Power Issues with 2007 Nautique 236

[jboard1]

Hello all,

This is my first post here and i'm hoping someone out there can shed some light on the problem i'm having.

I have a 2007 Nautique 236 and for the past few seasons I've been experiencing a weird loss of power problem.

This issue seems to always arise when the boat is in gear and many of the accessories are running. For example, the other day we were on the lake cruising about 28 MPH, stereo was on (including normal boat speakers, tower speakers and two subs), lights were on, heater was on, and all of a sudden....nothing. Everything stopped including the engine...no power. When this happens, we usually wait a good 3 or 4 minutes and then try resetting the main power fuse in the back locker. Eventually it will "click" when pushing the fuse in and the power is restored. It is as if there is too much running and the boat can not handle it all. That seems crazy to me, as i've had many boats over the years with speakers, heaters, lights etc and have never experienced this.

Over the winter we took the boat into the local Nautique dealer in our area for some work. We explained the issue we are having and they said they would investigate. They could not find anything wrong to indicate what has been happening. They did replace the batteries, but that did not fix the issue as my last example happened just the other day.

Does anyone out there have any ideas what may be going on? Has anyone else experienced this?

If i need to provide more details about the boat or the problem, please let me know and i will do my best to give those details. I'm not sure where to turn since the Nautique dealer themselves did not know what is wrong. I am really hoping someone out there can help me.

Thanks in advance for your time,
Jeff

[ddipert]

Have you used a voltmeter and check how many amps your drawing? Could be that your right on the limit and something kicks you over the edge trips the breaker. Did your dealer check your breaker to make sure it's with in specs?

[jboard1]

Thank you for the reply ddipert. You know i did not ask the dealer what they tried when troubleshooting this. I just took their word for it (they are a great dealer and i have no bad words about them).

If a volt meter is something I want to try myself, where can i get one and what do i hook it up to, to test it?

Hook it to the battery while running all of the accessories? or?

[s_kelley2000]

This issue seems to always arise when the boat is in gear and many of the accessories are running. For example, the other day we were on the lake cruising about 28 MPH, stereo was on (including normal boat speakers, tower speakers and two subs), lights were on, heater was on, and all of a sudden....nothing. Everything stopped including the engine...no power. When this happens, we usually wait a good 3 or 4 minutes and then try resetting the main power fuse in the back locker. Eventually it will "click" when pushing the fuse in and the power is restored. It is as if there is too much running and the boat can not handle it all.

First of all welcome to the site. When you say you wait 3 or 4 minutes to reset the breaker does that mean that it won't reset before that? If the breaker is tripped it should be able to be reset right away. If it's not resetting on the first or second attempt then you may have a faulty breaker. You mentioned having two subs so I am guessing you probably have some other stereo upgrades? Where these installed by a reputable shop? Either way the wiring for the amps seems like a good place to start if the issue is not a faulty breaker. I am getting a little over my head so take this for what it's worth but I think the amps and any other high draw equipment should all have direct runs to the battery with inline fuses for protection and thus not able to trip the main breaker. If any of the amps are getting power from the dash(remote turn ons are fine) then they could trip the breaker and that is likely your problem because the wiring to the dash cannot handle the additional load of the amps. I hope this helps and somebody please correct me if I am way off.

[jboard1]

s_kelley: Thanks for the reply.

Yes we wait a few minute to reset the breaker because it doesn't do anything for a few minutes. After we wait a bit, it will "click" and then we are good to go. I will have to check with the dealer to see if they checked the status of the breakers when they looked at the boat last.

Regarding the subs and amp, this was installed prior to us purchasing the boat, so i'm not sure if the dealer did the wiring or the previous owner. I do believe that both amps run to the batteries with the inline protected fuses. I will double check on that to make sure they have the fuses and that the fuses are in working condition.

Again, thanks for the insight. I will look go over the amp setups to make sure everything is wired correctly. I may even unplug them and run all other accessories to see if it pops the breaker with no subs running.

[s_kelley2000]

No problem, glad to help. If that breaker is not popping back in then it sounds like that might be the problem. Maybe nothing is tripping it and it is just popping out on it's own? I am not sure which breaker you have but it can probably be found here:

http://www.nautiqueparts.com/dash_electrical.aspx

don't forget to use the "PND" code to save 10%.

[jboard1]

Well, the only times it breaks is when all of the accessories are running. Everytime this has happened it has been nearing the end of the day/evening, so we have the lights on, the heater on the music on etc. During the day when we are riding, cruising etc, we never seem to have an issue. The issue always seems to happen when all of the stuff is running.

I will look over the link you sent me to see which breaker we have.

Thanks!

[s_kelley2000]

When you say lights are you talking navigation lights? Or do you have a light bar on your tower? Those halogen light bars are a huge draw.

[jboard1]

No, we do not have the tower lights. Stock internal boat lights and docking lights are the only lights on the boat. So i'd imagine that is pretty basic power consumption...nothing crazy i dont think.

[s_kelley2000]

Those docking lights actually use a lot of power unless they were upgraded to LED. They are only meant to be used for short periods of time. In most if not all states it is actually illegal to use them unless you are X amount of feet from shore and pulling into a slip/trailer. I wouldn't be surprised if that was your problem because those are a big draw. I am guessing the factory ran barely adequate wiring to power those from the dash and then when they are run for more than a minute or two they are tripping your breaker.

[jboard1]

Wow, that is interesting and great info to know. Thanks!

[mosh706]

The electrical is drawing to much from the breaker its getting hot a popping thats y you have to wait for it to cool a little bit to reset. You can lessen the load by installing capacitors for your amps they will store the power and stop power surges it will help alot.

[79nautiquenick]

The same exact thing happened to my 07 236 Sunday. An I had all my accessories on as well when cruising down the water. I checked all the fuses an nothing popped. The pme fuse didn't pop up but once I pushed it got all pose back.

I think I'm gonna do LED conversion for docking lights on relays to help out on not kicking that fuse again.