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I would like to use the round outlet to charge the second battery while towing and use the flat one to charge the battery with the boat motors alternator.

I tried hooking a cigarette lighter plug to my trailer lights so I could plug it into my pedestal and charge the batteries that way. I put a diode in so when the lights are off the Mac wouldn't power them. Unfortunately with the lights on the voltage drop at the "flat-4" connector is only 11 Volts or so; not really enough. The diode also drops about 0.3 Volts. What I do now is run an extension cord back to the boat cabin and connect a 110V battery charger to the batteries and then plug the cord into an inverter in our truck.

Do you know of any way to put a second battery on my Mac26M

I have a second battery. The dealer put the first one in off to the side in the compartment under the ladder. I got a second battery strap and just put the other in next to it. If it's like mine you should be able to use a common bolt to hold both straps in the center so you only have to drill one hole. I also installed a Perko switch. Usually I try to keep one battery for starting but with all the stuff on board (DVD, stereo, computer, hot tub, bowling alley, etc.) I sometimes steal power from it. I've had to pull start my motor a couple times because of this.

BB

The same with me. In addition, I put the batteries in plastic boxes to keep the spills down and a 40 amp breacker after the switch as a main breacker. The motor is fed directly after the switch.

I did not do it myself but paid for it to be done.

good info on the mast head light and running lights. But one reason at night to run the mast head light under sail is the fact it lights up the jib and main some. on a really dark night sailing you cant even see the sails shape and its guess work.

still want to charge the mac battery from the tow veh. Then look at
what I said before about the long heavy gauge wire direct from the tow veh. battery.

most all though have two mac batterys. I dont see a great need to charge while towing. but if you must I did say how earlier.

chargeing off the running lights as you found out wont work and the
wires from the running lights are just to small to carry any decent amps you would need to charge. A solar panel would work better even though Im no big fan of solar panels for the boat.

2190 views and only a few questions,
come on im bubbling over with answers.

If I cant vent the answers out my head will explode. so come on step up...

Mike,
How often should I empty the porta-potti? It's not full, charged with chemical, and doesn't smell.

thx,
Scott

Anytime before a nice looking lady asks to use your potty, Even lightly loaded they are gross to the female bunch. so A nice always clean porta pota assures a return trip from friends and family.
Also would depend on what you had for dinner the night before.



how you doing Scott ?havent seen you in a couple weeks.

Mike, When I use sun dried tomatoes in my red wine stew, they still look like raisins after I cook it. Should I use another brand??

If you use 5200 to glue three or four together they wont looks so small.


But what ever you do use a hair net when cooking......

Ok Why is it when you call a wrong number, they are always in!!!????

Mork

But what ever you do use a hair net when cooking......

Hahaha!! Good one.
Thx Mike.

Thats been buggin me since last week.

The wrong number.. We never dial wrong numbers. The phone company takes about 3 in every 1000 calls and route them to total strangers that they knew were home all the time. That way they
could charge you for a long distance call. If no one answered you wouldnt get charged for the call.

Hi Mike,

I just bought my 26M in late Sept. After looking into the cost of an outboard motor for a number of years, I decided to buy a used one. The first one I bought was stolen off the back of the truck in transit to me, so I just used the 7.5 Honda from my Sandpiper 565 for the rest of my season. I have just received a Merc 75 4s, on the second attempt. Funny, it looked much smaller in the picture. Took one look at it when I came to pick it up and thought, what have I done??? This thing is HUGE! Upon further research, I discovered it is actually has the exact specs of the Merc 90. Which leads me to believe, with a quick chip change, I could release another 15 horses. Not that I would ever think of such a thing…..
Anyway, I was hoping you could help me with a few things as I am new to house battery systems, large outboards etc.

1. From what I can tell, I have to buy a wiring harness that goes from a key switch to the motor. It looks like it would be at least 8 wires. Do some of those go from the key switch to the Tach? What are they all for?
2. How many wires go from the Uflex motor control to the motor? Are they just for tilt and trim?
3. When it comes to batteries, do I connect all the negative posts together and then to a common ground? What should I use for a common ground?
4. What length of Teleflex 3300 cables should I buy?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I still can’t believe I finally bought the boat. It has been a dream for so long, I never thought it would happen. It is going to be that longest winter of my life. I thought owning a motorcycle was bad for that kind of thing. Can hardly wait for that first ride every spring.


Geoff

1. From what I can tell, I have to buy a wiring harness that goes from a key switch to the motor. It looks like it would be at least 8 wires. Do some of those go from the key switch to the Tach? What are they all for?
2. How many wires go from the Uflex motor control to the motor? Are they just for tilt and trim?
3. When it comes to batteries, do I connect all the negative posts together and then to a common ground? What should I use for a common ground?
4. What length of Teleflex 3300 cables should I buy?

Make sure you order the wire harness for a remote key and not for the merc controller.

Yes the wire harness will have everything you need to run a tach, key switch, deadman switch, and a few left over. Best thing to do is get the engine install manual that comes with every outboard. (the dealers keep these most of the time) In it will have the wire diagram.

you will need the remote key switch from merc also.


The teleflex has 3 wires to it, up tilt down tilt and a common hot wire.

Not sure what you mean about the batterys. But the engine will have a
hot and neg. wire (largewires) those you hook to battery "one" along with the neg.and pos. from the wire harness all go to battery one. ( you really need the install manual for this as they are not all red some are purple green so on)

Then buy a perko or same kind switch that will allow you to seperate the two batterys so one can be turned off or all can be turned off or on together (best for charging with the motor) When you buy the perko it has a wire diagram to set it up so go by that.

when you get the wire harness it should have two parts, one to engine the other to controls. The one to the engine will plug into a socket already in the engine. The other part will plug into the first part and have lose wires to go to the tach ,key switch, power trim, so on. these have seperate little plugs. But again you really need to get that install manual. You know the wire diagram may come in the harness box.

Its simple straight forward stuff, plug purple wire to tach wire type thing (purple is example) I dont know what color the tach wire is.

as far as the length the cables need to be I dont know but any dealer of Macs can tell you this.


before you install the motor beef up the transom some.
Yes the 4 strokes are huge, even the little 15hp engines are massive.
I hope the engine clears the drivers seat. when you tilt it up?
Being its a used engine I would change the water pump and lower gear case oil before you take it out. Sounds like a cold first time with the new motor. But you will be so jazzed you wont feel a thing...
hope this helps.

Thanks Mike

I have the Merc installation manual that came with the motor. It is great for how to mount the motor and hook up the controls, but not the wiring. I will order the harness and hope a detailed diagram comes with it. Without that, things could get very interesting.

As for the battery question, I am trying to figure out how to do a multiple battery config. This is what I am planning:
3 batteries, 1 for starting, 2 for house loads

Do I run the red and black from the motor directly to the starter bat, or to a perko switch?
Then from the perko switch to the bat’s 1-3?
What wires are from the alternator in the motor? The thick black and red used for starting that already come from the motor or from the hiring harness I don’t have yet?
How do I prevent the starter bat from overcharging? Does the perko switch take care of that?
Many on this forum have shared their bat configs. They mention linking all neg bat terminals together and then to a common grounding point. What grounding point?
I was looking at a charger for shore power charging, it was a 5/5/5 setup. Do I hook up all the pos to each bat and all the neg’s to the common grounding point, or to each neg bat terminal?

For the beast of a motor, I was thinking about marine plywood inside the aft birth and maybe a few washers, 3 to 4 progressive in size up to 3 inches or so in diam, or an aluminum plate, for the motor well outside.

Thanks again.

G