shore power hookup on a 96 z255
 

Hi folks.
I've never connected the shore power on my 96 z255, however I'd like to.
I'm just wondering what the deal is. my hookup is on the port side, and inside the cuddy on the port side is one double plug GFI outlet with an on off switch. Question. is this the extent of shore power? one outlet? or am I missing something here. does it provide power to any other systems? is there a switch to go from DC batterys to shore power??
Help
Jeff

Hi Jeff, your shorepower package, if it is factory installed, should look like the picture below. There should be a GFI switch, polarity indicators, and switches if you have any other accessories that run on AC. ie refrigerator, microwave, battery charger, tv, etc. There should also be a main switch to turn the shorepower on and off. Essentially, that's it.

On larger cruisers, they use shorepower to run air conditioning, onboard water systems, galley accessories, etc. It's a nice feature, but it only works when you're hooked up at the dock.

Thanks for the reply Chris. Mine only has the outlet, with an "on/off" breaker type switch. non of the other stuff. I can post a picture a little later.
Jeff

Hi Chris, here is a shot of my "shore power panel" it looks factory, just pretty basic..

Yep, that's factory. I think they redesigned the shorepower interface around 97-98 when they went to the new dash design. Thanks for posting the pic. It's nice to see how things change through the years. :)

To answer your initial question Jeff, yeah, looks like your shorepower only powers that one outlet.

That's a pretty lame setup from Mariah. When my dad and i redesigned our electrical system to install dual batteries and a main selector panel that also combines the batteries in emergencies, we thought about adding shorepower. We wanted it so that when plugged in, the entire boat would run off the shorepower rather than the batteries. That's how i think it should be. We realized that we are never at docks w/ shorepower anyways so decided not to worry about it.

Let me know if you decide to reconfigure the setup to make better use of the shorpower rather than being limited to one plug. I have some diagrams i made up for our install that may help you out w/ setting up the system.