Don't Overlook Your Battery Cables

[Robbo]

I guess there's a first for everything. My new house system was working fine for about three weeks and then for reason it went gunny bag. It's been driving me nuts!

Turns out the cable that ties the two 6 volt batteries together to make it a 12 volt system had a bad end on it. This is a brand new cable installed in late May of this year and Sal at the Bay Company here in Craig figured a little water got into the cable end and then the high amperage quickly corroded the end. New cable...problem solved. Without Sal's load tester it would have taken forever to identify this problem.

cable.jpg (81.14 KiB) Viewed 6909 times

I post this so someone else might learn from it. Electricity and boats...gotta love it!

[t_dub]

wow, that's a decent amount of corrosion in just a few months but wouldn't think it would be enough to turn your electrical system on its ear just yet. is the 6v system more susceptible to corrosion issues?

[Nelly]

wow, that's a decent amount of corrosion in just a few months but wouldn't think it would be enough to turn your electrical system on its ear just yet. is the 6v system more susceptible to corrosion issues?

I don't believe that the voltage was the issue, rather the amperage involved and the fact that salt water got into the crimped cable end.

Robbo's battery installation is two high capacity 6V batteries wired in series to produce a 12V system with some serious cold cranking amps!

[Jeff Nance]

Silicone on the ends of your electrical connections really helps prevent corrosion.