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Running on 1 battery with Perko switch.


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I have a 2 battery system on my boat, controlled by the typical 2 battery Perko switch.  I assume it was installed correctly as an established marina did the installation.  I have the batteries removed for the season but would like to run the motor trim for a few seconds to trim the lower end up.  I'm thinking of using my Weego connected to one side of the Perko (hot and ground) to do this.  Does anyone know if this will work, meaning the separate battery grounds are made independently?  Or will I need to connect the ground cables from the 2 separate battery locations? 

 

Thanks for any help with this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's an update to this post ...... I tried this the other day and it was a no-go.  The Weego power unit was smart enough to determine that because there was no battery present, i.e. the "battery" that it was connected to had essentially a zero charge, it threw an error code and would not provide any voltage to the system.  I believe the Weego is designed to only provide a jump charge to a battery that has a minimum voltage.  So as long as I had gone this far I lugged a battery out of the basement and connected that way.  A second learning was that I did not need to complete the ground loop between the 2 battery sides for the Perko switch because the main ground line for the boat was in the battery #1 compartment. 

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Any old lawnmower battery hooked up to the plus and minus of your battery hookups with your perko in the right position will do the trick.

You can also pull your car close enough to the boat so you can connect jumper cables to the plus and minus of your battery hookups and that should do the trick. As long as you provide power to the system it will work

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22 hours ago, BreakingBass said:

Here's an update to this post ...... I tried this the other day and it was a no-go.  The Weego power unit was smart enough to determine that because there was no battery present, i.e. the "battery" that it was connected to had essentially a zero charge, it threw an error code and would not provide any voltage to the system.  I believe the Weego is designed to only provide a jump charge to a battery that has a minimum voltage.  So as long as I had gone this far I lugged a battery out of the basement and connected that way.  A second learning was that I did not need to complete the ground loop between the 2 battery sides for the Perko switch because the main ground line for the boat was in the battery #1 compartment. 

I have used my lithium power pack jump stater to power many cars in salvage yards to check electrical items before they are removed without ever having any problem. are you 100% sure you had the Perko switch set to the correct battery? or were you connecting the leads from the motor to the Perko switch? there is just no reason that the jump pack shouldn't have worked as long as the power was being directed to the trim motor. the packs i have always used had power to the cables as soon as the power was turned on, on the jump pack.

 

if you hook to the hot cable that goes to a battery and hook the ground to any ground then try the 1 battery and if it doesn't work try switching to battery 2.

 

we were up on Erie and the starter was reading cranking slow with my switch on both. I never thought about checking anything out I just had a new starter installed. but when I started the motor it hadn't helped anything. I switched to battery 1 and she cranked like crazy. then I switched to battery 2 and it wouldn't even turn the motor. my point being you should check each side separately and not both batteries at the same time

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I'm sure I had the Perko switch in the right position to use battery position #1.  I think the issue is the Weego has a diagnostic unit hard wired into the leads and that checks for things like having the leads connected to the correct pos and neg posts on the battery.  The instructions confirm if the battery is completely dead (zero charge) the Weego will not jump a car.  So I think the built-in diagnostic unit would not let the jump pack supply any power.

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12 hours ago, BreakingBass said:

I'm sure I had the Perko switch in the right position to use battery position #1.  I think the issue is the Weego has a diagnostic unit hard wired into the leads and that checks for things like having the leads connected to the correct pos and neg posts on the battery.  The instructions confirm if the battery is completely dead (zero charge) the Weego will not jump a car.  So I think the built-in diagnostic unit would not let the jump pack supply any power.

You may be right about the jumper you have. the one I use is an off-brand and it works great in the salvage yard when I connect the red jumper wire to the positive cable and hook the ground to the ground cable or and metal of the car. then I car run anything electrical to see if it works before taking it off. The jumper I have is just a small powerful lithium battery that works and time the jump cables are attached to any 12v item.

 

are you connecting to the cables that connect to your battery? Are you pushing the jump button on the jumper to turn the power on like what has to be done before jumping a car? are you 100% sure the cable you hooked to is battery 1? did you try switching to battery 2 just to see if that was the problem? any time the power button is turned on the cables should be putting out 12v of power which should run any 12v item.

 

I just had to jump my son's car yesterday when his battery was completely dead. Not even the dome light came on. I connected the cables and pushed the power button for 3 seconds until the little power light came on and hit the starter and she cranked over good and started right up.

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I've owned this boat for 10 years.  I think I know the difference between battery positions #1 and #2.  And I've used the Weego to jump several vehicles, therefore, yes, I know how to turn the darn thing on properly. 

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