VETUS BOW THRUSTER NOT STARTING

[alisdair4]

Please forgive my starting a new thread. However, I could find no solution elsewhere. We have a Vetus 50Kgf bow thruster fitted.

It was on the boat when we bought it - and is probably about 15-17 years old. Setup is a follows:

1. 4 x 110 AH batteries (in two banks which are put into series(?) when a rotary switch is turned. This was left on inadvertently by the yard team when she was launched 4 weeks back, and only noticed two days ago.
2. Normal switch panel at helm station.

The Problem.
At the point of noticing the rotary switch was on, thruster was tested. Switch panel barely illumunated - suggesting a low battery issue,
After leaving he mains charger on overnight, the panel worked as intended.
When trying to operate the thruster there is (intermittently) a distinct click at the thruster - but no activity. This seems consistent with what I have read about thruster issues, so the boat was motored for a coupe of hours.
On return the battery levels of all 4 batteries (resting) were above 13v , and when in series13.7 v.

The thruster still won't operate, and there is now no 'click". However, the switch appear t o operate correctly.

Any ideas ?

 

[harvey38]

Do you have voltage on both sides of the thruster relay? If the 'Click' is no longer 'Clicking' then maybe there is no power getting there.

 

[Keith-i]

Unless your bow thruster is 24v I would think you mean parallel rather than series. Anyway, if the relays are clicking in both directions it means the main power feed to the motor is not getting through. This could be a blown fuse or damaged contacts on the relays or worn out brushes.

 

[Chris CJ]

When we had troubles with our bow thruster on a canal narrow boat after the winter break , this was tracked down to dirty or dampness on the brushes in contact with the commutator , once removed , cleaned and reinstalled the bow thruster work ok
might be worth having a look at
Chris

 

[Norman_E]

I had a Vetus 50Kgf thruster on Mary Lou. When it was 20 years old it needed new brushes but was otherwise reliable. It only ever failed once and the cause was a piece of rope entangled in the propeller. If you have no thrust go forward and check whether the motor is spinning, because there is a brass 3mm diameter shear pin in the motor shaft. That shear pin was not even shown in the Vetus parts diagram that I had, and I had to dismantle the thruster to find and replace it. The other thing to check is to look at all of the cable connections from battery bank to solenoid or contacter, and from there to the motor. Its best to undo them all one by one to check for corrosion, clean and re-tighten. Also check all the low current wiring and connections from switch to solenoid. If any of it is plain copper and shows signs of going black replace it with tinned wire.

 

[Bilgediver]

Any ideas

Is there a thruster battery up forard and is it fully charged. Does the thruster get power from the main batteries direct or its own battery?

 

[alisdair4]

Thank you all for your comments so far. You are quite correct to say that the combining switch put the batteries into parallel, not series. There is no discrete thruster battery. I am aware of the issue with the shear pin having suffered from this in the past. However, when that happened, the motor ran but nothing happened! Now, we have only a click ( intermittently when the switch is activated.

One of the problems I have found this morning while trying to trace the fault is that there don't appear to be any fuses in the system whatsoever! The circuit diagram in the user handbook suggest that the should two fuses- but I cannot see any. There's a very handy YouTube video of vetus bow thruster maintenance, and the model that is being used as an example as built in blade fuses.

I suppose it is possible that this thruster has been installed without fuses. Next step is to check the voltage either side of the relay, to see if juice is actually getting to the thruster.

 

[Norman_E]

I thought mine never had fuses, though when I bought the boat there was a spare 250 amp fuse, supposedly for the bowthruster. I never had to use it but I have wondered since whether there was a fuse in the solenoid box, as I never looked inside that.

 

[Momac]

Battery isolator switch (for bow thruster) faulty ?
Breaker or other fuse tripped /blown?
Batteries knackered ? Does everything else that is powered by the same batteries work okay ?

 

[DickB]

Brushes! Check the voltage at the brushes, and see how much spring is holding the brushes on the commutator.

 

[alisdair4]

Battery isolator switch (for bow thruster) faulty ?
Breaker or other fuse tripped /blown?
Batteries knackered ? Does everything else that is powered by the same batteries work okay ?

Martyn, thanks for the sanity check!

All batteries OK (as per OP). Everything else works fine!

There is no breaker that I can find - most unusual.

I will check the battery Isolator switch - although it also controls the BT switch panel (which works) - so unlikely I think.

I'm yet to check the voltage at the solenoid - but will do so when next on board.