Charging system with twins

[zinbaad]

As I am not having any issues at this time I am curious as to how alternator/generators work with twin engines. Do both alternations charge up the batteries or is there some sort of relay that allows one to charge up at a time? If one alternator went on the blink wopuld the other just take over the job or is one just disconnected?
Since the sun is shining today, cabin fever looming, I decided to take a ride to the boat store and scout around for some new project for the upcoming season

[bccanucker]

In the two boats I've had that had twins one alternator charged the house batteries and the other alternator charged the starter battery. Two separate systems that were wired with battery switches so that they could be connected together if they ever had to be.
If you have a battery monitor (see website below) you'll probably never have to.
http://www.xantrex.com/power-products/p ... nitor.aspx