It is possible that I have the only 49 with this problem, but for all that it takes to verify that your boat is OK, you are well advised to do so.
FYI, I have reported this to Hunter, and they were OK with my posting this on the forum.
On the transom you have a main power inlet which is wired 220 volt.
There is a 3 conductor cable connected to it with Black, White, and Green wires.
All 3 wires are 6 gauge.
You either have an isolation transformer or you don't. The earlier boats were fitted as standard, and then they were optional.
This issue pertains to if you have a transformer.,
If you have an isolation transformer, the 220 volt input wires (black & white) go to the primary of the transformer. The Green wire connects to the transformer primary to secondary isolation shield.
In the shore power cable, there are 4 wires:
Black, Red, white, and green. You don't see these, as both ends are terminated with plugs.
The black and white are 220v phases, the white is shore neutral, and green is ground.
With the transformer, your boat does not use the shore neutral. The neutral is derived from the transformer secondary, and gives you the 120v neutral references for your outlets, charger,,etc.
If you look at the rear of the power inlet receptacle, there are 3 large holes for wires to connect into.
One of these holes is labelled "white"
On my boat, the green (ground) conductor was wired into this position.
If you look at the receptacle, there is a separate green grounding screw. This is where the green should go.
Here is how this happened, why it is dangerous, and how to fix it.
As mentioned, the 3 conductor cable (on my boat), is all 6 gauge. It's reasonably stiff wire, and doesn't flex easily.
The 3 power inlet points (2 phase & neutral), all accept # 6 wire.
The green grounding lug does not accept #6, and isn't positioned at the same plane as the 3 larger contacts.
Therefore, the installer saw 3 large holes, and inserted 3 large wires.
The reason the ground lug is smaller is because you'll never have 50 Amps of ground current. (Not for long anyway)
So, it is rated for smaller capacity wire.
What the installer needed to do in my case, (and in yours ), is to remove some of the wire strands to get the wire to fit onto this lug.
Why is this dangerous???
The way my boat was wired, the isolation shield between the primary and secondary was at shore neutral; not ground.
The reason for the shield is to protect you, in case there is an internal failure in the transformer. At that point, the windings would short to ground.
With the shield connected to shore neutral, you are depending on the neutral -ground bond, which is way back at the service distribution. Long and the short of it, it's not safe.
So, with your boat unplugged, check your inlet wiring. This is a problem that you won't know about until its too late.
Secondly, if you have an isolation transformer, and you are using a 2007 era Marinco "Smart Y", you have a very serious potential injury hazard. I received a terrible shock owing to this.
The problem is that the voltage feeds back from one Male plug to the other; just the thing it's not supposed to do.
In other words, if you touch the exposed blades of the second male plug, it is live with 120 volts. They never considered isolation transformers in their original design. I reported this to Marinco immediately after getting shocked, and they responded that "they resolved this issue in the newer version" It's true, they did. But they never posted any safety notices anywhere.
If you need further info on this, contact me via the forums.
FYI, I have reported this to Hunter, and they were OK with my posting this on the forum.
On the transom you have a main power inlet which is wired 220 volt.
There is a 3 conductor cable connected to it with Black, White, and Green wires.
All 3 wires are 6 gauge.
You either have an isolation transformer or you don't. The earlier boats were fitted as standard, and then they were optional.
This issue pertains to if you have a transformer.,
If you have an isolation transformer, the 220 volt input wires (black & white) go to the primary of the transformer. The Green wire connects to the transformer primary to secondary isolation shield.
In the shore power cable, there are 4 wires:
Black, Red, white, and green. You don't see these, as both ends are terminated with plugs.
The black and white are 220v phases, the white is shore neutral, and green is ground.
With the transformer, your boat does not use the shore neutral. The neutral is derived from the transformer secondary, and gives you the 120v neutral references for your outlets, charger,,etc.
If you look at the rear of the power inlet receptacle, there are 3 large holes for wires to connect into.
One of these holes is labelled "white"
On my boat, the green (ground) conductor was wired into this position.
If you look at the receptacle, there is a separate green grounding screw. This is where the green should go.
Here is how this happened, why it is dangerous, and how to fix it.
As mentioned, the 3 conductor cable (on my boat), is all 6 gauge. It's reasonably stiff wire, and doesn't flex easily.
The 3 power inlet points (2 phase & neutral), all accept # 6 wire.
The green grounding lug does not accept #6, and isn't positioned at the same plane as the 3 larger contacts.
Therefore, the installer saw 3 large holes, and inserted 3 large wires.
The reason the ground lug is smaller is because you'll never have 50 Amps of ground current. (Not for long anyway)
So, it is rated for smaller capacity wire.
What the installer needed to do in my case, (and in yours ), is to remove some of the wire strands to get the wire to fit onto this lug.
Why is this dangerous???
The way my boat was wired, the isolation shield between the primary and secondary was at shore neutral; not ground.
The reason for the shield is to protect you, in case there is an internal failure in the transformer. At that point, the windings would short to ground.
With the shield connected to shore neutral, you are depending on the neutral -ground bond, which is way back at the service distribution. Long and the short of it, it's not safe.
So, with your boat unplugged, check your inlet wiring. This is a problem that you won't know about until its too late.
Secondly, if you have an isolation transformer, and you are using a 2007 era Marinco "Smart Y", you have a very serious potential injury hazard. I received a terrible shock owing to this.
The problem is that the voltage feeds back from one Male plug to the other; just the thing it's not supposed to do.
In other words, if you touch the exposed blades of the second male plug, it is live with 120 volts. They never considered isolation transformers in their original design. I reported this to Marinco immediately after getting shocked, and they responded that "they resolved this issue in the newer version" It's true, they did. But they never posted any safety notices anywhere.
If you need further info on this, contact me via the forums.
