Shore power/battery charger issues
 

I just discovered a problem with my shorepower/battery charger on our Cigarette. It's a Guest 30 amp factory installed unit.
I had my shore power plugged in at our dock, battery charger on and I was swimming around cleaning the transom. My face touched the tie bar and I got shocked. Not a big shock but similar to when you touch your tongue to a 9 volt battery.
I then disconnected the shore power and connected up the same 110 power cord and connected up my small (30a) Sears battery charger. Got back in the water and no more shock.

Any ideas?

Kurt

I would think it is a ground problem at the dock power box.

I would look into the boats bonding system, it is feeding back..it's not abnormal but wrong and have seen it on many boats, is the shore power factory installed ? Rob

Yes, it's a factory installed shore power/Guest battery charger.


Thanks for the replies!

Funny you posted this...while I was washing the boat on land with the charger on and had the same problem. Was zapped by the tie bar. Same set up with the factory Guest charger. WTF?

I have had same issue with my 91 formula 311(at home plugged in) bought a new extension cord with ground pin not cut off, took care of issue

may not be a bad idea to contact the manufacture on this...they may be aware of the issue and know a simple fix, bad situation though....a boy died after being zapped in a lake near me when they had a battery charger on a pontoon boat a while back, ac voltage in boats is a weird deal

Ring out the ground in your shore power cable. Also, the ground may not be terminated correctly in the shore outlet your plugged into.

I do not have a real shore power system, it's just an extension cord running down to my dock behind our house with a shore power adapter connected to the boat. It is a grounded cord.

As mentioned above, when I connect up my portable battery charger to the same cord, everything seems fine, no shocks.

Thanks for the replies,

Kurt

[QUOTE=JRider;2618294 Also, the ground may not be terminated correctly in the shore outlet your plugged into.[/QUOTE]

I'll check into this.

Thanks!