Hi guys I need to have my boats wiring done, fi

[neilg]

Catch 22 wrote:

You will be suprised bud, I have seen a lot of cowboy wiring in my life!

Believe me so have I, especially on the commercial boats, there where every single crew member is an electrician, outboard technician and everything else that they require while at sea ... you must see what some of them do to the harnesses on the motors ... SCARY

had a cabin boat here where all the wiring was about .5mm white twincore wiring, but the catch is the guy only used one metre pieces, so there was about 10 joins if not more...

I actually have seen some wiring that goes from funny to bloody dangerous ...

But if you use common sense it's extremely easy to do.

On my own boat

I run my 2 motors on 2 batteries, then all my electronics and bilge pumps run off a seperate big heavy duty battery, that way if I have problems the one won't affect everything, and by doing it that way I actually have a "spare" battery with me aswell.

many people have been in big trouble because the radio, the bilge pumps and all the electronics ran a battery flat !

Single outboard boats should have a battery selector (isolator) installed with 2 batteries ! That way you can choose by running the one, the other or both, and you can also select none when the boat is stored.

and then I carry a jumpstarter with me, just in case

Wiring should be neat and open, so that you can visially inspect if anything raises concern, even better if tagged. If done like miles did you only need heatshrink, some spare wire and a phillips screwdriver in an emergency.

 

[Catch 22]

I have only two batteries on my boat (one for each motor) and have a Cole Hersey switch that basically allows any motor to use any battery.

But yes, Neil , I agree, wiring is no rocket science.

 

[miles]

If you incorrectly wire or damage the fishfinder upon installation, it will not be covered by warranty as you (presumably) are not an authorised installer. This may not apply to all makes but it does with Hummingbird.
Secondly, check your insurance policy as some will insist on electrical work being completed by a registered electrician. An exclusion to a claim may result if they find out you wired it yourself. But as the other posts say, the real only way to be sure it is done properly, is to do it yourself.

 

Fin-S, all the fish finders i've installed comes with 2 wires, black for negative and red for positive. They all also have a fuse on the +ve side. Only the latest echo's, that have nmea capabilities will come with a horde of other little wires, but your wiring diagram in the installation manual is VERY clear. Its VERY difficult to wire your echo INCORRECTLY!! It really is an extremely simple operation.

Just for a chuckle, my previous boat had a Furuno GPS7000F mounted on it. It was bought through my boat builder, who also installed it. Firstly, a hole was made in the dash to flush-mount the unit. Thats good. But then, they SILICONED the unit into the dash!! Furuno GIVES you a rubber gasket and bolts to use for the correct installation, but no, they simply siliconed my unit into the dash. When i switched the echo on, by a seperate switch, my DECKWASH pump would also switch on:swear Back to the dealer and they fixed that up. Now, when i start my motors up, the echo would die!! Back to the dealer for a COUPLE of times. They eventually removed the unit and sent it to PERTEC to have the unit tested. Unit came back and PERTEC said it was 100% ok. Mounted it again and everytime i switched on the motor, the echo would still die!! I eventually got tired of driving back and forth to the dealer and simply lived with the problem.

One day i had an electrical problem onboard and the dealer was too busy to come sort out the wiring, so i ended up calling another boat builder, even though it was still under warranty. He came over, fixed my wiring and then i happened to mention my echo problems with him. A 2 second check and he was rolling on the floor with laughter. My BOAT BUILDER had used normal cheap FLEX wire for the whole boat. Simply run thicker wires to the echo and problem solved!!

On that same boat, as mentioned previously, i also had a electrical fire, 30nm from land.

I COMPLETELY agree with you, that a profesional SHOULD do the job, BUT, when the SUPPOSED professional boat builders do scary things like mentioned above, i'd rather have it done the CORRECT way. Its MY life that they are endangering with shoddy workmanship!!

 

Just on a completely different note, it always baffled me as to why the majority of boat builders don't actually fish!! As fisherman, we know exactly what we want or don't want on our boats, yet boat builders will continue to build vessels with small flaws in them. Simple things, like easy to clean decks, with minimal hidden corners, etc,etc We should actually take out a few of them 30nm from land, in a 30knt NW'erly with a big swell, just to show them what their products have to deal with and MAYBE, we'll get better quality workmanship.........