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Old 08-23-2021, 05:22 PM   #1
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Mainship 390 bow and stern thrusters

Greetings All,
My wife and I are the proud new owners of a Mainship 390. While docking last weekend in a very strong current it was necessary to extensively rely on her bow thruster to come into our slip. After maybe 10 to 15 seconds of continuous use the thruster stopped working. That distinctive "growl" became merely a humming sound. After a short cooling off period (maybe 1 minute) it began working fine once again.
Can anyone tell me if this is a safety or disconnect feature of the Mainship thrusters? Has anyone had a similar experience? Thank you
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Old 08-23-2021, 05:42 PM   #2
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It probably has a thermal cutout. I installed a stern thruster in our last boat and it had a thermal cutout but it would run about 3 minutes before shutting down. Actually I never had it do a thermal shutdown. I would check the voltage when it is running. Also clean all the connections and make sure they are good and tight. Sounds like low voltage causing the thruster to heat up.
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Old 08-23-2021, 09:16 PM   #3
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I had a similar situation. The battery bank was shot. Replacing the batteries fixed the problem.
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Old 08-23-2021, 09:21 PM   #4
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They will not time out in 15 sec. most are good for 2 minute plus. Most likely the battery voltage dropped. Then later recovered for a bit. Hot connections may also do it
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Old 08-24-2021, 03:53 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Todd U View Post
Greetings All,
My wife and I are the proud new owners of a Mainship 390. While docking last weekend in a very strong current it was necessary to extensively rely on her bow thruster to come into our slip. After maybe 10 to 15 seconds of continuous use the thruster stopped working. That distinctive "growl" became merely a humming sound. After a short cooling off period (maybe 1 minute) it began working fine once again.
Can anyone tell me if this is a safety or disconnect feature of the Mainship thrusters? Has anyone had a similar experience? Thank you
Definitely your battery bank or alternator, if it came back probably batteries. my Garmin MFD and our VHF's both have volt meters and always go off when I am using the thrusters, but I have never had the thruster not work, it probably is your batteries, try it at the dock, with no motor or shore power connected and watch the guage on the DC Panel and see how quick the voltage comes back - it should be instantaneous.
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Old 08-24-2021, 07:18 PM   #6
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My MS390 had a dedicated battery/Charger under the bed next to bow thruster. the thruster battery is only charged by the charger (at the dock or with the Genny. in this setup, I have run into the situation because I had a weak battery and it discharged really fast. Since my boat had the original battery cables running from under the bed to the aft area where all my batteries are, I have connect the Thruster battery to the forward end and aft the start battery switch. This way the thruster battery is charged when the engine as well (old thruster charger was eliminated). I have not had that specific issue since and I have also learned not to use the thruster a lot.
Good luck
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Old 08-27-2021, 08:06 AM   #7
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My MS390 had a dedicated battery/Charger under the bed next to bow thruster. the thruster battery is only charged by the charger (at the dock or with the Genny. in this setup, I have run into the situation because I had a weak battery and it discharged really fast. Since my boat had the original battery cables running from under the bed to the aft area where all my batteries are, I have connect the Thruster battery to the forward end and aft the start battery switch. This way the thruster battery is charged when the engine as well (old thruster charger was eliminated). I have not had that specific issue since and I have also learned not to use the thruster a lot.
Good luck
We did the same thing when I installed a stern thruster this spring, after using it we turn on the Generator for about 15 minuets and it is fully charged for the next time, and when plugged in it is being charged by the separate charger, a side benefit is the new charger is a 3 bank unit - I have 2 batteries for stern thruster and we use the third bank for the generator battery
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Old 08-27-2021, 08:11 AM   #8
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I am sure you have but have you checked the resevoir to ensure there is fluid in it, Only reason I mention it is when we bought our boat we found it had never been checked and was almost empty,
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Old 08-27-2021, 11:22 AM   #9
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I suggest finding and reading the owners manual for the particular thrusters installed on your boat. Most electric thrusters for recreational boats are not intended for continuous duty and will overheat and shut down after a certain time. They should run for way more than fifteen seconds though so you might have a battery or cable problem.

You might find it better yo use your thrusters in short bursts. Get the bow or stern moving and let it coast with the thruster switched off. Turn it back on if necessary for another burst of power.

It's best to think of the thrusters as "helpers", not the same as your main engine. The thrusters aren't really meant to move your boat sideways through the water.
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Old 08-30-2021, 03:49 PM   #10
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The thrusters aren't really meant to move your boat sideways through the water.
Yes, that is literally what they were designed to do......however, electric thrusters were simply not designed to do it at any sort of speed, or for long distances or durations.

Hydraulic thrusters were designed for heavy, 'continuous' duty work.
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Old 09-02-2021, 07:13 AM   #11
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Yes, that is literally what they were designed to do......however, electric thrusters were simply not designed to do it at any sort of speed, or for long distances or durations.

Hydraulic thrusters were designed for heavy, 'continuous' duty work.
I respectfully disagree and agree with Rwidman. Yes your thrusters will move your boat sideways, but that's not how you should be using them. My home dock is on a river with strong side currents at times. I would often be in trouble w/o thrusters, but I use them to help point the bow or stern in the right direction while docking, not to push the boat sideways. Normally it's not more than a couple second burst of 1 or the other. I doubt I've ever used one for 15 sec. When the conditions are not too severe, I practice using no thrusters. It's not as simple, but can be done. Also, consider the wear and tear on the thrusters and batteries if you intend to run them for long periods every time you dock.
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Old 09-02-2021, 10:19 AM   #12
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Agree on the comments that the trusted was likely over heater or batteries drawn down too much.


When I use the thrusters on my old MS400 you could watch the voltage drop, and was below 12v in just a few seconds. So, intermittent use worked, and it worked well. The are only to help position the boat a bit...and unlikely they'll move the boat sideways with much more that 8 to 10 kt wind or the equivalent current. However, to position the bow a bit, they work very well. The stern isn't as effective, but works great in backing into a slip.



Now my thrusters on the 400 were off the house battery... not the very best set up. However, it worked just fine and never an issue.



On my new 430, the stern thruster has its own battery bank... much more powerful.
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Old 09-02-2021, 10:28 AM   #13
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Agree on the comments that the trusted was likely over heater or batteries drawn down too much.


When I use the thrusters on my old MS400 you could watch the voltage drop, and was below 12v in just a few seconds. So, intermittent use worked, and it worked well. The are only to help position the boat a bit...and unlikely they'll move the boat sideways with much more that 8 to 10 kt wind or the equivalent current. However, to position the bow a bit, they work very well. The stern isn't as effective, but works great in backing into a slip.



Now my thrusters on the 400 were off the house battery... not the very best set up. However, it worked just fine and never an issue.



On my new 430, the stern thruster has its own battery bank... much more powerful.
Sounds like the trend is to increase usage of thrusters as boats get newer.
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Old 09-02-2021, 10:31 AM   #14
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I am sure you have but have you checked the resevoir to ensure there is fluid in it, Only reason I mention it is when we bought our boat we found it had never been checked and was almost empty,
Ed gave me the same advice when I bought our 390 and mine was just slightly low but it was great to see where it was and look at. It's under the front cabin mattress.

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Old 09-02-2021, 10:44 AM   #15
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I do not understand why the battery that powers the thruster isn't charged by the main engine alternator. I don't see any reason for that. I am not sure how to wire it so that it can be but I am going to explore it.

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Old 09-02-2021, 11:56 AM   #16
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I do not understand why the battery that powers the thruster isn't charged by the main engine alternator. I don't see any reason for that. I am not sure how to wire it so that it can be but I am going to explore it.

Hawk
I installed a stern thruster on our last boat. It had its own dedicated battery with a 15 amp 120 volt charger. I didn’t charge the thruster battery when we were underway and never saw the need for that to happen. We never ran the battery down by using the thruster. Now maybe if you only anchor out and never run the genset then there might be a need to charge it from the engines.
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Old 09-02-2021, 12:34 PM   #17
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My thruster battery also runs my inverter. The inverter runs the microwave and the coffee maker. It’s not an issue now but if we cruised on longer trips it might be.

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Old 09-06-2021, 01:51 PM   #18
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We had a 2008 Mainship 34 Trawler with electric bow and stern thrusters. Most electric thrusters are designed to run no more than six continuous minutes. How long they run before the cut-off occurs depends on the battery condition, cleanliness of the thruster blades and tunnel, the ventilation in the compartment where the thruster is located and if the wiring is properly gauged. Bow thrusters tend to be larger and should have a dedicated battery. That was the arrangement on our Mainship. Thruster batteries can be charged by either the engine alternator or by a charger that you can operate by running your genset when you know you will be depending on the thruster. Our Ocean Alexander has bow and stern thrusters and the bow thruster, being the larger has a dedicated battery and charger.
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Old 09-06-2021, 02:27 PM   #19
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Originally MS installed diode isolators for splitting alt charge to thruster bank and start/house. I felt the diodes were enough of a V drop to warrant replacement with a better technology. For a full write up & schematics see my Bacchus website- Projects - Charging System Mods

Since making the mods I decided to also move my engine start to the thruster bank leaving the house bank as a pure house.
That start move was actually fairly easy and resulted in a wiring run about half the distance as from the house bank thus reducing the V drop under hi smp starting loads.

I also added a Balmar Smart Gauge to better monitor my house and start/ thruster banks and now very pleased with the set up and operation, which I feel is a significant improvement from the MS factory installation.
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Old 09-06-2021, 04:56 PM   #20
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My MS 355 Pilot ( esentially a MS 31) has 2 start batteries and 2 house batteries. It has bow and stern thrusters that came standard at the time. Both are wired to the Engine start bank, no dedicated batteries. All 4 batteries were group 24 from the factory, I upgrade the house baterries to group 31. The engine starts immediately so very little draw at all on the start batteries. However, upon starting, the engine heaters hold the voltage down below 12V till they turn off after a few minutes when the engine warms up. That's often the time I may be using thrusters leaving the dock. But my thruster use is measured in seconds, not minutes, so all seems to work fine. My generator is also wired to the start bank which seems ok because the start bank is always at full charge when the Engine is turned off. The house bank will draw down overnight for refrigeration and lighting, etc, but the larger batteries make a big difference and are at 12V+ in the morning.
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