As a new owner of a 1984 25.5 Hunter I am very interested in all things about my boat and the electrical system has me stymied. To begin with, the boat connection is a 50 amp system (I know because the female connection has two "L" shaped prongs along with the third flat prong). However, I can't find a 50 amp adapter. The vast majority are 30 amp adapters and I always get the same response: "Are you sure its a 50 amp system?" First question: How unsusual is it to have a 50 amp system? Second question: How is the AC shore power system converted to the boat's DC system? Aside from the DC fuses next to each panel switch, is there another AC fuse box system somewhere on the boat?
Electrical System
- Thread starter Tony23670
- Start date
- Status
Well, on my H31 its like this...
I cant speat directly about your boat, but if its like my 1985 H31 here are your answers: My AC hookup also has two L-chaped prongs and one flat prong. It's only a 30 amp system. I know nothing about the pronging layout being related to the current carrying capacity. Possibly someone with more knowledge than me will illuminate us both. The AC brought aboard the boat can only go to three different places: the AC outlets, any built in AC appliances (like a water heater), or to a battery charger. Before it goes anywhere it SHOULD go through a main breaker. On my boat the main AC breaker is in the same panel where the DC breakers are. It is a ganged, two pole breaker. There are seperate breakers for the AC outlets and the water heater. The way the AC line gets converted to DC is through a battery charger or shore charger. As DC power is drained from the batteries it is replenished by the charger. As long as the DC usage is low the charger can keep up nicely. However, the charger cannot supply large current flows directly to the boats appliances. My boat was not originally equipped with a shore charger and I had to install it myself.
I cant speat directly about your boat, but if its like my 1985 H31 here are your answers: My AC hookup also has two L-chaped prongs and one flat prong. It's only a 30 amp system. I know nothing about the pronging layout being related to the current carrying capacity. Possibly someone with more knowledge than me will illuminate us both. The AC brought aboard the boat can only go to three different places: the AC outlets, any built in AC appliances (like a water heater), or to a battery charger. Before it goes anywhere it SHOULD go through a main breaker. On my boat the main AC breaker is in the same panel where the DC breakers are. It is a ganged, two pole breaker. There are seperate breakers for the AC outlets and the water heater. The way the AC line gets converted to DC is through a battery charger or shore charger. As DC power is drained from the batteries it is replenished by the charger. As long as the DC usage is low the charger can keep up nicely. However, the charger cannot supply large current flows directly to the boats appliances. My boat was not originally equipped with a shore charger and I had to install it myself.
Pronging
Two L-shaped prongs is 50 Amp service, 1 L-shaped prong is 30 amp service. If your shore power connection on the BOAT is 50 amp then that is unusual. Most "smaller" boats only have 30 amp services. It may be that the PO modified the DOCK end of the shore power cable so he could tie into 50 amp services. There might have been only 50 amp available! So, check your BOAT connection to see what you really have. If it is a 30 amp service then all you need to do is buy a 30 amp plug for the dock end of the cable and install it. Pretty simple stuff if you watch the color codes. There should be instructions that come with the plug. If you have a 50 amp service at the boat end (unlikely) then you need to access your power requirements. Can you get by with 30 or do you need 50 amp service? Do you have an air conditioning AND some other big consumer of AC current? Don't forget to factor in the wife's hair dryer and her other power tools. If you really do need 50 amp service then you are in a bind because there is apparently non available at your dock. So tell the wife to not run the power tools when the air conditioning is on. Then convert the plug to 30 amp service.
Two L-shaped prongs is 50 Amp service, 1 L-shaped prong is 30 amp service. If your shore power connection on the BOAT is 50 amp then that is unusual. Most "smaller" boats only have 30 amp services. It may be that the PO modified the DOCK end of the shore power cable so he could tie into 50 amp services. There might have been only 50 amp available! So, check your BOAT connection to see what you really have. If it is a 30 amp service then all you need to do is buy a 30 amp plug for the dock end of the cable and install it. Pretty simple stuff if you watch the color codes. There should be instructions that come with the plug. If you have a 50 amp service at the boat end (unlikely) then you need to access your power requirements. Can you get by with 30 or do you need 50 amp service? Do you have an air conditioning AND some other big consumer of AC current? Don't forget to factor in the wife's hair dryer and her other power tools. If you really do need 50 amp service then you are in a bind because there is apparently non available at your dock. So tell the wife to not run the power tools when the air conditioning is on. Then convert the plug to 30 amp service.
- Status