I was fishing Saturday morning and using only my front sonar. It was working fine. Sometime around 9 I got out my humminbird 1198 and was going to turn it on.....nothing. Front lowrance unit wouldn't power up either. I got home and plugged in my on board charger thinking the cranking battery didn't have enough juice to power up either unit and that's not either. What gives?

Everything else electrical works on the boat just fine.

in-line fuse

probly blew a fuse. each graph has its own fuse on the positive wire.

where are the fuse's located?

I dunno what type of boat you have. But the in-line fuses are located on the positive (red) wires connected to your batteries. Then you'll have a master panel with all of the fuses for the boat. It's typically located under the dash or in a rod locker.

I have 2005 basscat puma. I checked the inline fuses by the batteries and that little thingy wasn't popped out. I was up under the dash checking things out yesterday and didn't see a master panel. Didn't think about looking in the rod locker.

Ryno, it's not the master breaker that pops out and has a re-set that I am referring to. Each red, positive wire hooked to your batteries will have an in-line fuse built in. You can't tell if it's bad just by looking. You must uncouple the fuse holder, pull the fuse out and see if it's fried.

You might call John or Tommy at Rockwall Marine since it's a Cat. If what I'm saying isn't making sense to you, perhaps they can explain it better. 972-771-4442. Those guys are always very helpful.

Gotta be a fuse somewhere. Just follow the wire from the battery until you find it.

first thing is check ground to the circuit, start at any switches if you have one to power that circuit, next is the ground at rear and work forward.
next is fuse, find it and make sure it is the right one.
most likely ground is loose or corroded, this is the most common cause of electrical problems on boats.

This might be a really dumb question but how do you trace wires when they are inside the hull of the boat? I crawled under my console and stuck my head up in there and looked but the wires all back toward the cranking battery.
I bought it from Tommy at Rockwall and would take it back there in a heart beat but I live in Haslet. I guess I should just suck it up and take it to him.

make sure u ran a multimeter on those fuse before claiming they are good.

You don't have to trace the wires through the entire boat. Did you check the in-line fuses on all your positive leads connecting to all your batteries in the rear compartment? I'd call Tommy and ask before I drove all the way over there, Ryno. If it makes you feel any better, I had to take my boat by Service Marine a couple weeks ago because all the power, to everything, except the trim on the throttle was out. Couldn't figure it out nor could 4-5 other neighbors who looked at it. Breakers were tripped in back. It's a 2014 and I didn't know what the breakers looked like when they were tripped. Dang I felt like a dumbarse.

Similar thing happened to me but I found out late Thursday before the legends tournament that our nav lights were not lighting. I was checking all my fuses and everything checked out. I saw that the courtesy light, gauge lights and bilge pumps didn't work, then also the fish finders. So I realized it must have been wiring to the non-critical devices is where the problem came. I checked power to the master switch before the switch panel for light, pumps, accessories etc. It was powered but then I could not find the output to the panel. Somehow the wire became undone. Nearby I found the wire that goes to the switch panel. I noticed the connector was to loose so I crimped it a little to make better contact and remain connected. Everything connected and got back to normal and the crisis was averted. May not be the issue but with the rough water things like these tend to become undone(or I was sabotaged...LOL). I hope its something as simple as this. good luck.

Oh and this is a skeeter boat but I am sure most of them are wired similar. fuses to a master switch then to the switch panel. if all the devices and lights are not powering check that switch and its connectors.

Another power issue I have had in my tracker boat. the power to all the above devices would not work after a rough ride(in my small tracker everything over 10mph wind). Well the main power line wedged itself between some of the metal side structure and as I rode rough water the aluminum would slice the hot wire and blow the fuse at the battery every time. I went through a lot of fuses until I traced the wire to the damaged bare wire.

Ryno your pm box is full...give me a call 817658535one...i could swing out there and bring my fluke DMM with me. Thanks!