Battery short

[JimBoat]

My stereo system has a separate battery that died over the winter. I charged it up and when I connected it, the ground lead arced and then both leads got burning hot and the battery started hissing gas. I managed to disconnect it before anything bad happened. Has this happened to anyone? I'm not sure if the stereo set up is stock or not.

[JimBoat]

In case this ever happens to someone else, here is the story: I have two batteries that had been wired in parallel. Over the winter both batteries had died. When I had the boat taken out of storage and the batteries were put back in, the storage place crossed the jumpers between the batteries. Since the one was completely dead, it didn’t react to being shorted. The whole system was just running off the one battery. When I replaced the dead battery, the short caused the heat incident. Very scary and a close call. Check your leads before hooking them up.

[NautiqueJeff]

Wow, that's crazy. Could have ended up very bad.

[bturner]

Couple notes/observations.....

Being a buyer of used boats I've seen some crazy stuff. For whatever reason electrical seems to be where stupid shines. I've seen tape balls, home electrical wire nuts and the infamous nut/bolt wrapped with tape to make a connection. With all this you'd think one of these would be at the top of my list for stupid, wrong. What really drives me crazy is people using the wrong color wire to make their connections. This is especially true when it comes to the battery connections. Black is ground in a boat and in a case such as yours using the correct color wire and a logical method to mount the batteries should make connecting the batteries up near idiot proof. Another thing I try to do is make my cables so they only fit in one way. Put the battery in the holder backwards, cables won't reach. Put the battery in correctly and only the positive cable will reach the positive post. I'm also not above labeling the cables especially if I'm wiring for someone else.

Nothing is certain and wiring can be confusing for people but if you can't figure out your battery connections in less than a minute you need to reexamine your set up and work to either label things or clean things up so that you can.

The first picture is what I'm used to starting with. This was what I got from the PO after he had the local car stereo shop install a batter switch, tower speakers and an amp. The second is what it looked like after I cleaned it up and added a Blue Seas dual battery kit. This really isn't that hard to do if you take your time and do a little research.

[bturner]

While looking for those battery wiring pictures I came across these. This was my first flip boat. It had sunk and I bought the salvage. In my rush to get it back on the water I took some short cuts wiring the bilge pump directly to the battery with no fuse. We developed a fuel leak from the fuel filter which filled the bilge with gas. The bilge pump was pumping raw gas until it melted the pump, which in turn created an electrical short which it turn blew up the back of the boat when I opened the engine cover to see why the boat had stalled. We spent the next 45 minutes in shear panic fighting the fire, escaping the fire then nearly getting backed over by a cruiser trying to get us out of the Detroit River after clearing the burning boat.

So you can see why I get a bit crazy when I see some of this stuff.

[Scooter G]

That's some crazy stuff right there bturner. I thought I had heard and seen it all, you topped that.

Nice wire clean up in the above btw.

[bturner]

Yeah, this was supposed to be a quick flip. I was 22 at the time and we had just finished an absolute peach of a 69 SRV190 that you can barely see in the garage behind Sundaze that would end up being a great payday for us. The idea was to move both boats and buy another in September to work on in the fall then sell in the spring. This one set us back and changed the dynamic I had doing these boats with my father. From here on I would be doing my own boats. No more salvage boats for this cowboy.

Noting like a burning boat experience to change your view on life.

[JimBoat]

I’m glad I only had to deal with cooked insulation and sizzling battery acid that stayed contained! Could have been a big fire on top of chemical burns. I suspect the wiring was done by the stereo install crew, whoever they were. The battery leads are all red so easy to see how the mistake was made. It was new to me so I didn’t know the correct configuration. I’ve since labeled the leads and repositioned the battery so it can only be hooked up correctly.

[JDC02SANTE]

Wish Alberta was closer to me. I'd have you come over and help me figure out why my boat kills a new battery in less two days. I'm the 2nd owner ('02 210 SANTE) and the previous owner put in a residential switch in the engine compartment for an underwater light. Let's just say he rigged something up and I think it's more than just a bad alternator as I first thought.

I've got a stereo upgrade to work on this winter (as soon as hunting season is over) and the battery dilemma will go hand in hand.

[JimBoat]

JDC02SANTE, If your battery is draining in 2 days, then there is a good chance that you have a stray current that is drawing power even when the control system is shut down. I would suggest you get a multimeter ($15-20 on Amazon). Put one lead on ground and start touching all the “Custom” connections.

[JDC02SANTE]

Yep. I do have one and also a father-in-law that is a retired electrician (man that comes in handy a lot!). So this winter, let the chase begin!