Electrical enlightenment!!

[spring fever]

This spring I had a new 300 hp yammi to re-power my 24 xlc Orca and also a ton of electrical work I hadn't planned on. This cleaned up a lot of wiring /charging issues pertaining to safety that I had always worried about. These occurred mainly because we sleep on the hook in remote places and my fear was waking up with no power to start. All nicely rectified by a professional for a hefty sum. Still I had minor electrical problems such as blowing fuses on macerators, a horn that would only blow when the boat was under way, a stereo system that seemed to decide when or if it wanted to play. Took the bull by the horns and had a look- amazing what you find under the dash. Over the years things were installed that should have had their own circuits but didn't, grounds were placed sometimes 2 or 3 to a point with the wrong size connectors. Wire was not always the right gauge for length of run!This had nothing to do with the work done this spring. I ran larger wires/dedicated circuits and breakers for the macerators-that cured that! Then I added another negative bus bar with a direct connect to the negative bus at the back-now all the grounds had a nice clean separate ground stud with the proper size connecter and a few spare neg.studs left!! Wonder of wonders -all my electrical faults disappeared . Have a look at where all your "toys" negative grounds end up and the size of the connects on them also the size wire being used (as primary or power)-14 gauge may be called for, but how long is the run to the switch and back-maybe longer than 14 gauge can handle and you might get better performance from 12 or even 10 gauge. Just a thought before putting the old girl to bed.

I am not an electrician but this ain't rocket science and it is amazing what a little clean-up of your grounds will do for you!!

 

[Sr SQ]

Agreed!!
Its simply amazes me how poor of wiring all production boats have………even for the factory installed circuits.
Under the dash of every boat I ever owned was a maze of wires all piggy backed together, little on its own circuit.

 

[Tightlines22]

Ditto!

I know I have to re-do some of the wiring on my boat, especially under the dash soon too before I get stranded. Most boat owners should heed your advice. It will pay dividends.

 

[SpringVelocity]

I just fried an alternator on my inboard for not inspecting connections. A cheap connector failing cost me over $200.00 and I had to get new one. Had I noticed it sooner I would have spotted it. The electrical on boats should be treated same as mechanical. Maintenance, proper wiring, and using right connectors is key! In this case connector failed because it was wrong one put on, and when I bought boat never checked it. Totally my fault.

 

[Fishalot]

When you do rewire ensure you use marine grade wire that is tinned to resist corrosion. Many boats from the factory and later add on wiring have regular automotive wire which breaks down.

 

[profisher]

I rewired my entire boat a few years ago myself, over the winter months when the boat gets little use. Used Blue Seas components and all tinned copper marine wire through out. All devices have their own circuit and all labelled. I have yet to blow a fuse behind the dash but if I do it will be easy to find. I did put the downriggers on separate single waterproof fuse holders and located them in an aft compartment where they are easy and quick to change. They blown quite often as all it takes is some heavy kelp, crab trap etc to blow them.

 

[fshnfnatic]

Totally redid the wiring in my 16ft. DE this spring.Did a pile of research online,looking at different ways to do as
professional job as I could myself.Everything is done with marine grade wiring and connectors,and dual wall heat
shrink tubing.Here's a few photos of what I did.

Just saw your post,pro.Did the exact same thing with Blue Sea components as well.

 

[daddystoy]

Re-wired my boat a couple of years ago now. One of the best things I could have done! I have a simple boat to wire so easy enough to do, but still time consuming. The peace of mind in the end is worth every penny! This off season I've already got my parts and pieces for a battery wire upgrade. I bought the Blue Sea add a battery kit with the ACR. I'm not going to use the switch that came with it and plan instead of adding another on/off switch to dedicate/isolate the second battery. After doing much reading online about the switch that comes with the kit I wasn't happy with some of the features that come with it... i.e. The main drawback to the switch with the kit is you can't isolate a bad battery from a good battery. In the event either battery has some failure your only option is to combine batteries. So in effect you are combining a bad battery with a good battery...never a good idea. Just my opinion.

 

[fshnfnatic]

Here,s the fuse panel before and after.A 12 position Blue Sea panel with everything having its own circuit and labeled.

 

[daddystoy]

Nice job FishnF! It is amazing the dogshit wiring that you see on boats! Makes you wonder how it gets so bad. My boat's wiring was a complete mess that I put up with for far too long!

 

[fshnfnatic]

This is a power port I made for down the road when I mount my batteries up in the bow to balance the boat better.
These old Double Eagles are very stern heavy and it seemed like the only real solution.I have my electric downriggers
wired into it now,and it'll be there for anything else I need power for later.

 

[searun]

Wow, let me know when you are ready to take on a wiring job...nice work.

 

[fshnfnatic]

This was my solution for the wiring under the gunnels.I sikaflexed in 4X6 inch painted blocks of plywood to the hull
and hung the wires from nylon anchors there.This worked out better than I'd planned as it also gave me a place to hang some LED light strips under the gunnel as well.

 

[fshnfnatic]

And last but not least.I purchased a marine grade stereo for the boat and mounted the 400 watt amp and 200 watt
8" waterproof speakers to the bulkhead under the dash.The whole system is made by Rockford Fosgate and let me tell you it wails!!I ran 2 gauge marine grade wiring directly back to the house battery and even the patch cords for the amp are marine grade as well.No f'ing around!

Overall I'm very pleased with the job I did.By far the toughest part was running the
wiring in such cramped quarters and some times i just had to walk away from the
sheer frustration,but I'm glad I did it.As Spring Fever said at the beginning of this thread
there's nothing worse than worrying about whether your boat is even gonna start the next time you shut it off.

 

[Sir Reel]

Nice job! Love tidy wiring. So much easier to trouble shoot if you ever have any problems which you probably won't with such a neat job.

 

[sly_karma]

I went through the re-wiring process winter before last and boy does it pay off. Peace of mind on a boat is like money in the bank. Similar story, used Blue Seas fuse blocks same as in FF's pictures plus the Mini Add A Battery kit. I spent a lot of time laying on my back up under the dash but it was worth it. Not one single piece of original wire left, every circuit fused and labelled, separate forward and aft fuse blocks and breakers. Good idea to have two bilge pumps powered from separate fuse blocks; one on float switch, the other switched at dash.

The old truck/auto electrical guy I bought my parts from told me the ten leading causes of electrical problems in vehicles, and I'd say marine is no different:
1. bad ground
2. bad ground
3. bad ground
4. bad ground
5. bad ground
6. bad ground
7. bad ground
8. bad ground
9. bad ground
10. something else

 

[searun]

Speechless...you are amazing.