Electrical Issues on Hatteras??

[cb48lrc]

Did you resolve your electrical problem

[Oldlaxer1]

I was searching for something else and came across this thread. I can tell you that he didn't resolve the problem but it temporarily solved itself. I purchased this boat (not knowing of this problem and because everything was functioning properly at the time the surveyor didn't find it and had no reason to go digging behind the breaker panel covers). Almost exactly 1 year after he had his problem, I had the same problem. Electric heaters and all. Up to that point everything was working fine but we rarely put much of a load on the 110 outlets. After an exhaustive search it turns out that whoever wired the inverter was back feeding the panel through a 30 amp breaker and a lot of other strange pigtails and connections. It was weird because all the wire terminations looked professionally done but how it was connected was a mess. We took the inverter offline by ridding the panel of all connections, pigtailed the panel back to how it was designed (they hacksawed off at least one section of the hot feed metal plate that the breaker connects to) and all is well again. Obviously I don't currently have a functioning inverter that will power the whole 110 side of the boat. We will be wiring the inverter in properly at some point in the future.
There was a lot of head scratching on this one. It kept tripping the gfci at the incoming panel and had us thinking that was the issue. It wasn't. Moral of the story...well you guys know the moral of the story.

[SKYCHENEY]

Sorry to hear of your problems, but glad you figured it out. It seems that most electrical problems on these boats are caused by someone messing with the original setup.

[Pascal]

Apparently the original poster never mentioned an inverter was installed...

I have seen a few inverters professionally installed by pros who shouldnt be allowed to come within 50' of any boat... that said, splitting the link behind breakers is pretty normal when istalling an inverter as you want to separate the circuits that will be knverter powered. But there should be a breaker clearly labelled on the primary group of breakers to protect the feed to the inverter. Most inverters also have a breaker to protect the circuitry.

For instance on the 4000W magnum, the pass tru is limited to 30amp. Easy to reach with normal loads plus a coupe of heaters or blowdryers...

[Boatsb]

First the magnums 12 volt offerings top out at 2800 watts. And they have a 30 amp pass through.

The 24 and 48 volt units go to 4000 watts and have a 60 amp pass through.

I've worked with some of their products and found them to be well made but they dont have the depth of products that victron has.

[Pascal]

From what I remember the 24v 4000w magnum has two 30amp inputs. One for passthru and the other one for charging. Even though you can configure the second one as pass thru when you need to charge the second input is used for charging so you are still limited to 30 Amp for your loads

What s the capacity of the Victrons?

[Oldlaxer1]

This one is a Xantrex. I’m not even sure if it works anymore. I guess we’ll find out at a later date. Conceptually it would be nice to be able to tie it in to the distribution panel as opposed to the breaker panel(s) as the PO did. This is my first go round with an inverter if this size. I’ll be doing some research before moving forward. Thanks for the help and info.

[SeaEric]

This one is a Xantrex. I’m not even sure if it works anymore. I guess we’ll find out at a later date. Conceptually it would be nice to be able to tie it in to the distribution panel as opposed to the breaker panel(s) as the PO did. This is my first go round with an inverter if this size. I’ll be doing some research before moving forward. Thanks for the help and info.

I'm confused. The OP talks about this issue aboard a 1989 54' MY. Your signature says 1979 53' Classic.

[SKYCHENEY]

Running an Inverter from the distribution panel is an option. Mine is wired that way. It works just like having another generator. You select the inverter as a source and flip the breakers/switches for whatever ships services you want to feed.

The drawback, if you see it that way, is that it is not a pass thru. The benefit is that you can power any/all circuits.

[Boatsb]

I suggest inline with pass through downstream of the ship/shore switch so no need to touch it. It just works in pass through. If you need a second panel for the inverter loads it's easy as the quattro has a separate output for that. I also like the victron quattro as it has automatic input switching so no need to use a switch. It's all programming and can be automatic.