Section 4 - Electrical System
Battery Maintenance
Battery maintenance should include:
• Inspect each battery and charging system before
use; for loose connections or wiring.
• If not using a sealed battery, check & maintain
the water level. USE distilled water ONLY.
• Coat the terminals with dielectric grease.
• Keep the batteries dry.
• Remove the batteries from the boat during cold
weather or long term storage.
The most life shortening experience for the battery is to
be drained to zero charge before recharging.
When a battery discharges, the active material on both
positive and negative plates converts to lead sulfate, caus-
ing the plates to become more alike in an electrical
charge. The electricity conducting battery acid becomes
weaker and the voltage drops. As the battery remains
discharged, the process continues until recharging the
battery becomes impossible.
If the battery does become run down be sure to re-
charge it as soon as possible. Over charging the battery
can be just as detrimental to its life as running it down
too far.
BATTERY CHARGING:
The batteries primary source of re-charging is through
the alternators on the engines; while in use.
Alternate sources can be through the use of shore power
connections or an on-board generator. There is a power
converter that will help charge the batteries while con-
nected to shore power/generator. The converter will take
the shore power/generator AC load and convert it to a
12Volt DC load. The batteries charge can be read by
the DC volt gauge on the cabin Main Distribution Panel,
(MDP).
305 Conquest-Owner’s Manual
Your 305 Conquest uses a pair of battery selector
switches to control delivery of DC power from three
batteries. The battery switches are located on a panel
below the prep station sink on the port side. The port
battery switch controls power to the port battery, the
starboard battery switch controls power to #1 and #2
starboard batteries.
The dual battery switches have four (4) settings:
• “OFF”, you will have no power to the engine(s).
• “ALL”, you will have power from both batteries
at the same time. This parallels the batteries to
assist you in starting the engine(s), once the en-
gine is started the battery switch should be taken
off of the “ALL” setting, and set to charge either
battery .
• “1”, you will have power from the port battery only.
• “2”, you will have power from the starboard
batteries only.
When the engines are shut down or not providing a charge,
the system will draw power from the starboard batteries.
This will allow you to run all the boats functions without
affecting the port battery. You can run the starboard bat-
teries down and still start the engines by moving the se-
lector knob on the battery switches to the “ALL” posi-
tion.
Dual Battery Switches
Do not operate boat with batteries in parallel, serious
engine electrical damage may result.
WARNING
WARNING
The bilge pumps will still draw power from the batter-
ies, even if the switches are set to “OFF”.
!
!
Battery Switch
Location
25