96 3200 SCR Dual Battery Switch Confusion!

[0Gravity]

Hi All,
IM SO CONFUSED!!!! LOL!
I'm coming from an older cigarette boat that had twin engines, two batteries and one battery switch, other then a couple cabin lights and a stereo system, there wasn't much of a "House" electrical system, so if I was out on the lake or on a mooring ball I would just turn the battery switch over to the kill the battery that doesn't run the stereo, if the stereo killed the battery I'd switch the batt switch over to the other battery and start her up.

I can't make heads or tails out of what I'm supposed to do with these two switches to accomplish the same simple task as above!
The Maxum has twin engines, two batteries and other then a few more electronics in the "House" it should be about the same as my old boat, so why the need for the second switch? I did some searching in these forums last night to try to get an idea how these switches work and in what combination I should leave them in while plugged in at the dock and also what combination I should use while in a situation where I'm on the hook or mooring without power, I read several posts and thought I had it figured out..... Until I went to the boat today and played around with the switches and nothing is the same as discussed in the posts I read. So here is what I have;
Two 4 position battery switches labeled Port & Starboard,

First off, Each batt switch has to be set to batt 1 or Both for its perspective engine to crank/start, also in those positions, EVERYTHING else seems to work, cabin lights, stereo etc...
That being said it seems as if the Cabin lights are on the STBD switch and the Stereo is on the port switch ( I did not try every 12v system yet)..... Here's where it starts getting fuzzy to me..... The stereo only seems to work if the port switch is on battery 1 or both (witch make no sense because that's the starting battery) and the Cabin lights will only work on battery 2 if both switches are on 2???
So from what I can tell, I can either use the cabin lights OR the stereo system but not at the same time AND if I decide to use the stereo I will be running down my engine battery..... and here I thought the idea behind these switches was to isolate your starting battery from everything else?
Can someone PLEASE make some sense of this for me?
By the way, in case it matters, this boat does not nor never has had a Genny.
Thanks in advance,
Mike

[ldavies]

Did you ever figure it out? I have the same thing and I am trying to figure it out.

[sph801]

I have the same set up on my 3300 SCR. I'm not at the boat so I'm sorry I'm not sure which position I keep each one on but here's my thoughts. Each battery starts an engine. There's no dedicated starter battery or house battery. I believe some items are routed through one and some the other. For example my windlass goes through the port battery. I think my refrigerator, stereo and lights go through the starboard. The port switch has to be in position 1 (I think? This is the part I'm not sure but let's say 1 for the sake of argument) for the engine to start AND the windlass to work. The Starboard has to be in position 2 to start the engine AND run the refrigerator, stereo and lights. Move either switch to a different position and the items that run through it no longer work but the engines will start. When the batteries are weak switching to the both setting will combine batteries to get the engines started. So I keep my port switch on 1 and my Starboard on 2 at all times (I could have this backwards) unless a battery is too weak to start an engine. This is my assessment of the system. If anyone figured anything else out please post!


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[Trey5684]

I have a 3100se so not sure if it's the same, but boat has two batteries and two four position switches. Normal operation for me is both switches in position one for everything to work. Each engine operates off separate battery with house loads divided between the two batteries. Hope this helps.