Stray current

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carojae
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Stray current

Post by carojae »

I can't get my line voltage to go up, and I've tried a lot of different remedies but noting I've done will raise the voltage - .5 or .6 is my goal.
I've even consulted with Malcomn Russell on this subject and we got it to 500+ mv with zinc everywhere then it went back down to .300 mv with in a couple of days.. Of all the things "I think I know", this one has me totally baffled. I've coome to the conclusion that something is holding it down. So, what holds the line voltage down? Stray current?

This seems to be the common cause that people refer to when this subject comes up. What do I look for? Been through the bilge pumps and could not find anything. Replaced bilge pump auto switches; wires are well protected......I cant figure out what the problem is.

Any insight on this topic?

:?:
Crawfish
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Re: Stray current

Post by Crawfish »

What is your hull potential?
Fishnpohl
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Re: Stray current

Post by Fishnpohl »

What are you useing for ground? Go to your rudder post. Make sure your voltage meter is good with new battery. Run a 12-10g wire from your rudder post to cockpit. All wires in the water then recheck away from dock. The deeper your wires the high the voltage. Run your gear down and check.
carojae
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Re: Stray current

Post by carojae »

Crawfish. I don't know what my hull potential is. It's a 40' wood boat, steel rudder and rudder shoe. It's got a Walters 4 pipe keel cooler. A 4 blade propeller. A couple of thru-hulls for water pumps and transducer cables. How do I figure out the hull potential?


Fishnpohl. My rudder is part of the ground by a #10 wire as suggested by Malcolm Russell.
It used to be that I'd have trouble lowering my voltage. Not sure what changed it to be low all the time and I guess that fueled this inquiry.

I vowed I'd never worry about this again but here I am.....
Crawfish
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Re: Stray current

Post by Crawfish »

carojae wrote:Crawfish. I don't know what my hull potential is. It's a 40' wood boat, steel rudder and rudder shoe. It's got a Walters 4 pipe keel cooler. A 4 blade propeller. A couple of thru-hulls for water pumps and transducer cables. How do I figure out the hull potential?


Fishnpohl. My rudder is part of the ground by a #10 wire as suggested by Malcolm Russell.
It used to be that I'd have trouble lowering my voltage. Not sure what changed it to be low all the time and I guess that fueled this inquiry.

I vowed I'd never worry about this again but here I am.....

Sorry for the late reply.
Hull potential is often measured with a reference wire "most guys use a section of trolling wire put over the side whilst at the dock" this is one polarity . Your boats bonding system the opposite polarity. I use a digital multimeter take a reference reading of the two and thats your hull potential. Did you ever get your problem isolated? Hopefully it was just a bad ground. I have seen multimeters go bad to before. A lot of guys will only trust expensive meters like a Fluke or other comparable.
spike christopher
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Re: Stray current

Post by spike christopher »

This is a subject that has so many limbs to the electric tree (so to speak) here is what I have found through trial and error. 1. are the zinc's welded or bolted. if bolted make sure of a good contact. 2. aluminum zincs above the rotation of the center of your prop on the rudder and pure zincs on the lower portion of the rudder. 3. make sure the zinc hub covering the bolt on the prop is in contact with the shaft by the bolt, and it doesn't hurt to have it a stainless steel bolt. 4. is the ground through you rudder post truly grounded to the shoe on the bottom of the rudder. if not run a small strap from your rudder to the iron shoe on the the bottom of the boat. 5. if all fails, look into the system that allows you to dial in the voltage of the boat(not the lines) this system allows you to fix the voltage and by pass the zinc problems. The Blue fin had that system and it worked really well. If you want give me a call 907 399 3555.
Fish n electrician
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Re: Stray current

Post by Fish n electrician »

I had the same problem on my boat.
The previous owner installed a light on the mast and instead of running a ground he attached the ground for the light to the metal mast thus producing a negative or low voltage reading on my wire.
Instead of a voltage "leakage" there was a reduction in voltage at the wire when trolling as the light was grabbing neg voltage from the hull/engine ext....
Make sure ALL your electrical is ran to a neg terminal on the battery and check all connections.
in addition if you have a faulty or corroded neg connection, it will produce lower voltages on your wire.
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