I wish someone could just give me the most basic breakdown of how to use it
Can someone that has the same setup please “dumb it down” for me?
The problem is many if not most of these boats are no longer in the factory wiring configuration. They rarely stayed this way for very long once owners started cruising with them.
From the factory a 2004
ish vintage Hunter usually, but not always, shipped with two equal sized banks of 4D batteries, often Prevailer GEL's, controlled by a 1/2/B/OFF switch. (Battery #2 was actually an option that most dealers opted for) The inverter and other loads, if a factory installed inverter option was selected, were connected to the "load" side of the battery switch so the inverter was only powered for inverting or charging when you set the switch to #1, #2 or BOTH position. If the standard battery charger option was selected the charger connected directly to each bank via the 1/2/B switch. If the inverter was dealer installed or owner installed the wiring can be entirely different.
The problem is that, over the years, many owners moved away from the largely inadequate factory bank wiring, with two equal sized banks, and made one bank the "house" (large) and one "start" (small). Some owners also added an ACR or Echo type charger to charge both banks from one inverter source automatically (some inverters have a built in Echo charger and some don't), and some used the BOTH position for charge direction. Other owners took it a step further and gave the inverter/charger its own ON/OFF switch, and a more direct path to the house bank, so the main 1/2/B switch could be isolated, while dockside, and the batteries could still be charged..
Bottom line is that the only way to know for sure how to use it, is to know exactly
how your boat is currently wired. The only way to know this is to get into the wiring, investigate it and draw a current schematic of how it is physically wired. The inverter should only be run from the house bank.