Finally have a reason to be a member of this forum... 2019 242X

[RobinSC]

Nice, I wanted to go 242X but ended up 212X, would have had to redo my lift and likely the wife would have need changed out and I could not afford to do all that... Not sure you need the trickle charger here in SC but OCD wants what OCD wants. Not thinking the X comes with the solar panel that's the E model but I am not an expert. I am taking mine to FL next month with my Tundra so I am glad to here that yours towed well too, seem like everyone raves about how well they pull. Where in SC are you, I am up on Lake Wyile just outside Charlotte.

 

[CraigAR]

This is the first time I have seen this explained in a way that I easily understood!! Thanks for that!

My dealer installed my dual bank charger. I asked about the DVSR, and he was like - “nah, don’t worry about that”. It’s been working for a year, and have never disconnected the dvsr, but I’ve never felt right about it. Should I go ahead and wire in that switch, or just snip it?

I have never disabled it either. 2017 ar240 with a big system and a dual bank promarine smart charger. Same batteries since I bought it.

 

[ColaDawg]

Love the Jedi name reference and Mandalorian logo on the boat.

 

[Troy JK]

Your boat has 2 batteries. A "Start" battery to start the engines and a "House" battery for everything else. You also have a small solar panel in the Bimini cover that is wired directly to the Start battery. It will supply a trickle charge to the Start battery when it's in the sun.

You also have a little gizmo called a DVSR. It is the 4th circle thing where your battery switches are. What this does is bridge the Start and House batteries after the Start battery is fully charged.

This means that if you put battery chargers on both batteries they can fight with each other once the DVSR bridges the connection. You basically have 3 options:

1) If the boat is stored outside, do nothing. Solar Panel will trickle charge the Start battery and then DVSR will bridge to trickle the House battery also. If you have a voltmeter, set it to VDC and check that you are seeing 13V+ on the Start battery when the solar is exposed to sun. Once the Start battery is charged the red LED on the DVSR will turn on and you should see voltage rise on the House battery.

2) If the solar panel will be shaded, you need a battery charger. You can put one on the Start battery and let the DVSR bridge and it will keep both topped up. As long as both batteries are the same age, size, etc this will be fine.

3) If you are OCD and want to charge/maintain the batteries separately, you need the disable the DVSR. You can do this by installing a switch in the tiny black wire running from the DVSR to one of the negative battery terminals. When that wire is broken by the switch the DVSR will not activate. When you unplug the chargers you should switch the DVDSR back on so the House battery can be charged.

Great info. We just bought a new 2020 Yamaha in march and I was just looking at a 2 bank on board charger for it. Didn’t know about the DVSR. I dont want to rely on the solar panel so I’ll probably get the single bank as I don’t want to start modifying any wiring on this thing just yet.

 

[ColaDawg]

Welcome! I went with two small Battery Tenders, installed the "permanent" battery cables that unhook and self-cap themselves. Yes I have to bring a power strip onto the boat to run that and the fans so it's not as easy/clean as installing a permanent onboard solution, but whatever.

That seems to be the thoughts that were prevailing in my head at first...

Your boat has 2 batteries. A "Start" battery to start the engines and a "House" battery for everything else. You also have a small solar panel in the Bimini cover that is wired directly to the Start battery. It will supply a trickle charge to the Start battery when it's in the sun.

You also have a little gizmo called a DVSR. It is the 4th circle thing where your battery switches are. What this does is bridge the Start and House batteries after the Start battery is fully charged.

This means that if you put battery chargers on both batteries they can fight with each other once the DVSR bridges the connection. You basically have 3 options:

1) If the boat is stored outside, do nothing. Solar Panel will trickle charge the Start battery and then DVSR will bridge to trickle the House battery also. If you have a voltmeter, set it to VDC and check that you are seeing 13V+ on the Start battery when the solar is exposed to sun. Once the Start battery is charged the red LED on the DVSR will turn on and you should see voltage rise on the House battery.

2) If the solar panel will be shaded, you need a battery charger. You can put one on the Start battery and let the DVSR bridge and it will keep both topped up. As long as both batteries are the same age, size, etc this will be fine.

3) If you are OCD and want to charge/maintain the batteries separately, you need the disable the DVSR. You can do this by installing a switch in the tiny black wire running from the DVSR to one of the negative battery terminals. When that wire is broken by the switch the DVSR will not activate. When you unplug the chargers you should switch the DVDSR back on so the House battery can be charged.

Thank you so much for the explanation with that. It's the first time i've seen it spelled out so clearly for a dummy like myself. The boat has the small solar panel on top. It is in the middle of the driveway, and judging by the angle of the panel/bimini top, I would think it gets full sun from sunrise until 3 or 4 in the afternoon (I guess i could climb up ontop to check). Once, it is in the water, it 'should' be oriented for full sun basically from mid morning until sunset (turned facing south/south west). I am not particularly OCD, but when I have turned the batteries on to either turn on the in light inside the head compartment (with kids work sometimes happens at night) or to just play with the bluetooth connections the house battery is showing 11.9-12.1 and the starter is sitting at 12.7.

 

[ColaDawg]

Welcome!

Sounds like your bucking issue might be the vehicles transmission jumping between gears. Are you using the towing mode to prevent that?

Hitch height needs to be at the level where the trailer frame is level to the ground as shown in your driveway pic. Your best bet is to buy a hitch with adjustable heights to accommodate both of your tow rigs.

The Burb was in tow-haul, and at this point I don't want to go on record as saying that it wasn't searching for gears, but from my limited experience with that it felt more like the hitch was jostling, which leads me to agree with your statement about the adjustable hitch height. I have looked at the tow rigs forums and found plenty of ways to spend money on that.

Nice, I wanted to go 242X but ended up 212X, would have had to redo my lift and likely the wife would have need changed out and I could not afford to do all that... Not sure you need the trickle charger here in SC but OCD wants what OCD wants. Not thinking the X comes with the solar panel that's the E model but I am not an expert. I am taking mine to FL next month with my Tundra so I am glad to here that yours towed well too, seem like everyone raves about how well they pull. Where in SC are you, I am up on Lake Wyile just outside Charlotte.

When i started this thread we had two boys (2 and almost 4) and now we have 3! The reason we went 24' was because we didn't want to be in a position where we wanted more room. Heck, our 5 plus almost any of our friends and their kids puts us at ~10 people right there.
The X has it, but the house isn't staying nice and high at 12.7 or so.
I've had Bertha (the black Tundra in profile pic) since 2014. She hasn't towed a lot of miles, but has towed a lot of weight (ashamed to say I've been way over payload and towing capacity a few too many times for some home improvement projects and other misc.construction stuff) and she has never had an issue. Only two downsides about her in that regards is load payload and fuel economy... But as is said often, its not miles per gallon but smiles per gallon.
We live in Columbia on one of the smaller lakes in town. Not a whole lot of hard riding at the house due to size/depth, but less than 30 minutes from Lake Murray, and less than 2 hours from Charleston. When the newest addition gets sturdier we are hoping to get to some of the group gatherings in the NC area. And the wife and I are always looking for an excuse to go to Maggiano's at South Park.

 

[anmut]

After stopping you WILL feel a slight delay clunk from the trailer as the surge brake resets.

 

[RobinSC]

The Burb was in tow-haul, and at this point I don't want to go on record as saying that it wasn't searching for gears, but from my limited experience with that it felt more like the hitch was jostling, which leads me to agree with your statement about the adjustable hitch height. I have looked at the tow rigs forums and found plenty of ways to spend money on that.

When i started this thread we had two boys (2 and almost 4) and now we have 3! The reason we went 24' was because we didn't want to be in a position where we wanted more room. Heck, our 5 plus almost any of our friends and their kids puts us at ~10 people right there.
The X has it, but the house isn't staying nice and high at 12.7 or so.
I've had Bertha (the black Tundra in profile pic) since 2014. She hasn't towed a lot of miles, but has towed a lot of weight (ashamed to say I've been way over payload and towing capacity a few too many times for some home improvement projects and other misc.construction stuff) and she has never had an issue. Only two downsides about her in that regards is load payload and fuel economy... But as is said often, its not miles per gallon but smiles per gallon.
We live in Columbia on one of the smaller lakes in town. Not a whole lot of hard riding at the house due to size/depth, but less than 30 minutes from Lake Murray, and less than 2 hours from Charleston. When the newest addition gets sturdier we are hoping to get to some of the group gatherings in the NC area. And the wife and I are always looking for an excuse to go to Maggiano's at South Park.

Nice I am at other end of the Kid thing last one just finished Grad school! So 21' works for us now, looking forward to a Murray trip at some point, buddy fishes there all the time. Maggiano's is awesome and I too am looking fwd to taking my boat to some gatherings, last 12 years was boat with no trailer with boat in lift on lake, but now we are ready to hit the road and see some new water. My 2017 Tundra has only pulled a jet ski and a few small home improvement loads so looking to see what she can really do!

 

[Stacey in SC]

In regards to the drip hitch, i had a 2" that I've always used on the truck. For the boat, I did have to make it a raise in same way you did. I'll agree. It is crazy the height difference in the GM SUVs and our trucks. A new larger drop hitch appears to be in my future.

That was not on my mind. And now I am curious to see how it holds up under flexion. It has a little bit of wiggle when you pull/push on it, but due to the fact that all the parts are connected (not to the boat, but each other) it has stability such that it doesn't really fall over.




Thanks! I will experiment with this for a while.



I tell her everyday. Thanks. This will be boy #3 (the other two are under 4). I am hopeful that they grow to enjoy the water.

Hey and welcome aboard! My husband and I lived in Columbia from 1996 through 2006! We lived mostly on the west side and last 1.5 years in the Northeast. We got engaged there and all three of our sons were born there. We moved to Charleston and bought our 2009 232 Limited S; our boys were all raised on that boat. They are all currently at Wando High, one graduating. At one time they were 3, 2, and 6 mos. Sound familiar?

I try to get on Lake Murray with a buddy at least once a summer. Where do you boat? We strictly trailer so I’ve never bothered mounting the tender in the boat - we use the same one for all toys (well, you know what I mean) and just top the batteries off when we bring her home for a wash, etc. if it is a few weeks between trips we will bring her home and top off again the night before we head out.
Mark and I also both got grad degrees from USC.

Enjoy the baby and the new toy!! Maybe we will see you on the water one day. Julian and others were just starting to discuss a CHS trip or a locks trip. Have fun!!

 

[grywlfbg]

This is the first time I have seen this explained in a way that I easily understood!! Thanks for that!

My dealer installed my dual bank charger. I asked about the DVSR, and he was like - “nah, don’t worry about that”. It’s been working for a year, and have never disconnected the dvsr, but I’ve never felt right about it. Should I go ahead and wire in that switch, or just snip it?

You're welcome!

As long as the batteries have the same capacity, it will be fine. You'll only have a problem if one of the batteries starts to fail before the other (or if you were to have batteries of different ages or sizes). At that point the weaker battery would end up being overcharged which would hasten its demise.

So you will maximize your battery life if the batteries are charged separately, letting the dual bank charger do its magic to maintain each battery separately. What this means in the real world I can only guess.

NOTE: You should NOT just snip the wire. I have not verified what I'm about to say with a voltmeter but based on the DVSR manual, both the engine and solar panel are ONLY connected to the Start battery. So the only way the House battery is charged when away from shore power (engine running or solar panel) is via the DVSR. That means if you snip the wire, the House battery will not be charged at all except when plugged into the shore charger.

In my view you have 3 options:

1) Leave it as it is. DVSR will bridge the batteries when on shore power and when on the water. Some loss of battery life.
2) Install a switch on the negative DVSR lead. Disable when on shore power, enable when underway. Best solution as it retains engine and (key off) solar panel charging plus the dual bank charger can manage each battery individually. Downside is it is a manual process - requires remembering to enable/disable switch when embarking/disembarking.
3) Rig the DVSR to only enable when ignition is hot. There is a red wire coming off the DVSR that is looped back into the DVSR. One end of this wire can be connected to a lead that is hot only when ignition is on. In this way, the DVSR will only be enabled when the ignition is on. This would allow charging of the House battery when the engine is running and allow dual bank charger to manage each battery individually when on shore power without having to remember to flip a switch each time, but would disable the solar panel charging of the House battery when the ignition is off.

Funny, before I wrote this I was planning to do option 2. But as I think about it, I never turn off the ignition on the water. I just kill the engines. I'll think about it some more but I may end up doing option 3.

 

[ColaDawg]

Hey and welcome aboard! My husband and I lived in Columbia from 1996 through 2006! We lived mostly on the west side and last 1.5 years in the Northeast. We got engaged there and all three of our sons were born there. We moved to Charleston and bought our 2009 232 Limited S; our boys were all raised on that boat. They are all currently at Wando High, one graduating. At one time they were 3, 2, and 6 mos. Sound familiar?

I try to get on Lake Murray with a buddy at least once a summer. Where do you boat? We strictly trailer so I’ve never bothered mounting the tender in the boat - we use the same one for all toys (well, you know what I mean) and just top the batteries off when we bring her home for a wash, etc. if it is a few weeks between trips we will bring her home and top off again the night before we head out.
Mark and I also both got grad degrees from USC.

Enjoy the baby and the new toy!! Maybe we will see you on the water one day. Julian and others were just starting to discuss a CHS trip or a locks trip. Have fun!!

Very Familiar, we are sitting at newborn, 2, and 3 (turns 4 next month and asks everyday when we can go on the "ship").
Boating is new to us in Columbia. I was pleasantly surprised when the wife mentioned that she is interested in hitting the road an visiting a lot of the surrounding lakes.
I will keep my eyes peeled for any trips in the Carolinas as the kiddos get older.

 

[ColaDawg]

You're welcome!

As long as the batteries have the same capacity, it will be fine. You'll only have a problem if one of the batteries starts to fail before the other (or if you were to have batteries of different ages or sizes). At that point the weaker battery would end up being overcharged which would hasten its demise.

So you will maximize your battery life if the batteries are charged separately, letting the dual bank charger do its magic to maintain each battery separately. What this means in the real world I can only guess.

NOTE: You should NOT just snip the wire. I have not verified what I'm about to say with a voltmeter but based on the DVSR manual, both the engine and solar panel are ONLY connected to the Start battery. So the only way the House battery is charged when away from shore power (engine running or solar panel) is via the DVSR. That means if you snip the wire, the House battery will not be charged at all except when plugged into the shore charger.

In my view you have 3 options:

1) Leave it as it is. DVSR will bridge the batteries when on shore power and when on the water. Some loss of battery life.
2) Install a switch on the negative DVSR lead. Disable when on shore power, enable when underway. Best solution as it retains engine and (key off) solar panel charging plus the dual bank charger can manage each battery individually. Downside is it is a manual process - requires remembering to enable/disable switch when embarking/disembarking.
3) Rig the DVSR to only enable when ignition is hot. There is a red wire coming off the DVSR that is looped back into the DVSR. One end of this wire can be connected to a lead that is hot only when ignition is on. In this way, the DVSR will only be enabled when the ignition is on. This would allow charging of the House battery when the engine is running and allow dual bank charger to manage each battery individually when on shore power without having to remember to flip a switch each time, but would disable the solar panel charging of the House battery when the ignition is off.

Funny, before I wrote this I was planning to do option 2. But as I think about it, I never turn off the ignition on the water. I just kill the engines. I'll think about it some more but I may end up doing option 3.

Can you just come hang out with me and explain some stuff? Boat batteries, Power wheel motors/wiring schematics, pool lighting/wiring, etc...

Option three there sounds very interesting. Dock, turn off ignition, hook up to chargers. When ready to go, unhook chargers and turn ignition which in turn connects the solar charger for a little trickle charge while out and about. So many ways to go about it.