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Couple questions...


MTSurf

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Hey everyone, I just took delivery of my 2022 23 LSV and have a few quick questions:

Hour meter - My previous wake surf boat was a Supreme which utilized a key with ACC/Run/Start positions.  When the key was in the accessory position, I could run the stereo without the hour meter incrementing.  The salesman at my dealership advised there is no way to keep the hour meter from incrementing if you power up the stereo.  This seems counter intuitive and analogous to an odometer turning when a car is idling.  Is this true?

Battery charger - I don't currently have access to look and was wondering if the battery charge harnesses are wired directly to the batteries or if they are wired into the battery switch circuit.  In summary - will the batteries charge regardless of switch position if the charger is plugged in?

Option 3 Battery switch - should I run with the switch in the "On" position (position 2), then if the battery runs down from listening to the stereo while the motor is off I can switch to position 3 to engage the "fresh" battery for starting?

Power Tower - My GX tower has power even when the battery switch is in the off position.  Doesn't seem like a good idea, as that is an easy way to forget and inadvertently run the batteries down.  Is this correctly wired? 

Thanks for your help!

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Gx is correct on that wiring.  Yes, it could be left on but also alllows you to turn switch off and lower the tower without crawling back under it.  
 

Battery charger should charge regardless of where perko switch is set.  
 

I thought battery option 3 included an ACR so you didn’t have to manually switch it, but others will have to chime in on that. 
 

I am pretty certain the hour meter only runs if engine is started.  If you are coved out with screens on to run the stereo I don’t think it counts those hours. 

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4 hours ago, MTSurf said:

Hey everyone, I just took delivery of my 2022 23 LSV and have a few quick questions:

Hour meter - My previous wake surf boat was a Supreme which utilized a key with ACC/Run/Start positions.  When the key was in the accessory position, I could run the stereo without the hour meter incrementing.  The salesman at my dealership advised there is no way to keep the hour meter from incrementing if you power up the stereo.  This seems counter intuitive and analogous to an odometer turning when a car is idling.  Is this true?

Battery charger - I don't currently have access to look and was wondering if the battery charge harnesses are wired directly to the batteries or if they are wired into the battery switch circuit.  In summary - will the batteries charge regardless of switch position if the charger is plugged in?

Option 3 Battery switch - should I run with the switch in the "On" position (position 2), then if the battery runs down from listening to the stereo while the motor is off I can switch to position 3 to engage the "fresh" battery for starting?

Power Tower - My GX tower has power even when the battery switch is in the off position.  Doesn't seem like a good idea, as that is an easy way to forget and inadvertently run the batteries down.  Is this correctly wired? 

Thanks for your help!

 

Based on observations from our 2021 23 MXZ with M6

I think he is correct RE the power meter running, not positive.  Thought this was happening after stoping during break-in for lunch with stereo on so added time that time to the 10 hours (plus whatever time its on the meter when you get it).

Do not know about the charger but would be beyond stupid if the batter switch had to be left on for the onboard chargers to work.  We have one but have not used it.

We have battery option 3, as I recall "Off" is at 12 o'clock, "On" is at 3 o'clock, and "Both" is at 6 o'clock.  My understanding is that there is a starting battery and a house battery.  Normal positions is at 3 o'clock when running.  In that position the only thing that touches the starting battery is the starter.  Radio, stern turn, and I assume bilge pumps are all on the house battery.  The voltage on the dash seems to show the house battery as it dips when the stern turn is used and if used enough the "Low House Battery" warning appears on the dash.  You would use the "both" position if your starting battery was dead but not your house battery (not sure how that would happen other than a bad battery) and you wanted to crank or if you wanted to run down your starting battery with your stereo.

Sorry no experience with the power tower.  I would offer that knowing myself it would be very easy to forget to turn the battery off after moving the tower for storage or  travel so having it "hot" all the time would make some sense at least for me.

Edited by Surf4FamFun
clarity
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Thanks for the feedback, I'm really interested in finding out the answer to my hour meter question and may call Malibu direct.  It makes no sense to me that the hour meter would increment with just the screens powered up so the stereo or other important systems info can be accessed. IMO it makes the "hours" on the boat a worthless measurement because it's not identifying the true hours of motor runtime.

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Was at my dealer today documenting some warranty issues. I asked about the hour meter and battery switch. According to the service manager:

The hour meter only advances when the engine is running. If the hour meter advances with the engine off and screens on, something is wrong.

Factory battery charger operates with the battery switch off. If fact, the factory charger “cycles” the batteries while plugged in. It also auto detects for lead acid or AGM.

On the tower, I assume it’s directly wired to the battery(s) if it operates with the battery switch off.

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On 9/9/2021 at 7:07 PM, MTSurf said:

The salesman at my dealership advised there is no way to keep the hour meter from incrementing if you power up the stereo.

Sales person needs some training. For better then 15 years now, engine hours are calculated by engine RPM and stored in the engine ECM.  

Battery charger should be wired direct to the batteries and main battery switch OFF when charging. Just an FYI, the boat does not have a Perko switch, but rather the Blue Sea Dual Circuit Plus switch. Yes, the charger will have output regardless of the battery switch's position, but it will NOT work to its best, if the switch is ON or in COMBINE. 

On 9/9/2021 at 7:07 PM, MTSurf said:

Option 3 Battery switch - should I run with the switch in the "On" position (position 2), then if the battery runs down from listening to the stereo while the motor is off I can switch to position 3 to engage the "fresh" battery for starting?

No! The stereo should NOT deplete the main cranking battery when engine is off. the only battery that should run down, is the HOUSE battery. Keep the switch on the 3 oclock ON position and the main cranking battery will re-fire the engine.  

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My dealer said that the battery switch has a smart switch which will use both batteries in the first position until the voltage on the house battery goes below approx. 11 volts.  At that point he said the switch protects the starting battery by removing it from the circuit.  I had stern turn which requires two batteries to run, so it may be wired differently if you don't have stern turn. 

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52 minutes ago, guitarcrazy said:

My dealer said that the battery switch has a smart switch which will use both batteries in the first position until the voltage on the house battery goes below approx. 11 volts.  At that point he said the switch protects the starting battery by removing it from the circuit.  I had stern turn which requires two batteries to run, so it may be wired differently if you don't have stern turn. 

That is the ACR doing it’s thing.  

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Ok I am a geek.  Looking at the Blue Sea web site found this page.  http://assets.bluesea.com/files/resources/reference/ChooseACR.pdf.

Presuming they use the model 7620 which would be required for a Stern Turn equipped boat (presuming that the Stern Turn is powered by the house battery) it opens the tie between the batteries when they go below 12.75v for 30 seconds.  The model 7611 moves the isolation trigger voltage down to 12.25v and presuming the standard alternator is 120 AMP or less it might be used on a boat without a Stern Turn..  Looked this up because getting down to close to 11 volts was a little scary from a creaking perspective, 12.75v or even 12.25 sounds much better.  If I have the right component the PEF provides a pretty good explanation to what it does in different operating modes.

When I was taking to the EZ-Drive Thruster pre sales guy when deciding on a factory or dealer installed Stern Turn he said a single battery would support the unit.  I went with the factory install which got the 170 AMP alternator which sounded like a good idea based on my conversation with EZ-Drive.  Adding a 170 AMP alternator after delivery with a dealer installed thruster wiped out a large part of the savings of dealer installation.  

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When I first took delivery of my boat I found that while using the stern turn the voltage would drop below 10 V if I used the stern turn for more than a 2 to 3 second burst.  I would get a low voltage warning as well.  After troubleshooting we found that one of the battery posts was cracked, and after replacing the battery post the voltage would stay higher when using stern turn.  It would still drop  below 11 volts at times, but never low enough to give a low voltage warning. 

Edited by guitarcrazy
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2 hours ago, guitarcrazy said:

When I first took delivery of my boat I found that while using the stern turn the voltage would drop below 10 V if I used the stern turn for more than a 2 to 3 second burst.  I would get a low voltage warning as well.  After troubleshooting we found that one of the battery posts was cracked, and after replacing the battery post the voltage would stay higher when using stern turn.  It would still drop  below 11 volts at times, but never low enough to give a low voltage warning. 

The first time I took the boat out had not plugged it into the wall to charge so the batteries had whatever charge was on them from the install during build.  Naturally I started playing with the Stern Turn and got a Low House Battery alarm.  After that the low house battery alarm has only come on once when I was practicing approaches and still over using the thruster.  Presumably the batteries were a little low from sitting.  The voltage does dip pretty severely when the thruster is in use but you are right they Low House alarm does not normally come on.  

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On 9/10/2021 at 6:46 PM, MLA said:

No! The stereo should NOT deplete the main cranking battery when engine is off. the only battery that should run down, is the HOUSE battery. Keep the switch on the 3 oclock ON position and the main cranking battery will re-fire the engine.  

I think we were saying the same thing - by "position 2" I meant the 3 o'clock position, with that said when would you switch it to the 6 o'clock position?

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On 9/11/2021 at 7:01 PM, guitarcrazy said:

I know the M240s have three batteries, and I was hoping the new 25LSV would have 3, but it doesn't appear so.  

It isn't an option on the new 25LSV?  I was wondering why my sales guy kept directing me to the 2 battery check mark, I guess the 3 batteries is not possible. I am looking at stern turn for the first time with this big boat and being on a point with constant wind trying to dock my boat in a narrow slip.  Although for the price we should have a bow thruster also!  :lol:

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16 minutes ago, Gene3x said:

It isn't an option on the new 25LSV?  I was wondering why my sales guy kept directing me to the 2 battery check mark, I guess the 3 batteries is not possible. I am looking at stern turn for the first time with this big boat and being on a point with constant wind trying to dock my boat in a narrow slip.  Although for the price we should have a bow thruster also!  :lol:

I think battery option 2 and option 3 refer to how battery use is managed.  With option 2 you select which battery is being used with the big red switch that you use to turn the boat (except for the motorized tower and bilge pump) on and off.  Option three still has two batteries but uses one for cranking and the second for other stuff including stern turn.  There is an automatic switch that connects the two when it can to allow for some limited power sharing and charging of both batteries while protecting your ability to crank.  Really like the Battery charger 3 option if that is what is being decided.  Batteries take up so much space hard to believe that they have a hole for one that stays empty if you don't pick the option.  

We have the stern turn on our 23 MXZ and really enjoy it.  Not a must have but super nice if you do.  It is not just good docking but if you have a new rider (which we seem to frequently) being able to keep the optimal angle on the rider as they struggle to get in position is really nice.  That and it does reduce pickup time when someone falls or does not get up.  One battery and the 170 amp alternator that comes with the factory option is plenty.  Key to battery life is shove the boat in short thrusts to keep it moving.  If you stay on the button the boat will not keep accelerating its turn rate, once you get it moving with a short thrust stop with the stern turn.  The stern turn pulls something like 235 amps, if you stay on the button you can kill a battery pretty quickly.   

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3 hours ago, Surf4FamFun said:

I think battery option 2 and option 3 refer to how battery use is managed.  With option 2 you select which battery is being used with the big red switch that you use to turn the boat (except for the motorized tower and bilge pump) on and off.  Option three still has two batteries but uses one for cranking and the second for other stuff including stern turn.  There is an automatic switch that connects the two when it can to allow for some limited power sharing and charging of both batteries while protecting your ability to crank.  Really like the Battery charger 3 option if that is what is being decided.  Batteries take up so much space hard to believe that they have a hole for one that stays empty if you don't pick the option.  

We have the stern turn on our 23 MXZ and really enjoy it.  Not a must have but super nice if you do.  It is not just good docking but if you have a new rider (which we seem to frequently) being able to keep the optimal angle on the rider as they struggle to get in position is really nice.  That and it does reduce pickup time when someone falls or does not get up.  One battery and the 170 amp alternator that comes with the factory option is plenty.  Key to battery life is shove the boat in short thrusts to keep it moving.  If you stay on the button the boat will not keep accelerating its turn rate, once you get it moving with a short thrust stop with the stern turn.  The stern turn pulls something like 235 amps, if you stay on the button you can kill a battery pretty quickly.   

Good info, Thanks.  I can see this becoming a big issue with my wife if she stays on the thruster repeatedly.  She just pretty much does what she wants and then says it is a crap feature if it doesn't do exact;y what she expects....  :lol:

  • Haha 2
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57 minutes ago, Gene3x said:

Good info, Thanks.  I can see this becoming a big issue with my wife if she stays on the thruster repeatedly.  She just pretty much does what she wants and then says it is a crap feature if it doesn't do exact;y what she expects....  :lol:

After the big white box pops up saying "House Battery Low" she will have proof of the bad design!!!   :whistle:  On the up side the alternator always seems to be able to catch back up.

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FYI for anyone that has a 2022 with the GX tower you now need to leave the tower power on when out using the boat or you will get a "GX Tower Not locked" warning popping up on the screen.

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