The little Black Box

randyp · Post by **randyp** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:33 am

Ken

I have a the orginal owner's manual that came with my 77 F-26, but most of it is applicable to all Trojans from that year. I can send you some of the pages in pdf if you send me your email address, or let me know what you are looking for. The F-28 was a great looking boat. Not that many were made/sold, but it's one of my favorites. (Yeah, yeah, all you F-32 owners....yours is pretty too!!)

Mine is rfpssp@aol.com

rickalan35 · Post by **rickalan35** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:24 am

Asked the service guys at my marina and it turns out that my black box was removed years ago, before I had actually purchased the boat (1998). In the "old days" it looks as if my Tricabin had 1 battery per motor and these batteries were located at the front (toward the bow) of each v-drive. The black box no doubt came in handy in those days, as a 2 battery boat is just asking for trouble (IMHO).

When I bought the boat, the previous owner had updated to 2 batteries per engine but there was no black box, although the red "emergency start" button is still up there on the helm. I have since updated the charging system and have converted to two large battery banks controlled with a 3 position isolator switch..... and hopefully have battery power out the ying yang (famous last words, huh?).... but no black box.

.....now I did have a friend once who claimned he had a "little black book".

Rick

rick1954 · Post by **rick1954** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:36 am

Rick, you have some nice toys in your list

I don't think my little 26ftr came with one, the little black box that is.

randyp · Post by **randyp** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:53 am

I switched over my boat to double banks controlled with the standard 1-2-all-off switch backed up with a Blue Seas ACR - works great. Basically the ACR automatically checks that the start bank will not get drained if I leave the switch on "all" by mistake. Now I just leave it on "2" (House Bank) all the time and never, ever worry about running out of juice to start the engine. I upped the house bank to 250AH which is more than enough for the F-26 to run on battery power for at least a weekend on the hook. Came in very handy on the canal trip when sometimes we just pulled up to a wall with no power (I did take the Honda 2000EU) just in case).

rick1954 · Post by **rick1954** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:04 pm

Randy, Are you still in the Mohawk, if so how long? I could make the trip to show you my little gem.

SteveG · Post by **SteveG** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:33 pm

Ken,
As everyone else has conveyed, the black box does parallel up both starting batteries when cranking. I had thought this wasn't the case and was corrected and validated it as well through testing.
I would keep it. Have not had a problem with mine.

If you send me your email, I can help you with a manual as well.

Steve

62seaskiff · Post by **62seaskiff** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:37 pm

Trojan use to print a description of this "switch" as a foot note on all its sales brocures in the 70's.

sehord · Post by **sehord** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:40 am

obeejr is right... it is an emergency switch that allows the two main starting batteries to be paralleled in the event that one of your batteries (or both) get drained. My 33 calls it an emergeny start switch. I wouldn't remove it. Things like that do indeed fail, as do alternators, air conditioning compressors and the like. But, Trojan engineers had a better idea of this boat than did your appraiser. And, of course, none of us ever have bad batteries, or been caught in the rain, or forgot charts, etc,etc, etc.....! Leave well enough alone and enjoy your boat. (If you do decide to remove it, do a voltage test o make sure that you have not altered or crosed your wiring to any other circuits in your starting system.....!)

RWS · Post by **RWS** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:59 am

I know I have one because the batteries ARE ALWAYS tied together during cranking, however I don't know where it is located on a 10 meter. Anyone know where it is ?

Also, FWIW, OK - what is the DIFFERENCE between the little black box, which engages AUTOMATICALLY and the emergency crossover toggle switch on the dash which connects the port and stbd batteries together?

RWS

sehord · Post by **sehord** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 8:04 am

I have an 83' 10 meter sedan... I'll look and let you know where it is

obeejr · Post by **obeejr** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:21 pm

The box is always energized by the battery connected to the engine you are starting. If that battery is completely dead, it won't parallel in the second battery, so you still have no starter power. The toggle switch on the dash allows you to select which battery is used to energize the box, so either up or down should parallel the batteries and get your dead engine started.

Whenever I have had a dead battery, I started the "good" engine first, before I used the dash switch, so I don't have to worry about draining both batteries.

I also have a separate house bank and a generator- but stuff happens!

lakeguy72 · Post by **lakeguy72** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:22 pm

If you look at the volt meters when cranking you should notice that both meters show a voltage drop. So even though only one switch is on both meters will register.

Larry Eddington · Post by **Larry Eddington** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:26 pm

Also looking for f28 owners manual mine is a 77

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:57 pm

lakeguy72 wrote:If you look at the volt meters when cranking you should notice that both meters show a voltage drop. So even though only one switch is on both meters will register.

Not on mine or my last one . the volt meter is after the switch and will not read un less tthe switch(s) are on

Dan Faith · Post by **Dan Faith** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:28 am

Mine is also located behind the batteries and has Trojan logo on it. I have used it and it works great.

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