2018 220S - What the manual didn't say

[DCLfan]

I've had my 2018 220S for a couple of weeks now, and there are a few things that the manual didn't say. In the hopes of helping other, here are some of them, along with pics.

Daily maintenance - power trim pump. The Mercruiser manual has a nice drawing of the reservoir, but as it isn’t a part of the engine, there is no spotters guide. On my 2018 220S, it is aft of the batteries as seen below.

powertrim1.jpg

powertrim2.jpg

[DCLfan]

This isn't a documentation problem, but was more than poke your head in and look.

Daily maintenance – power steering fluid level. Though I can open pickle jars with ease, I could not get the cap off of the power steering reservoir. A strap wrench does the trick (Kobalt brand optional).

power steering.jpg

[DCLfan]

Swiveling the captain’s chair. On my chair, the black lever hidden under the seat parallel to side of the boat allows you to unlatch the chair and rotate it to a more social position when stopped. You can only see it, and I can only reach it, with the bolster flipped up. Loosening the knob on the side of the chair allows you to reduce friction and move the chair fore and aft.

chair1.jpg

chair2.jpg

[DCLfan]

I don’t have the strip of accent lights (RGB or fixed blue) on my 2018 220S. I have an arch though, and there is still one cool light feature. There are two poorly documented switches on the underside of the helm, on the right. The leftmost switch, labelled dimmer, controls the instrumentation back lights, press left to darken, right to brighten. The switch on the right labelled accent lights is an on/off switch that lights up the Cobalt logo in the tower. Nice.

underhelm.jpg

towerlogo1.jpg

towerlogo2.jpg

The only blue glow here is coming from the tower logos.

[Ytmsn]

Sweet. If you add the LED lighting I bet the wiring and plugs are already there. And fortunately you dont have to do any daily maintenance to your trim reservoir. I haven't touched mine on the last two boats.

[Alaskabound]

DCLfan, one new thing I learned on my 2017 this week, which you may already know, is that you can charge an iPhone by plugging into the usb Imput in the glove box and turning on the radio.

Dub

[DCLfan]

DCLfan, one new thing I learned on my 2017 this week, which you may already know, is that you can charge an iPhone by plugging into the usb Imput in the glove box and turning on the radio.

Dub

Dub, thanks. I didn’t try the one in the glove box, but I did try the one under the helm, between the two switches I discussed above. That one has a blue led that is always on (though mostly covered by the plastic cap). It will charge unless the dual battery switch is turned off.

[AsLan7]

Great documentation for the site DCLF.

Thank you!

[Alaskabound]

DCLfan, I missed that usb outlet in your picture. I don’t think I have that on mine. I don’t have it at home but looked at a picture I took when I first got it & mine says “12 volt” on the rubber cover. I said to my wife this week I was surprised Cobalt didn’t have a charging plug so I think they added that in 2018. Thanks for the info.

Dub

[DCLfan]

I left out a warning on the Captain's swivel chair. You must return the seat to point at the bow, and wiggle the black handle until it locks in place, before going faster than 5 mph. You have been warned.

seat warning.jpg

[cmattj]

I left out a warning on the Captain's swivel chair. You must return the seat to point at the bow, and wiggle the black handle until it locks in place, before going faster than 5 mph. You have been warned.

seat warning.jpg

Nice thread DCL.. I like the side social 5mph zone “ social driver seat” warning.

[DCLfan]

Here is another in a small series of posts on what I’ve learned about my new 2018 Cobalt 220s that isn’t detailed in the manual, and a description of the parts used, something that is hard to find online.

This post discusses the Factory Battery switch, Dual w/ACR option. Mine came with a Blue Sea 5511E switch, and a Blue Sea 7611 BatteryLink Automatic Charging Relay with Auxiliary Battery Priority. Disclaimer – do not depend on this short discussion for knowledge. Refer to the product literature. This is general background information only. See:
https://www.bluesea.com/support/article ... _Explained
http://assets.bluesea.com/files/resourc ... oseACR.pdf
https://www.bluesea.com/products/7611/B ... V_DC_120A/
https://www.bluesea.com/products/produc ... h/featured

The intent of the dual batteries is to have a starter battery to start the engine, and a “house battery” to run all of the other electronics and lights. The ACR charges both batteries in a way that will keep the house electronics from running down the starter battery. Even if you completely run down the house battery, you can still start the engine.

The 5511e is a sort of DPDT switch with a manual cross connect. The ACR is in parallel to the switch, and acts as a smart cross connect. Pics are below.

The engine is connected through one side of the 5511e switch to the starter battery, and everything else is connected through the other side of the 5511e switch to the house battery. The 5511E battery switch has three positions. "Off" allows you to manually disconnect the both batteries their loads, "On" connects each battery to its load, but does not connect the batteries to each other. The third switch setting, "Combine Batteries", will manually connect the two batteries together (in parallel) to combine their charges and loads together to try to start your engine if the batteries are low. Use only if the engine won't start. Do not run with the switch in the Combined State after the engine is started, you’ll understand why once we reach the end of our tale.

The ACR has two power connectors, each one is connected to one battery. The ACR senses the voltage on each battery, and connects them together for charging purposes when it can.

According to the product literature, the 7611 ACR includes Aux Battery Priority, but does not include Under Voltage Lockout. I'll discuss these below.

In the context of the 220S with two batteries, the 7611 ACR will, when conditions are right, connect (combine) the two batteries together so the charge source, usually the alternator, will charge both batteries at the same time. The green led on the 7611 lights when the batteries are combined. The batteries are connected in parallel.

The 7611 will combine the batteries when the voltage on either is greater than 13.6V for 30 seconds, or greater than 13.0V for two minutes. Once they are combined, the batteries will be isolated from each other when the voltage on either drops below 12.75V for 30 seconds. However, the 7611 has an option (Aux Battery Priority) to keep the batteries connected until the voltage is less than 12.25V for 30 seconds, and to either do it always, or only when the ignition is in the run position. This allows the non-engine components, like the sound system, helm instruments, lights, etc., to draw current (steal) from the start battery for longer. My 220S has the option enabled, but to be determined is if it is always enabled, or just when the ignition is in run.

Why these voltage numbers? On the connect side, a 12v battery will typically only read above 13V if it is being charged, and it is always being charged if the voltage is above 13.6V. On the disconnect side, a battery at 12.25 volts has about 60% of its charge remaining.

Speaking of batteries, my Cobalt 220S came with two Interstate Batteries model 24M-XHD, 1000 Marine Cranking Amps at 32F, 135 reserve capacity. Reserve capacity is the number of minutes that a fully charged battery at 80 degrees F can supply 25 amps until the battery is falls below 10.5V and is essentially fully depleted. For the 24M-XHD, this is 135 minutes at 25A, equivalent to about 56 amp hours.

I mentioned that the 7611 ACR does not have Under Voltage Lockout. This feature will not connect the two batteries if one of them has fallen to a very low voltage, as this might mean one of the batteries is faulty, there is some other problem in the system, or that the battery was discharged from extended use. In systems that employ this feature, the low battery must be manually recharged before it can be used with the ACR. In any case, the 7711 ACR does not have this feature.

Finally, you should now see why always running with the 5511e switch in the Combine Batteries setting is a bad idea. In that position, the batteries are always combined, and both will be discharged if there is a system problem, or too much power is drawn for too long with the engine off. You lose all of the advantage of having the ACR in the first place.

On my Cobalt 220S, the ACR is on the forward wall of the engine compartment. The switch is in the port side aft storage bin.

5511E switch.jpg

7611 ACR.jpg

24m-XHD Battery.jpg

[Ytmsn]

Wow. Good write up. I'd like to get you, Slide and Thunder all together locked in a room for a few hours. And if you dont end up knocking each other in the head over data you guys could probably come up with a cure for cancer!

Good stuff.

[Big Block Power]

Wow. Good write up. I'd like to get you, Slide and Thunder all together locked in a room for a few hours. And if you dont end up knocking each other in the head over data you guys could probably come up with a cure for cancer!

Good stuff.

And the rest of us are chopped liver. Thanks buddy.

[Big Block Power]

Wow. Good write up. I'd like to get you, Slide and Thunder all together locked in a room for a few hours. And if you dont end up knocking each other in the head over data you guys could probably come up with a cure for cancer!

Good stuff.

And the rest of us are chopped liver. Thanks buddy.
I know I'm just here for the humor!