Charging or Not?

[Larry E]

Had my boat out to the lake the other day. Ran it for a good hour at different speeds and all worked as advertized. I am curious though as to whether the alternator is charging or not. The volt gauge reads 12.5 all the time and the battery never runs down. I thought it should read around 13.5-14 volts when operating.

Larry E

 

[kmarine]

Re: Charging or Not?

The best way to doubble check woulde be to try a seperate volt meter or battery/alternator load tester. More than likely your gage may be a volt off and your electrical system is good. I am not sure what size alternator you have or what type of accessoies you are running. sometimes batteries take multiple hours to top off. keep in mind that these batteries sit a lot without use which is also hard on them.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Charging or Not?

With out knowing how the volt meter is hooked into the system it is hard to say, how ever hook a hand held multi meter set to DC volts into the system directly on the battery terminals and yes at WOT it should be around 13.5 or so depending on your system. The voltage will change depending on motor RPM. Normal battery voltage is 12.5 to 12.8 volts