New TC255 on the block

G

Gene Morris

New member
Well after all the anticipation and excitement we finally took delivery of our new Tom Cat "Reef Madness" Saturday. Photos of the completed (electronics...etc) boat will be posted soon.
One of the most impressive attributes is the flat cornering. At 4200 rpm we made a stop to stop turn and it was amazing. No leaning at all.
So far I've only found a few problems.

1.) I'm plugged into shore power with the refer running. Came back to boat this morning and house battery is dead. And CO detector was alarming, probably due to dead house battery.

2.) The electronics installer made the 2nd station GPS antenna cable to short.

3.) The radio (ICOM 504) works great until the plotter/radar/sonar is activated, then there is a lot of interference (not constant but inter.)


Any ideas on the above? I will call the dealership Tues since they were closed today. Thanks for all the assistance that this site has provided. We will stay active and look forward to meeting some of you at the C-Brats functions.

Thanks again
Gene & Margaret Morris
 
The interference with the VHF/fishfinder/GPS is common. Several "fixes".
Theoretically the GPS antenna should be 3 feet from the VHF antenna. None of the antennas (VHF and GPS should be run in the same bundle--same for the fish finder transducer cable). It is advised that the VHF have separate battery feeds than the GPS/fishfinder. The problem is inadequate shielding (think cost of copper wire).

First to do, is to put ferrite beads on all of the cables into and out of both the chart plotter and VHF radio(Power, transducer and antenna cables). Hopefully this will resolve the problems. If not, then start moving cables and run secondary power sources. There are also noise filters, which can be put on the power supply--and if necessary other fixes--but the above will fix 90%+ of the problems you are having).

It sounds as if the refigerator did not auto switch to 110 V. The come with the boat chargers are often not large enough to be used as converters--and are too small. We added an additional two bank 20 amp charger for the house bank. Our refiger/freezer battery bank is two group 31 AGM batteries. (a single group 24 or 27 may not be sufficient battery power for a refigerator) There are also devices which will cut off battery power before the battery drops below a certain voltage (12.2 volts is accepted as 50% discharge of a lead acid battery, and 12.3 is 50% discharge of an AGM battery).
 
Gene:

I have the same situation with my refrigerator. If both shorepower and house battery are "on", the refrigerator draws from the two Group 31 house batteries instead of swthcing to A/C. My charger can keep up with the draw, but it is not a good situation.

Bob:

How can one get the fridge to switch over to A/C when plugged into shore power?
 
I have the same problem with the VHF and chartplotter. It's the sonar transduce in my case. I turned it off ( fish finder depth sounder) and the intermittent interferance went away. I called Garmin and they told me to shield the wire inside the cabin. I used a heavy commercial grade shield and sleeved it over the sonar wire and the VHF antenna wire.....No Change at all. The next step I will do is what Thataway suggested, run the unit from a separate power source. I'll put the chartplotter on one battery and the VHF on the other. I'll try this on the weekend.
 
While Bob of Thataway is by far the most knowledgeable on all this, I have tried a few 'bootleg' fixes over the years of the same problem. Basically, see if you can separate the VHF antenna wire as far as possible from the transducer cable. Even a few inches has helped. Those two have seemed to cause the most problems to me over the years. Of course, if that does not work, then separating the other wires and using separate electrical sources, etc...

Reef Madness.... I love the name! Cheech and Chong live on! I was wondering if you guys put in the Telex electronic controls to get an aft station and how that is working out. I've heard the normal state of a newly delivered TomCat is a Starboard list, and I'm worrying about my aft station's weight making that worse. Does the factory do anything to offset the extra Starboard weight of an aft station?

John
 
drjohn71a":3w47f25j said:
Reef Madness.... I love the name! Cheech and Chong live on!
Click to expand...

Yup...best boat name I've seen in a while. :mrgreen:

Obligatory C&C quote:

Cheech: "Hey...how am I driving?"

Chong: "I think we're parked, man."
 
btw, Gene, your boat is the same color as the one I ordered inside and out, as well as having the same aft station. Only dif, I got the tall radar arch and Raymarine electronics. I had a hard time not picking the Garmin due to the low profile and full package retail offer. I was wondering where you are planning to install the aft display - on the console? I am planning to have three wires run: One to the helm, one to the co-pilot's area, and one to the aft station. With only two displays, I could switch the aft station and co-pilot's display. That would allow someone to navigate or check weather/radar, etc., while the helm station is busy on other tasks. John
 
John;

There is a small list starboard. The dealer corrected that a little. My start & house batteries are install on the port side behind the refer. A slight trim on the port engine corrects the list.

Yes, I had the morse electronic controls installed. I haven't had time to use that station enough, if I troll for salmon or moor the boat alone that station is required. I had a Garmin GPSMAP 188 sonar from my other boat. This system is completely separate & independent, for redundancy. We installed that above the second station with a ram mount. I will post some photos of the electronic installation when they get down loaded from the camera.

The name REEF Madness was picked because of the REEF fishing that we enjoy up here. However, we do get a lot of radio calls for reefer madness. I guess we knew that would happen when the name was chosen.

Gene Morris[/u][/b]
 
:oops: ... Oh, I see..... yes, that is exactly what I was thinking... You prob knew that Cheech and Chong were famous 'reefers'.... reef fishers.... yep.

John

thanx for the info!
 
You might want to check the power cord for the fridge. If it is not plugged in to ac it will not change over from dc.
Mine was only hooked up to dc when I got the boat. I now have it plugged in to automatically switch over to ac when we have shore power.
 
Roger,

I just got a 'Trouble Shooting Guide for Electrical Problems' which, at the very end, in huge, bold RED letters says that the most common problems are overlooking the simplest operation needed....

I think you just hit the nail on the head... John
 
If the reefer is on both 110 AC and 12 DC, I would turn the breaker or switch off for the 12 DC and see if it doesn't switch over automatically. The circuit should go for the 110 AC perferentially--but that may "jump" start it. If this fails, then call Norcold--The new units are different and run off a 12 DC volt compresser, the older units had a swing motor and ran off 24 volts AC--a more complex switching operation....
 
Well I feel a little foolish now. The circuit breakers need to be switched to 110V service before the house will use the shore power. I do have a 20Amp charger and it is now charging the house battery. All seems to be well with the house batteries and refer. My next project is to try to eliminate the interference between the radio and plotter. I will try the ferrite beads recomended by Thataway. If I can find them around here. If that doesn't help I'll start rerouting cables, However they seem to be run seperately along the port side and others are routed starboard. Thanks for all the help.
Gene
 
The antenna cables (VHF and GPS) will be routed down the stb piller. The power cables, and DS tranducer cables will be routed down the stb side from under the helm station, under the controls, galley, in back of the head and then under the stb cockpit combing to the batteries. The first thing I did on getting my boat was to run an electrical fishing tape along this route and put in two 1/8" cords, so I could pull other wires if necessary. I have added a second #8 (both + and -) from the house battery to the console--(a 40 amp breaker at the battery end). With the number of electronics most of us put in, it pays to have an extra wire--this can also be very useful if you do have to separate the VHF and GPS/DS power supplies. Each time you pull a wire, replace the 1/8" cord,so you can pull a second wire.

I also put two additional house batteries on the port side (helps some with the stb list)--which primarly run the refig/freezer. That required a #8 cable from the port engine for charging (with 50 amp breaker).

The Ferrite beads can be purchased at most marine electronics stores--if not on the internet. The Ferrite beads are the easiest solution--and in my case did the job. (I had another NMEA 2000 GPS antenna, and experimented with it, by placing it in other locations and running the cable in away from the "normal" routing--it didn't make much difference.

I have information from one of the design engineers of a high end marine electronics company which will remain unmentioned, who says that most companies are not putting in adequate shielding in the cables because of the cost of copper. The trick of threading braid over the cable--and grounding both ends will certainly help--so will foil--even cutting foil duct tape and surrounding the cable at critical areas.

Also be sure that all of the shields are grounded--and if there are ground lugs on the electronics, that these are connected--at least with #10 wire--better with a copper strapping.

I am looking foreward to your experience with the controls--and if the steering station is "in the way" boarding. Another option is to use a joy stick on the auto pilot to run the steering pump instead of the wheel. Some of the larger yachts have essently done away with the wheel, and are using joy stick steering for all maneuvering.

Your boat looks great!
 
Thanks Bob et al;
We really like the Tomcat. We spent the night on her last night and all was comfortable, warm and cozy. I put ferrite beads on the radio ant. at the radio. This helped considerably the interference was minimal. When is Thataway coming to the west coast? We are starting to plan our Prince Rupert-Ketchican-Prince of Wales Is. cruise/vacation.

Gene
 
Gene, Congratulations on the new TC. We can identify with everything you're experiencing these days. These little things eventually get sorted out and then you're anxious to cruise every week.

We are currently installing an Equal-I-Zer hitch on the F-250 to eliminate the sway while towing. Next is some old fashioned hot-rod modification to get some more towing power. Yes, I would like a new Power Stroke but it's not in the cards this year. The TC is a load to tow and we're determined to see the Idaho Lakes next Summer.

Hope we see you on the water soon. If you have any TC specific questions, feel free to PM me.
 
Roger & Janet, I've been put in charge of the boat interior. (storage baskets, flooring etc. ) I noticed the picture where you split the mattress in half. We're you able to do that by snipping the stitching with a seam ripper? I like the idea but don't want to ruin the mattress. I want to add the hypervent padding also. Any ideas you have for storage will be appreciated. We're having fun with our new home away from home. I spend my lunch hour on the boat as my office is just across the bay from the marina.
Margaret Morris
 
Hi Margaret,
I started spliting the two section of the mattress by just snipping the seam with a sharp pair of scissors, but a seam ripper will work just fine. We cut it pack far enough to clear the openings to the holds beneath the mattress. Another thing we've just done which isn't visible in a picture is that we opened the zippers on each side and made cuts in the foam crosswise to make it easier to fold back the mattress. It helps somewhat!
We've used lots of plastic boxes (from WalMart) in the various cupboards to keep boxes and jars from sliding around and falling over. They can be stacked. Non-adhesive rubber shelf lining works great also to keep things from sliding and and tipping. We thought about installing some of the slide out metal basket units, but found there would be a lot of wasted space because the cupboard doors start so far above the floor level. And besides the plastic boxes were much less expensive. The storage hatch opposite the helm station, on the port side is much more accessable if you install a friction-type strut to hold it open.
Good luck. Have fun decorating. You'll come up with new ideas during each cruise.
Janet Clark
 
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