhere on the net here in Aus that supplies this. If I can't find a solution with the existing system, I think this is how I will have to go. I am tired of worrying whether my battery will last the trip or not


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[tenzing]

Mate the 175 has an aux charge circuit, if the thing is set up to use it .
No need for Vsr.
Mine went fine for about 500 hrs.( Then new donk,also has it DF200a)

You cant just charge one battery from each motor hey?
No need for aux in that case

[Flex]

are you somehow mixing the two charge circuits(auxiliary/main)? so your house battery is only connected to the charge auxiliary circuit and everything else on that circuit separate from the two main batteries?
would you have a rough diagram on how your boat is wired?
Also what size fuse do you have on that charge circuit?
cheers

[Any_Weather]

Hi Tenzing, I am charging a start battery for each engine off each engine, so 2 start batteries charging individually, and then a house battery that i believe can be charged by either both engines or either engine depending on where the fuses are placed?
Does that make sense?



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[Chimo]

Did you say you are charging one battery with both motors ?

[Any_Weather]

Hi Flex, I didn't think I was mixing charge circuits. I was under the understanding that the start batteries were strictly that however when I think about it now, my voltage does drop when I am starting an engine.
No I don't have a diagram but will investigate further and try and draw one.
The fuse is a 30 amp

Cheers
Lee


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[Any_Weather]

Chimo, yes that is correct, one house battery from 2 engines. That is how it was for the first 18 months before the issue started however now I am only running a fuse in 1 engine therefore only charging from 1 engine but still blowing that single fuse?


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[Any_Weather]

Ok guys, I have pulled the switch cluster out to see exactly what goes where. Each engine is fed from its own switch and there is a parallel switch between them. Then there is a house battery switch that is fed directly from the house battery. Coming out of that switch is an 80amp circuit module. This then feeds to the front (electronics), 2 Anderson plugs and the 2 pink charge circuits, being 1 per engine.

I have checked the house battery voltage after charging it on Tuesday and it is currently 13.01 volts.

I have a pic of my switch cluster but don't know how to attach it? I can only use a phone so is it possible to attach pics from a phone?

Cheers
Lee


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[Dirtyfuzz]

iPhone? Just press the plus sign to bring up options


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