MiamiVice

I have a 32 Fountain Fever with 2 batteries and 2 switches . How do you guys use your switches while running , and while anchored. I have been setting the starb. motor on starb switch to 1, and setting port motor on port switch to 2. Does anybody with a Fountain or set up like mine have any suggestions.

Reed Jensen

That works... that is how I did mine... except mine was wired that #1 went to port... #2 to starboard.... but you can switch them either way. I have always felt it is best to have one battery switched to one motor and the other battery switched to the other motor... That way you will have one alternator charging only one battery. Sometimes when they are always connected to "both"... one alternator will fool the other alternator that the battery is charged and it will shut down charging. The only time to have the switch on "both" .. is when the batteries are low and you need the extra power of both batteries to start the engines.

Reed Jensen

While anchored.... switch one battery to "off".. that way you will always have one battery fully charged to start both motors. I had my boat wired that the cabin power came off the starboard battery. So I switched the port battery to the "off" position. That way I could run down the one battery only. But... BUT.... you better make sure that there aren't any stray connections to the battery after it is in the off position... or you will run down both batteries and will need a jump to get started. If the boat had been properly wired... then only one battery is connected to cabin and accessories.

Reed Jensen

One other thing.... you might make sure that there is a ground cable connecting the two engine blocks together... Or you may not be able to get one battery to start the other motor.

US1 Fountain

stupid question, but does the switch determine the battery or the motor that is being selected?

twin engine, 2 batteries, 2 switches

Sydwayz

Never have gotten a straight answer on this.

Wally

US1 Fountain, Sydwayz it depends on how they are wired but for the most part the switch determines which battery you are useing to start that particular engine the switch is wired to. So lates take a typical 2 switch boat....you have the port side switch abd battry that starts the port motor and you have the starboard switch and battery that starts that motor......now if you happen to kill the port side battery you can switch over and use the starboard side battery to start the port side motor.
So if that makes sense then the switches are used to select what battery you want to start the motor its wired to.......

Now on my old Scarab.....i had 4 onboard batterys and 4 switches that i could switch in all sorts of combinations. each motor had its dedicated battery.....the i had a sepperate battery for the stereo system and another dedicated abttery for all the acc's on the boat. And i could switch things around to run what ever i wanted from what ever battery. I could even switch all 4 battery's to start one engine if need be

Hope i didnt confuse ya

US1 Fountain

Thanks! No wonder I was having trouble troubleshooting at times. I was back azwards in my thinking.

lakeluvr

Not sure if all boats with dual batteries are wired the same, but had the exact same question I just posted in the Cig section about my Bullet.

Reed Jensen

It all depends on how the switch was wired. I finally took my switches off the bulkhead and made a simple wiring diagram.