1976 Trojan F30 Express Dual 318's

[Svend]

Greetings all!

My wife and I are the proud owners of a 1976 F30 Express. I am a newbie with power boats, cabin cruisers, etc, coming from a sailing background.

Here are my newbie questions

1) where is the circuit breaker panel? or are all circuit switches at Helm? Where do you turn on power to helm?

Thanks

Svend

[lawyerdave71]

Hello

Congrats on your acquisition.

There should be a circuit breaker panel for shore power on port side below companion seat or below window on the floor if there is no seat. This fuse box is for shore power such as cabin outlets, stove, fridge, hot water heater, and/or battery charger.

Fuses for the rest of the boat are under the helm in the panel where your feet go. They are on the starboard side from the very top down to mid way. Yes Yes, they are a major pain to get too!!!!!

To get power you need to turn batteries on. So you have to turn battery switches on. This may change depending on the year of boat or if the previous owners moved them but mine are located under the stairs going into the cabin which is Trojan original.

Capt. Dave - 1978 F30 Flybridge Express

[Svend]

Thank you Capt Dave!! You nailed them all!! Thanks so much!!

Here are a couple more questions Capt Dave.

Where is the hot water heater? How do you turn it on?

On the right side of the fiberglass helm is a silvery push button about a foot up from the floor... do you know what it is? When I push it, I hear something make noise in the boat, but am not sure what. It is a momentary type switch, that only does something if you hold it in. And there is only one switch.

THANKS! We love our 40 year old Trojan F30!

Svend & Pam

[lawyerdave71]

Hello

Where is your dinette is it on port or starboard? Trojan changed layout over the years. I have head and dinette on Starboard and galley and couch on Port. Water heater, normally, is under one of the dinette seats.

As for the silver button - seems a mystery to me. Could it be wash down pump, auto pilot? Take a pic and send it to me at captdave1971@gmail.com.

Capt. Dave

[Svend]

Hi Capt. Dave

The dinette is on the port side, the galley sink is on port side
Couch and head on on Starboard

I will send a picture of silver button...

At the helm...
- what is ignition reset
- what is emergency start

Thanks Dave!

[lawyerdave71]

Hello

At the helm...
- what is ignition reset
- what is emergency start

Reset is what it does it resets ignition switches and I believe resets parallel switch between batteries - I've never really use it.

emergency start is very cool!

So on my boat - one battery is the cranking battery for both motors (starboard) and the other is the house battery (port) for all accessories. Now, both batteries are supposed to charge when their respective alternators are running. Emergency start is used when there is a problem with one or both batteries and essentially it will take juice for starting a motor where ever it may be found.

So when you have a problem you just flip the emergency start switch and start motor as normal while hoping and praying. I had to do it once and it worked great.

[Svend]

great info!!

another question wise one...

is the fridge DC only or AC and DC?
since they are a huge power draw, can it be shut off?
how is best way to use fridge? only when connected to shore power?
what to do while out boating?

BATTERIES

as to batteries, I have 2 starter batteries, one for each engine.
there is a charger, which feeds both these batteries from one output of battery and the other charger output feeds the house batteries, which there are 4. One of these 4 batteries does not seem to be hooked up... see my diagram
it seems like it would make sense to have all 4 batteries hooked up

The DC power switch is your standard 3 position... battery 1 , battery 2, both
I take it one switches on starter battery?
the other switches on house batteries?
Both turns them both on
is this correct, and best option?

[mikeandanne]

From my very limited knowledge of 12v stuff, it appears from your pic that you have 4 x 6 volts there, very hard to tell what is going on because of the cable colors . If that strapping being used as a hold down is metal, you need to remove it carefully and replace with something non-conductive . Blue seas site has some example battery drawings as do some others that might help visually with this.

[prowlersfish]

X2 on the hold down strap . That's a fire just waiting . looks like you have 2 banks of 6volt x 2 and they are sort of tied together . Hard to say what is what not knowing whats + and whats - and where the got (I would not go by color of cables )

[lawyerdave71]

As for the fridge, you should be able to tell at the control if it is AC / DC. A lot of times people just replace them with AC because AC / DC fridges are pricey. I will say if you are out on the water, to be careful as it will drain the battery if the motor is not running. I usually turn mine down to the lowest setting or turn it off.

When on shore power, mine is on to the max coldest.


As for the batteries, that is a little above my head except to say, I think 4 batteries is way too much. You have no room to work in there and it just adds extra weight to the boat.

[Svend]

great info all!

that was a great call on those batteries be ing 6 Volts!! that did not occur to me, and battery did not say it! (I had to call battery company) - now I know why the readings were so low! lol

As to fridge, it is a nova cool, and can run on ac or DC. I will have to pull it out to see how it is wired

The strap on batteries is not conductive

NEW QUESTION
my boat has a fire extinguisher in engine room. It looks to be original. After 40 years, I am thinking it will probably not function. Any thoughts on these things?

[El L Sea]

I just had my 30 year old Halon one recertified. I took it out and to the local fire extinguisher shop, and they weighed it and gave it a look over.

Fireboy.jpg (59.26 KiB) Viewed 7490 times

[Svend]

That is great news and a great idea... I did not know there were extinguisher shops! I will have to google that...

Thanks for the feedback!

[Big D]

Hard to say what's what by cable colour but from what I can see, if the intention was to have four batteries make up one bank, the two batteries on the right are not doing anything as they are not hooked up in parallel to the pair on the left. If the bottom left terminal on the first left battery is the positive terminal (or is it the negative??) for the 12 volt source, there has to be a negative (or positive) source coming off the far right battery top right terminal, and connected to the corresponding source terminal on the left bank otherwise the two right batteries are not hooked up to the two left batteries.

Get rid of the wire clamps on the two right batteries, they shouldn't be used for wiring. Try to clean up as much of the wiring as possible. By that I mean remove any wiring that is not being used, and connect all the auxiliary wiring to one set of terminals on the batteries or better yet, a set of buses separate from the batteries. It's preferable to have only the necessary battery cable connections at battery terminals so there is minimal wiring running to them. Also clean the terminal lugs or replace if needed. Use marine lugs as they are much better. The cheap bare copper ones corrode too easily. The corrosion will cause all kinds of problems. Use shrink tubing over the lug and cable connection, the good stuff with the adhesive so that it seals the cable at the joint. You should also ensure the proper coloured cable is used for the positive and negative sources. As noted in the pic, you shouldn't have a black and a red cable going to the same terminal. And install terminal covers on all the terminals.

[Svend]

Great advise big D! Thank you so much!