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New Problems - Near Electrical Fire

TomS said:
Sorry to see this but glad it wasn't worse in terms of damage or human casualties. You were fortunate to have caught it right there and somehow had the presence of mind to document it live.

I'd be curious to know the root cause when they figure it out. I've spent many hours working on the battery and charging systems in our boat, which has 6 batteries(!), so I know a lot can go wrong. My eyeballs tell me that was a dead short somewhere, like a pinched hot wire to the frame ground or something like that. The only other big current draws are going to be the power steering pump, sea legs, or maybe if you had a mondo stereo. The first principle of ABYC wiring standards is that each wire coming from any battery MUST be fused as close to the battery as possible (~2' or less), with the correct size fuse to protect that wire gauge. It has little to do with what is connected, rather to protect the wire itself from heating as happened here. This looks like that protection failed or was somehow shorted over. I'd look very closely at the SeaLegs electrical installation myself since it was aftermarket - wire size, location of fuse/breaker, etc.
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Lots of secondary thinking along these lines too these past few days. The dealership service department people (prior to seeing the boat and when I went up and spoke in person the next morning) immediately started wondering some of the same things, particularly theorizing about a dead short somewhere. They were thinking that seems a likely hypothesis initially given the speedy and intense damage that would have needed a large current draw.

In my thinking post incident, the other portion you mentioned that resonates so much with me is that the protections failed or shorted over. Seems like it should have been “contained” to rear wiring between Perko Switch, fuses, etc… However, wires frying is all past those points. How and why? That is what has me and the service department circling back to some sort of short somewhere along one of the wires that finally made contact and set this all off? And of course we have this phantom draw down that was maybe happening with old batteries, but for sure happening with the new ones. What’s up with that? That shouldn’t have been happening with Perko Switch off. Thus, is the failure somehow with the switch, and if so, is that behind what happened?

Goodness….too much speculation and rethinking/overthinking. I cannot stop rethinking things trying to figure it out. Ugh!
 
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Wow! Sorry to hear about all of the former and current opportunities Viking. Hopefully everything will get sorted out and corrected ASAP. At least you prevented a much worse situation from happening.
 
Jeff, I think Ray Charles had you in mind when he wrote "If it wasn't for bad luck". Then again, as others have pointed out, your boat didn't burn and no one was injured. Oh, and I totally forgot about your leaky toon. I'm just hoping that your "luck" doesn't rub off on the rest of us.;)

I guess you're really going to find out how good of a service department your dealer has. And it will be quite interesting for the rest of us to find out what happened and whether we might be sitting on a time bomb ourselves. Thankfully, you do a nice job of keeping us informed. Hang in there!
 
Michiman said:
Jeff, I think Ray Charles had you in mind when he wrote "If it wasn't for bad luck". Then again, as others have pointed out, your boat didn't burn and no one was injured. Oh, and I totally forgot about your leaky toon. I'm just hoping that your "luck" doesn't rub off on the rest of us.;)

I guess you're really going to find out how good of a service department your dealer has. And it will be quite interesting for the rest of us to find out what happened and whether we might be sitting on a time bomb ourselves. Thankfully, you do a nice job of keeping us informed. Hang in there!
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Ray Charles just knew something I hadn’t realized yet….lol. Just crazy things recently.

My biggest challenge right now is trying not to over-think it, or frankly even think about it at all, and not get too hung up on the possiblity of no boat this summer when there is nothing I can do about it. Also, I certainly don’t want a rushed fix. I want a precise and as best of a quality possible fix as can be done.

It’s certainly out of my hands at this point as they work to figure it all out.
 
This is about the ONLY time I wish I was back up North, so I could come visit and do some triage for you. Way back when, I completely rewired the battery section on my Benny, switches, all of it not long after I got it. I re-marked and secured everything that was just floating around. They are built with a pre-made harness, so not custom fit, drove me crazy, but Bennington does know what they're doing ABYC wise. I'd still suspect the aftermarket stuff or a wire pinch. Either way, proper fusing at the source end of the wires should have tripped before letting the smoke out.
 
TomS said:
This is about the ONLY time I wish I was back up North, so I could come visit and do some triage for you. Way back when, I completely rewired the battery section on my Benny, switches, all of it not long after I got it. I re-marked and secured everything that was just floating around. They are built with a pre-made harness, so not custom fit, drove me crazy, but Bennington does know what they're doing ABYC wise. I'd still suspect the aftermarket stuff or a wire pinch. Either way, proper fusing at the source end of the wires should have tripped before letting the smoke out.
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I remember your well marked layout that you had done! It's gotta be a short with a wire coming off battery two to a small wire for rgb lighting or something, in my 100% unprofessional, 100% uneducated, 100% uninformed guess!
 
Vikingstaff said:
they will do their best to get me back on the water before summer is over. Since we are in Michigan, it will probably end next week, so I think they are wildly optimistic.
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Jeff, I really hate this for you. Hopefully I didn’t have a vision when I said “summer was the week of July 4 in Michigan”.
Might be a good time to see what the boat is worth to the dealer and get that “last boat second”.
Best of luck.
 
If this occurred while your battery switch was off then I think this means only the devices powered direct from the battery are in play. Bilge pump and Sea Legs? The burnt wire appears to be some small-gauge so I would guess it's not the sea legs.

Maybe the bilge was running on auto drawing down the battery. For whatever reason charging the battery while bilge was on overloaded the amp rating and cooked it. Negative wires that melted, so this would mean not a short (wouldn't that impact the hot leg?)

Not an electrician and 110% guessing.

Viking, if you can't get the boat before end of summer, come on down to D.C. and we'll go cruising the Chesapeake Bay!
 
Potomacbassin’ said:
If this occurred while your battery switch was off then I think this means only the devices powered direct from the battery are in play. Bilge pump and Sea Legs? The burnt wire appears to be some small-gauge so I would guess it's not the sea legs.

Maybe the bilge was running on auto drawing down the battery. For whatever reason charging the battery while bilge was on overloaded the amp rating and cooked it. Negative wires that melted, so this would mean not a short (wouldn't that impact the hot leg?)

Not an electrician and 110% guessing.

Viking, if you can't get the boat before end of summer, come on down to D.C. and we'll go cruising the Chesapeake Bay!
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The burnt wires are all on the other side of the Perko Switch which is throwing me off since it was in the off position. The main one is a small-gauge wire as you noted coming immediately off the Perko Switch. The other is a bundle of wires contained in a big heavy duty plastic harness coming out of the floor. There could be other compromised wires, but they are not visible.

I can confirm it 100% isn’t any of the Sea Legs wires as those were easy to isolate since they connect in from their own obvious assembly points.

Bilge pump should have been off and not in auto, but I cannot verify that as I did not double check after the incident. I know I had not run it since getting the boat back from winter storage. I am also highly certain all my dash switches were off, including the master switch on the dash from when I got it and put it up on the Sea Legs on May 4th. However, I did not double check them after this incident…

Just bewilders me. But…I gotta try not to dwell. Going to leave it to the “professionals” to figure out - and hoping they are the professionals that are able to figure it out…

Now lets talk about this D.C. trip some more. Never been on the Chesapeake. Have only driven near it once. :p :cool:
 
There is a Florida man that can take you and the family out as well!
 
Vikingstaff said:
Now lets talk about this D.C. trip some more. Never been on the Chesapeake. Have only driven near it once. :p :cool:
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I haven't either on my pontoon! But heading into the unknown is part of the fun. One day once the kids are all out of the house I'd like to try the Great Loop in a pontoon, seems with an enclosure and a camp stove it would be a fun little adventure!
 
And a Hawaiian guy in Carolina!!! Ha! Lived in Maryland for 15 yrs. The Chesapeake is a big beautiful unpredictable body of water. A girl we used to work with retired and bought a charter boat with her husband. We used to go out on the 1st day of Rockfish season every year catching trophy rock usually between 33 and 46 inches. One second the water is like glass but when that wind whips up look out you're in for a ride!!!
 
Could stop in Alabama for a ride too. I think a summer road trip might be in order!
 
These responses and gracious invitations made my day! Shared them with my wife. She asked if she was about to lose me for a summer long road trip boating circuit since I am retired and she is not. I smiled and said ”perhaps you can fly into a couple of my stops along the way….” :D

I appreciate everyone’s kind words, and gracious invites. We don’t have much travel planned for this summer - well, because we were going to be hosting so many people at the lake house and boating…

That said, I sure would love to meet more of you Bennington lovers that I consider friends on here in person over time and take in the beautiful waterways each of you boats. I am always curious when I hear your stories and see pictures of your beautiful lakes, rivers, and even more open water areas the ICW, Gulf, etc…

Am I able to take rain checks on these and let each of you know when we might be traveling in the vicinity? Or are unannounced drop-ins fine? ;)
 
Lake Cumberland house is always open to you April to October. Might be the closest road trip. Only issue is the lake is a mess right now. They are not releasing water because of the high water levels in Nashville. The lake is high so all the wood is floating in the lake. We have 30 ft ash trees with branches floating because of the emerald ash bore kills. With lake levels steady, nothing is getting hung up on shore. It will improve quickly when they start lowering the lake level. Shout out to Vikingstaff, the Dori pole is mounted on the dock. Hopefully, it keeps the big bird with lots of Sh** off my Bimini cover. IMG_20210523_100434.jpg
 
Vikingstaff said:
Am I able to take rain checks on these and let each of you know when we might be traveling in the vicinity? Or are unannounced drop-ins fine? ;)
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No expiration date on my offer. I recommend redeeming during winter though!
 
Remediation said:
Lake Cumberland house is always open to you April to October. Might be the closest road trip. Only issue is the lake is a mess right now. They are not releasing water because of the high water levels in Nashville. The lake is high so all the wood is floating in the lake. We have 30 ft ash trees with branches floating because of the emerald ash bore kills. With lake levels steady, nothing is getting hung up on shore. It will improve quickly when they start lowering the lake level. Shout out to Vikingstaff, the Dori pole is mounted on the dock. Hopefully, it keeps the big bird with lots of Sh** off my Bimini cover.
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That wood debris is crazy! Hope that it settles down better very soon for you. As for the Dori Pole, I’ve had amazing results. I am very hopeful you will see the same results we have.

lakeliving said:
No expiration date on my offer. I recommend redeeming during winter though!
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Being retired now, a winter trip is a much more manageable possibility. They were never an option for me in the past, so I am looking forward to trying some winter vacations in the future. I might just hit you up some day for some “winter” boating.
 
Vikingstaff said:
These responses and gracious invitations made my day! Shared them with my wife. She asked if she was about to lose me for a summer long road trip boating circuit since I am retired and she is not. I smiled and said ”perhaps you can fly into a couple of my stops along the way….” :D

I appreciate everyone’s kind words, and gracious invites. We don’t have much travel planned for this summer - well, because we were going to be hosting so many people at the lake house and boating…

That said, I sure would love to meet more of you Bennington lovers that I consider friends on here in person over time and take in the beautiful waterways each of you boats. I am always curious when I hear your stories and see pictures of your beautiful lakes, rivers, and even more open water areas the ICW, Gulf, etc…

Am I able to take rain checks on these and let each of you know when we might be traveling in the vicinity? Or are unannounced drop-ins fine? ;)
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As you know Minnesota has a short summer but if you ever find yourself near Fargo drop me a message.
 
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