NitroZV20 electrical connection problems.. Would love some advice.

[sfgregorini]

So this is the email I together for my dealership and mechanic. I got a Nitro zv20 this year and it came straight from tracker custom made. I have a 300hp and a 15hp kicker. After the first few times out I was getting a low voltage warning. I currently run 5 batteries and have 2 running off a Noco Genius 2 and 3 running off a Noco Genius 3. I went back to my dealer and we thought the power steering was draining the batteries 1 and 2. We installed a power steering shutoff switch did seem to help. I run 4 graphs. two at the console and two at the bow. The low voltage warning shows up on all 4 graphs at the same time. Please read below for the full details. I would love someones input on this or anyone had a similar problem.

LETTER TO MECHANIC AND DEALER.
I was out today and had my power steering off all day other than for maybe 20 minutes. After 6 hours I was getting the same voltage warning I was getting before we installed the power steering switch in the boat. I didn’t know what was now causing the issue but knowing it wasn’t the power steering I tried my best to trouble shoot the problem. Here is what I found.

I did this when I got home. I plugged in the power cords to see which batteries were drained. The only battery that was drained almost 100% was battery 1 on the Noco Genius 2 which was I thought my cranking and my power steering battery. Turns out its not that.

The first thing I did before I plugged the power cords on was to keep my motor off in my driveway and the power steering switch off. I just turned the key to on so I could press the button that lights the dashboard and turns on the graphs. After I did that I turned the key over to accessories which meant the only thing running was my 2 garmins and my two humminbirds and dashboard. I got the low voltage reading immediately like I did when I left the lake. I then plugged the first cord in for the 2 batteries(cranking and power steering) to see how low they were and as I mentioned battery 1 was almost dead. I kept the graphs and dash on. I then unplugged the power cord to see what would happen when battery 1 was 100% dead. In fact after only 10 minutes battery 1 went completely dead and all my graphs turned off as well as the dashboard lights which is whats been happening to me on the water. I then plugged in the power cords and Battery 1 went into standby mode(Result of beingtoo low for charger to detect according to the genius manual) and even with all the power left in battery 2 it never accessed it to continue drawing power to the dash and graphs. This tells me that the dash board which has to be on to run the graphs is what’s draining the battery 1. My trolling motor and transducers(I think) are running off the 3 batteries. I ran my trolling motor all day for 9 hours and when I plugged that in I still had 50% on all three batteries. The question now is are the graphs running off the cranking battery or is it just the dashboard? That I cant tell because I cant isolate the graphs without having the dashboard on which controls the accessories. The fact that the battery 1 went completely dead the graphs also turned off concerns me a bit. In theory they could all be on 1 battery or the graphs could be on the 3 with the trolling motor but since I cant get any power to the graphs even the ones on the bow when battery 1 is dead leads me to believe that maybe they are all running off the battery one. But if the dash needs to be on to power the graphs who knows. That explains why all 4 graphs beep and send me a power voltage warning. If they were on battery 3-4-5 these warnings wouldn't occur right?

Its important to note that after connecting power cords and charging the 2 batteries we use for power steering and the crank, battery 2 was almost 100% charged. I attached a picture showing this. This leads me to believe batteries 2 may be the cranking and/or power steering which was off all day and battery 1 is the dashboard which also powers the graphs.

Im not sure what we can do with this information but I need to be able to run at least two graphs which means the dashboard and accessories is going to have to be on. I can use the trolling motor by its self with the power issue but Im not able to see livescope on my graph or mark waypoints on my hummingbird if I cant use at least 2 graphs.



Its important to note I didn’t use my livewell today.

Its odd to me that there is 1 battery set aside for the dash, accessories, and 4 graphs.



If I had to guess this is what I think is powering what…

Battery 1 = Dashboard, accessories, graphs

Battery 2 = Power steering and crank(Maybe.. or could be battery 1)

Battery 3-4-5 = Trolling motor, transducers?


This first pic is right after I starting charging 1 and 2 after 15 minutes. In fact an hour later it still looked like this which means it was really dead.

This was battery 3-4-5 after a couple minutes of charging.

 

[Z-Man 21XL]

You need to start by Tracing your charger leads to find out exactly which battery is which. From the picture, its shows all 5 of your batteries are Lithiums (Little Blue Light), is this correct?? On the 2 Bank Charger, battery 2 is in Force Mode, which has to be selected Manually. Why was this done? Read your NOCO manual about doing this!! Using a voltmeter check the voltage on the battery that is on that lead. The battery that powers your "Dash" (Master Power Switch) is also your start battery, as they are on the same circuit. If your graphs can only be turned on when you turn on the master power switch, they are also on this circuit as well which is typical. You then mentioned that both Battery 1 and Battery 2 as running your "Dash" and "Graphs". Don't think they have 2 batteries on that circuit. The battery that runs your graphs cannot be going completely dead as you described. Graphs will shut off at around +-10 Volts and you will have issues starting your main motor at that low voltage as well. Also, Batteries DO NOT swap over from one to the other in the case of low voltage as you state either. Nitro wires basically everything, less the trolling motor, to the start battery which is on the Master Power Switch circuit. You are getting low voltage on your graphs because having 4 graphs, pumps, lights, and cranking on 1 battery is simply too much ah draw on that single battery. Many folks wire their graphs to a seperate "House" battery to reduce the load on the cranking battery. This also allows them to power up without being on the Master Power Switch which will shut them all down in the event the master power switch is inadvertently switched to off! You also have a kicker motor. I'll admit I've never dealt with a boat with one so I have no idea how is is wired. It could be the main cranking battery or could be the 5th battery you mentioned as having. But again, tracing each battery from the charger will tell you which lead is on which battery. Other than the trolling motor batteries, disconnecting the negative lead from each of the other 2 batteries 1 at time will tell you which battery is which and what they are the power source for.
So, this is the way it should work. Assuming you have a 36V trolling motor. The 3 bank charger should be connected to them. NOTHING else should be running off of those 3 TM batteries. Excluding your Livescope black box, Transducers do not have their own power source. They run off power from the graphs. Your Dash and cranking battery are one and the same (graphs prolly on that circuit as well). Livewells, pump-out and bilge will also be on the Dash/Cranking circuit. That takes care of 4 batteries. Now you mentioned having power steering connected to a different battery than your cranking battery--Why? Are you sure you actually have power steering? Not impossible, just a question cause many folks call their "Hydraulic Steering" Power Steering which they are 2 different animals. Hydraulic steering does NOT have power---Power Steering does but should be running off the start battery. I say that because it should only be on when the motor is running!

Hope this helps at least a little bit!

 

[sfgregorini]

You need to start by Tracing your charger leads to find out exactly which battery is which. From the picture, its shows all 5 of your batteries are Lithiums (Little Blue Light), is this correct?? On the 2 Bank Charger, battery 2 is in Force Mode, which has to be selected Manually. Why was this done? Read your NOCO manual about doing this!! Using a voltmeter check the voltage on the battery that is on that lead. The battery that powers your "Dash" (Master Power Switch) is also your start battery, as they are on the same circuit. If your graphs can only be turned on when you turn on the master power switch, they are also on this circuit as well which is typical. You then mentioned that both Battery 1 and Battery 2 as running your "Dash" and "Graphs". Don't think they have 2 batteries on that circuit. The battery that runs your graphs cannot be going completely dead as you described. Graphs will shut off at around +-10 Volts and you will have issues starting your main motor at that low voltage as well. Also, Batteries DO NOT swap over from one to the other in the case of low voltage as you state either. Nitro wires basically everything, less the trolling motor, to the start battery which is on the Master Power Switch circuit. You are getting low voltage on your graphs because having 4 graphs, pumps, lights, and cranking on 1 battery is simply too much ah draw on that single battery. Many folks wire their graphs to a seperate "House" battery to reduce the load on the cranking battery. This also allows them to power up without being on the Master Power Switch which will shut them all down in the event the master power switch is inadvertently switched to off! You also have a kicker motor. I'll admit I've never dealt with a boat with one so I have no idea how is is wired. It could be the main cranking battery or could be the 5th battery you mentioned as having. But again, tracing each battery from the charger will tell you which lead is on which battery. Other than the trolling motor batteries, disconnecting the negative lead from each of the other 2 batteries 1 at time will tell you which battery is which and what they are the power source for.
So, this is the way it should work. Assuming you have a 36V trolling motor. The 3 bank charger should be connected to them. NOTHING else should be running off of those 3 TM batteries. Excluding your Livescope black box, Transducers do not have their own power source. They run off power from the graphs. Your Dash and cranking battery are one and the same (graphs prolly on that circuit as well). Livewells, pump-out and bilge will also be on the Dash/Cranking circuit. That takes care of 4 batteries. Now you mentioned having power steering connected to a different battery than your cranking battery--Why? Are you sure you actually have power steering? Not impossible, just a question cause many folks call their "Hydraulic Steering" Power Steering which they are 2 different animals. Hydraulic steering does NOT have power---Power Steering does but should be running off the start battery. I say that because it should only be on when the motor is running!

Hope this helps at least a little bit!

Thank you. I think the best thing to do is trace everything like you mentioned. I do have power steering for certain.

 

[Thinwingflyer]

Is the battery switch for your cranking battery(s) an on/off or BATT1-OFF-BATT2 switch? I’m with Z-Man on the two cranking batteries, that sounds confusing unless they’re wired in parallel (negative terminal to negative and positive terminal to positive). I if you have one battery going dead and one holding power I’d check to see if the two non-trolling motors are wired in parallel as described above.

As Z-man mentioned, that’s a LOT of equipment (I’m envious) drawing a lot of amps on a single battery. Good luck. Let us know what the ultimate solution was.

 

[jerry shack]

Thank you. I think the best thing to do is trace everything like you mentioned. I do have power steering for certain.

It's just my a pinion, that the engine start battery and the power steering battery should be in parallel to handle the 4 graphs and all the rest of the stuff. I would wire one of the trolling motor batteries to the battery selector switch to be able to parallel with the 2 engine start batteries for a back up jump start just incase you run both of them down. And are able to start the engine to get you back in. Of coarse this all depends on the type of batteries, what I mean is the amp hour. If there 50 amp and below that's not enough power both should be 100 amp hour. Just saying

 

[paul001]

June 2021 I bought a brand new ZV19. Spent countless hours trying to figure out what was wrong with electrical system, lots of stuff worked intermittently. Turns out my Genisys recharger was bad- even toasted one of my batteries. Bought the newest model charger on Amazon (even though under warranty), had Cabellas installed - no more electrical issues to this day.