# Re-wired the boat



## Gramps50 (Mar 19, 2012)

Everything worked and they say if it ain't broke don't fix it. Well I didn't listen. I wasn't happy with the way the previous owner had the boat wired and though it suited him it didn't me. There were fuses all over place and not in any kind of waterproof holder. the 2 switches were stuck back in the corner by the rear seat. Even the trolling had the barrel fuses on both pos & neg. The other day they were corroaded & I had to clean them to get the motor to work. I bought a fuse panel and a circuit breaker for the trolling motor. So today I ripped all the old wiring out of the boat and started over. Well not all of it, the trolling motor wire were okay and I didn't mess with the main power cable. I even found some wire nuts on wires tucked behind the end of the seat.

Don't have a lot to turn on and off so I will have 3 switches
Live well air
Nav lights
Anchor lite
will also have a volt meter with a N/O push button switch.

Mounted the fuse panel on the rear of the rear seat back by the battery. The switches will be on the starboard side just in front of the rear seat by the current FF mount location. This will probably get changed in the future as I have an idea for a console to replace the FF mount that will house it switches, volt meter, & poer outlet.

Got all the old wiring ripped out except for the front nav light, just ran out of time and daylight today. Did get all the wiring on the rear done and the fuse panle wired.

Here some photos of what I started with nand what I have done to it.

Mounted the fuse panel yesterday before it started raining and stopped all the work


Fuse panel with the cover on


Starboard rear corner. I pulled the pvc apart looking for wires.


Took the old switch panel off and pulled the wires from behind the seat and found the 2 wire nuts.


Junction block on the port side


This is the wire for the trolling motor. It had a rubber hose around it wraped with electrialcal tape that was split and coming loose.


Soldered extensions on the wire wrapped with electrical tape


Wrapped the the soldered joints with splicing tape


After the splicing tape, both wires were wrapped with friction tape and then covered with spiral wrap


Starboard side rear corner now after the re-wire


The wired fuse panel



That's about all the got done today. Hopefully tomorrow we will continue


----------



## Bob Landry (Mar 19, 2012)

You're right. The original wiring was abysmal. I only have one recommendation. Twist on wire nuts are not approved for marine use. They tend to be rather unreliable and can vibrate loose. Use some good quality butt connectors and adhesive line heat shrink. As you are doing that, trim the wire lengths so that once they are properly connected, they can be bundled with tie wraps or wrapped with splicing tape and put in wire loom. It will make for a much nicer installation.


----------



## Gramps50 (Mar 19, 2012)

The twist on wire nuts where from the old wiring. All connections are done with heat shrink butt connectors. Thanks for the tips.


Finished wiring the bow light and wired all the switches today. Secured the battery. Now there are just 2 wires on each battery terminal instead of a having to pick up a hand full for each. All the fuses in one place and no fuses on the trolling motor. Used a resetable 50 amp circuit beaker on the trolling motor. I intended to take pictures of the finished job but it got late and I had to cut the grass before the dog got lost. 

Next project the trailer.


----------



## RivRunR (Mar 20, 2012)

Looks much better!

Might want to add a circuit breaker between the battery and the fuse panel tho.


----------



## Bob Landry (Mar 20, 2012)

RivRunR said:


> Looks much better!
> 
> Might want to add a circuit breaker between the battery and the fuse panel tho.



+1

The wire feeding the switch panel needs to be protected also.


----------



## Gramps50 (Mar 20, 2012)

Would you use a 50 amp or something smaller?


----------



## BarryG (Mar 20, 2012)

The after pictures look MUCH better


----------



## ChitownBasser (Mar 21, 2012)

RivRun, I am planning the same thing. For a circuit breaker, what is enough amps? Is 100 overkill? Will just a regular inexpensive circuit breaker work?


----------



## RivRunR (Mar 21, 2012)

Gramps50 said:


> Would you use a 50 amp or something smaller?


It really depends on your particular amp draw, but _typically_ a 20 amp breaker would probably work. I prefer the manual reset type over the auto-reset.



ChitownBasser said:


> RivRun, I am planning the same thing. For a circuit breaker, what is enough amps? Is 100 overkill? Will just a regular inexpensive circuit breaker work?


Again, It really depends on your particular amp draw. I expect a 100 amp breaker would be way overkill.

Here's a shot of how mine looks: A 20 amp breaker on the left of the fuse panel with navs, bilges, finder, 12V, blacklight (led), spotlight, etc. My TM, additional blacklights, and bow finder are on separate batteries up front. You can't see it for the tank, but all that wiring is run thru flex conduit. My plan is to move one of my bilge circuits to the bow batteries just for a little added safety.


----------



## ChitownBasser (Mar 21, 2012)

Just a 20 AMP will do? I am in the progress of wiring. In only plan on hooking up low amp things to my fuse block, lights, 12v plugs, etc. Sorry, just trying to wrap my head around this. If I have 2 12v plugs at 10AMPS each, doesn't that put me over the 20 AMP circuit breaker limit? Not sure if that how it works. 
I understand that I have to put this circuit breaker near the battery and I have seprate circuit breakers for my trolling motors.
Here is some of my wiring..so far.


----------



## RivRunR (Mar 21, 2012)

ChitownBasser said:


> Just a 20 AMP will do? I am in the progress of wiring. In only plan on hooking up low amp things to my fuse block, lights, 12v plugs, etc. Sorry, just trying to wrap my head around this. If I have 2 12v plugs at 10AMPS each, doesn't that put me over the 20 AMP circuit breaker limit? Not sure if that how it works.


I always oversize my battery-to-breaker wire, but even so, the breaker size needs to be sufficient to handle the amp draw going thru the fuse panel. So, if you have 2 x 10 amp plugs, + lights @ 2 amps, + finder @ 1 amp, + bilge @ 10 amps, + whatever, then add those up. If your total draw is going to be, say 35 amps, then you could use a 30 amp breaker, which would be roughly 80% of the amp draw. I always go on the low side because I want it to trip if there's a problem with the wire.


----------



## fender66 (Mar 21, 2012)

Looks good Gramps. You've done us proud here at TinBoats! Great pictures with descriptions too.

We must get together sometime. After all...we're practically neighbors. :LOL2:


----------



## Gramps50 (Mar 21, 2012)

fender66 said:


> Looks good Gramps. You've done us proud here at TinBoats! Great pictures with descriptions too.
> 
> We must get together sometime. After all...we're practically neighbors. :LOL2:



Thanks.....

Let me know when you want to go I'm free most of the time


----------



## Gramps50 (Mar 28, 2012)

As per suggestions I have added a 20 amp manual reset breaker between the battery and fuse panel,


----------



## fender66 (Mar 28, 2012)

Gramps50 said:


> As per suggestions I have added a 20 amp manual reset breaker between the battery and fuse panel



Looks great. Very neat and clean looking!


----------

