On Friday morning at 2 am I launched at Garibaldi to do a little night crabbin. I fired up old blackie (Mercruiser 140) and started smellin plastic smoke. I cut it off and found billows of white smoke boiling out from under the engine cover. Not knowing what else to do I dug through the crab gear and hit the battery switch.
It probably saved my boat. A battery cable had chafed on the engine, down to bare copper and shorted my batteries to ground. The cable melted down and made huge clouds of nice white pvc smoke.
I reviewed all of the interesting four and five letter words I learned in the Navy out loud while I fixed the boat at the boat ramp.
Thankful I am now for the advice I decided to follow when I rebuilt my boat. Buy a battery isolation switch, even if you only have one battery. It will keep your battery from running down when the boat is idle and it puts out an electrical fire like magic.
The bend is your friend!
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"Never mistake motion for action"
— Ernest Hemingway
"thud!"
Pilar
I put in a battery switch a while back and it is nice to know it will put out an electric fire, I didnt know that. I turn it off every time I park the boat.
I put mine in after my little boy while playing in the boat turned the key to the on position without me noticing. It added 180 +/- hours to the hour meter before the battery went so dead it wouldnt run the hour meter any more. I discovered this little problem at the boat ramp. Ever pull start a 115 HP outboard with good compression.
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I married better than my wife did!!
As time goes on, I find less and less people I care to be around
Pilar
I also found out what a battery switch can do to you out fishing one day on river I had not been out in a few weeks so put switch on all to top off both batteries so far so good fish for gators 5-6 hr and when I go to leave both batteries are dead good thing for trolling motors.Turns out my deep cycle had a bad cell oh well live and learn only run one batt at time now.
RKB
[This message has been edited by RKB (edited 09-27-2000).]
What the?
I can see your face now......
....EVEN THROUGH THE SMOKE!....BAH!
Sorry to hear about the Melt-down bud. Sure am glad It didn't happen a couple of weeks earlier though. At the boat ramp huh?.....At least ya weren't out. You know what I say, "I'd rather be Lucky than Good."
Out!
KrystalFlash
What is the battery switch for anyway?
I discovered this little problem at the boat ramp. Ever pull start a 115 HP outboard with good compression. 
Linear Mode
