Crossed battery terminals 23 SE/Yamaha F200 I4

[capt.nick]

After 40 years as a boat owner I got distracted and hooked up one of my batteries backwards. Turned the guest switch to #1 position, no power to the motor trim/tilt. I realized what I did & shut the switch off and pulled the cables. Couldn't believe I did it. I blew one 60 amp fuse in the OB fuse box and pulled the rest and found no others blown. Blew fuses to GPS, stereo and VHF. I was so PO'd at myself I decided to leave and come back the next day when I tracked down/replaced the three blown fuses for the electronics. I put two new batteries in because they were due anyway. The night before my planned launch I researched online others who had done the same on their Yamaha F200 inline 4. Found out you can still have big problems with the motor even after replacing the 60 amp fuse. Some folks blew the 60 amp fuse again when they tried to start the motor because the diode in the starter harness was toast.(about $75). One unfortunate guy blew the ECM to the tune of $1000. Trying to sleep with that knowledge was impossible so at 3am I drove down an hour to the boat, put the muffs on and turned it over. No problem and it ran great when I launched at sunrise. I will NEVER do that again. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has done this so I thought I'd share what I learned so the next guy knows where to look.

 

[pelagic2530]

After 40 years as a boat owner I got distracted and hooked up one of my batteries backwards. Turned the guest switch to #1 position, no power to the motor trim/tilt. I realized what I did & shut the switch off and pulled the cables. Couldn't believe I did it. I blew one 60 amp fuse in the OB fuse box and pulled the rest and found no others blown. Blew fuses to GPS, stereo and VHF. I was so PO'd at myself I decided to leave and come back the next day when I tracked down/replaced the three blown fuses for the electronics. I put two new batteries in because they were due anyway. The night before my planned launch I researched online others who had done the same on their Yamaha F200 inline 4. Found out you can still have big problems with the motor even after replacing the 60 amp fuse. Some folks blew the 60 amp fuse again when they tried to start the motor because the diode in the starter harness was toast.(about $75). One unfortunate guy blew the ECM to the tune of $1000. Trying to sleep with that knowledge was impossible so at 3am I drove down an hour to the boat, put the muffs on and turned it over. No problem and it ran great when I launched at sunrise. I will NEVER do that again. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has done this so I thought I'd share what I learned so the next guy knows where to look.

You’re far from the first person to make that mistake and you definitely won’t be the last.

When I rig boats, I not only use the colored boots to cover the terminals, but I secure the battery cables in such a way that it makes it very hard to reverse them. The terminals on the batteries always face out, so they’re easier to access; to get them backwards, you’d have to actually crisscross the cables which should provide an internal warning that something isn’t right. If you reverse the battery, so that the terminals are facing in, you’re going to have an awkwardly long amount of cable- again, hopefully providing the same warning.

I also secure all the wires that go to each battery terminal together in a bundle, and put all of them through the hole in the terminal boot so they stay together. On top of using bus bars and auxiliary fuse blocks to keep the terminals on each post to a minimum.

Just a couple easy little things to try to keep the boat owner out of trouble.

 

[Andy]

After 40 years as a boat owner I got distracted and hooked up one of my batteries backwards. Turned the guest switch to #1 position, no power to the motor trim/tilt. I realized what I did & shut the switch off and pulled the cables. Couldn't believe I did it. I blew one 60 amp fuse in the OB fuse box and pulled the rest and found no others blown. Blew fuses to GPS, stereo and VHF. I was so PO'd at myself I decided to leave and come back the next day when I tracked down/replaced the three blown fuses for the electronics. I put two new batteries in because they were due anyway. The night before my planned launch I researched online others who had done the same on their Yamaha F200 inline 4. Found out you can still have big problems with the motor even after replacing the 60 amp fuse. Some folks blew the 60 amp fuse again when they tried to start the motor because the diode in the starter harness was toast.(about $75). One unfortunate guy blew the ECM to the tune of $1000. Trying to sleep with that knowledge was impossible so at 3am I drove down an hour to the boat, put the muffs on and turned it over. No problem and it ran great when I launched at sunrise. I will NEVER do that again. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has done this so I thought I'd share what I learned so the next guy knows where to look.

Great info Capt. Nick! We learn from mistakes; both our own, and from others who are willing to tell us about theirs!..... Back in the 1970's I installed new batteries, and new custom-made battery boxes in the stern of our first boat. (not a Parker). The following week we took the boat to the launch- ramp and went through the normal launch-prep; then backed the boat in as usual. Something seemed odd, as the boat didn't slide off the trailer as it normally did. When installing the battery boxes, I screwed the boat to the trailer! ☺... Yes, ran the S/S screws through the mounting-frame of the battery boxes, all the way through the hull of the boat, into the trailer bunks.... I had drilled a total of eight screws through the boat-bottom; four went into the trailer bunks.

 

[dcunniff]

Couple decades ago when I used to hate pulling batteries in a 2530 for the winter, my wife and I hooked up the two batteries with right + and -. Had no power. Checked tightness, immediately pulled them though not too old and bought new. Same day we put the new ones in and perfect. Got to thinking we might have forgot to connect the common ground between the two.... Too late, had already turned them in for the new ones.

For many years now I leave them in and run power to the battery charger in the winter.