50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

[luck2012]

Hi everyone,


Everything started when I accidentally touched my bravo 3 outdrive while I was also touching the floor, and I instantly felt a little shock and decided to try to measure how many volts I was dealing with. This happened when my boat was plugged at the marina receptacle @ 110v AC 60hz.

I've got a reading of 45-50V AC @ 60hz, I measured the voltage with a digital multimeter by placing the black probe on the floor and the another one on a screw. I tried to measure DC current and got about 0v

My boat isn't equipped with earth/grounding(the green wire), just live and neutral AC wiring. I've checked the wiring and everything seems to be fine, I've measured other boats at the marina and most of them share this behavior, is this normal? BTW I use a xantrex truecharge 2 charger.

All the best,

Luiz

 

[dingbat]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

No, it's not normal. There is a ground fault somewhere in the system. The third wire (grd/earth) would normally take care of this, assuming the shore power connection is properly grounded.

 

[luck2012]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

No, it's not normal. There is a ground fault somewhere in the system. The third wire (grd/earth) would normally take care of this, assuming the shore power connection is properly grounded.

Hi Dingbat


Thank you for the reply,

As I stated before, there is no grounding/earth/third wire inside my boat. So the only way to solve this issue is to install proper grounding in my boat? I thought that the earth wire was only used in case of a fault to protect whoever is using the boat, it would be normal to have this 50 volts going out by the earth wire and not the neutral wire all the time?


All the best,

Luiz

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

You may not have a visible ground wire on the boat as there other ways to install a ground with out using a wire (shield ground) or you may have a isolated transformer on the boat but you should have a ground from the plug in at the dock to the dock side receptacle on the boat. You need to test the ground at the dock then at the end of you cord. Unplug the boat until you find the problem as its dangerous to you and anyone near the water. There are many posts on here for the same problem I will try finding you some links but in the mean time post back what type of electrical system you have on the boat

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

http://forums.iboats.com/electrical-...em-601945.html
http://forums.iboats.com/electrical-...ft-603877.html
http://forums.iboats.com/electrical...otors/shocked-shore-power-plugged-611835.html

 

[luck2012]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

You may not have a visible ground wire on the boat as there other ways to install a ground with out using a wire (shield ground) or you may have a isolated transformer on the boat but you should have a ground from the plug in at the dock to the dock side receptacle on the boat. You need to test the ground at the dock then at the end of you cord. Unplug the boat until you find the problem as its dangerous to you and anyone near the water. There are many posts on here for the same problem I will try finding you some links but in the mean time post back what type of electrical system you have on the boat

Hi Glenn,


My boat really isn't equipped with any kind of bonding/grounding/earth , there is no green wire attached on the boat side receptacle, the ground pin is just empty. Also, my shore power cable consists of just two wires. I'm planning to install some grounding soon, but I currently can't afford a galvanic isolator... I don't have any kind of transformer. Do you think my problem would be solved just by installing some grounding?

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

was the wiring on the boat pre installed or something that was added later?

 

[Auger01]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

Somebody elses boat could be leaking current into the water and it may be using your boat to complete the circuit. To check this, open the breakers powering your boat and then check again for the voltage at your outdrive.

I just reread your post. If other boats are having the same problem, make sure it isnt yours, then unplug your boat until you can take corrective measures to protect your boat. If not, the corrosion induced by the current will corrode up your expensive drive parts very quickly.

Reporting the problem to the marina might not be a bad idea either.

 

[luck2012]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

Pre installed, I just added my xantrex battery charger. My boat is out of the water, I measured this voltage with the boat out of the water and I'm not planning to use my boat until I fix this issue. If I disconnect the shore power cable the voltage is gone. I reported the Marina and they just said that cant do anything if isn't related to their wiring... All the boats that I measured were out of the water, but they were connected to the power grid and probably charging their batteries.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

The fact that you reference 60 Hz says this is a US Manufactured boat and as such, this is not a proper shore power installation by any stretch of the imagination. Even if you added the "earth ground" there would still likely be an issue and the shore power ground fault would trip. So here is some simple first steps.

1) Disconnect your power cord from the shore power.
2) Using your meter, verify that the smaller blade terminal on shore power is connected to the LINE side of the circuit. (POS probe on the shorter terminal in the receptacle. NEG probe on the earth ground (round) terminal. If you don't measure 117 VAC you stop at this point and report the finding to the marina as THEY have a wiring problem. Even if another boat is causing the issue, it is the marina's problem to sort out.
3) If you measure 117 VAC in step 2, measure from the wide blade (neutral) terminal in the shore power receptacle to earth ground terminal. This should be zero. If there is a reading of any sort, again report this finding to the marina.

Now to your boat: You MUST have a three wire entrance panel. Since there are a number of shore power schemes you need to determine what you are missing.

What AC accessories are you operating from shore power and did you add them or were they previously installed? If you are using a two wire system to power a device that has neutral at chassis ground , AND that device can create a current path to the engine/outdrive then reversed polarity puts the LINE side of the circuit, at the chassis and anything metal that device has continuity with. You have a very dangerous situation so you had best investigate exactly what you have, including how the AC accessories are wired.Situations like yours is one reason why the third terminal was added to what were formerly two terminal receptacles. Folks who called themselves electricians were not versed in the "hot chassis" aspect of AC wiring so they didn't realize reversed polarity can kill.

 

[luck2012]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

Hi Silvertip,

I didn't mention this before, but I actually live in Brazil, here we use 110v @60hz, the boat was manufactured here and since we don't have any standards like the American ABYC they just did what they thought was right, my boat isn't equipped with an reverse polarity light or grounding, I'm looking forward to install proper grounding and a galvanic isolator, if that would solve my problem, the voltages at the marina are ok, they have proper grounding installation. Do you think that my problem is the lack of grounding inside my boat? If yes I am probably going to install grounding as soon as possible.

 

[luck2012]

Re: 50 Volts AC @ 60hz coming out of my outdrive

Hi guys,

I just added an ground wire to the circuit, the readings on the sterndrive dropped to 5v, I'm assuming that this solved the problem, am I right?