battery chargers -- ProMariner Safety & FIRE Issue

[Terry Forshier]

Those of you who have continued to post suggestions on this topic,I thank you. I now know a lot more about what happened to my charger, a promariner 40 amp. It did not just fail and fry. Upon further investigation I now find I was hit by a lightning strike. The adjusters and the repair people have all been here and there is no doubt. Besides the charger I burned through my sump pump and sensor, the air conditioner, most of the running lights and mast lights. My complete set of signetmarine systems including mast head insturments and smartpaks and wind speed and direction insturments and depth and speed transducers all non functional.. My pannel lights that are over the navagation table are sporatic in their functions. the tack is not working at all. A "team" of repair people have assended upon the boat so I will know more later. (I did order the truecharge 2 40 amp)
I am not asking for advice here so PLEASE no blasting. I am just thanking those of you who contributed to my query. It appears I will be using my runabout for awhile as this will take a few weeks to get repaired.

Terry

[Stu Jackson]

If you do a search of past postings, you will find the discussion I posted on how to do this, including where to get suitable parts. ( Stu, the "Search Master", can probably show you a link   )

Terry and John,

The HOW TO directly connect a Fridge is part of the Battery Charger Evaluation topic, link previously provided in one of my earlier posts to this topic.  See reply #3, page 1.

Terry,  truly sorry to hear about your misfortune with the lightning.  You may want to consider, during your down time, searching this board and the Tech Notes Online on "lightning," not to look for avoidance measures, but to read what others have experienced with adjusters and fixit people.  F'rinstance, if your tach isn't working, then you need to check and see if you can get them to replace your alternator (the instrument itself might still be OK and the alternator is fried), and stay "one step ahead" of the guys making repair recommendations.  Good luck, and let us know if there's anything we can do.

[Ron Hill]

Terry : Sad to hear that you were visited by that "Zillion Volt LIGHTENING Gorilla".
Knowing that you were plugged (AC ON) with the battery selector DC ON you need to make sure that the adjusters check EVERYTHING in both the AC and DC circuits.  I'd also run continuity and resistance checks on all of the wiring runs to make sure that Catalina's butt splices are really intact.  Good Luck