Archive for the ‘Cruisers’ Category

Marine electrical questions?

June 28th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Marine Ac/Dc attempts to answer your questions about boat wiring and marine electrical techniques, concepts, and products. We get lots of mail from folks in mid-project or who are just curious about their boat’s electrical setup.

There are loads of post already on the site which we hope you will browse through. If you’re trying to track down info about a more specific category, please use the search box in the upper right of this page or check out the list of various subjects farther down on this page.

If you aren’t able to find the info that you need to complete your particular boat wiring project, please send us an email at boatwiring@gmail.com.

Thank you for visiting. We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will be able to come back often.

Posted in Battery Charger, Battery Switch, Boat Wiring, Bow Thruster, Circuit Protection, Corrosion, Cruisers, Gauge Panels, Harnesses, Marine Electrical, Navigation Lights, Pontoons, Runabouts, Signaling Devices, Switch Panels, Testing, Trolling Motors, Uncategorized, VSR, Wipers | Comments Off

Old switch for new wiper?

September 6th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Hello Kevin,

I recently purchased an AFI 38000 2 speed wiper motor for my boat.

My boat doesn’t have a wiper, but has switches and wiring already. The problem is my boat wiring is for single speed wipers with Carling rocker switches for port and starboard with 3 prongs, grd,+ power,load- on-off. Marinco has a full line of wipers for your boat wiring project

I was wondering since I don’t have a heater if I could use that switch for the wiper. It is an ON-OFF-ON switch with 4 prongs, grd, load A, + power, load B, and it has a light built in it. I don’t know if I should connect the park wire to the + terminal, I’m afraid there might be a draw on the battery all the time.

If I can’t use that switch, do you know what switch I should use? I’d like to stick with the same design as the rest. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Larry

Hi Larry,

You can certainly use your heater switch for the wiper. Connect your park wire to the + terminal and your speeds to A and B. If you connect both wipers to the same switch, they will not shut off properly. The speed wires need to be independently wired to keep them from feeding back.

If you want them on the same switch, I would use a DPDT switch like this one. It will allow independent switching of both wipers.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Switch Panels, Wipers | No Comments »

Maxed Out

August 30th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Kevin,

I recently bought a used boat. It was improperly grounded and burned some of the boat wiring out. My mechanic repaired several problems, but one problem still remains.

When you switch on the ignition most gauges jump to their maximum. For example the trim is maxed out to the right no matter at what level the outboard really is. The oil pressure gauge does nothing. The tachometer goes clear to the right. The speedometer goes to about 10 miles an hour and stays no matter what speed the boat is moving.

Other electric things work correctly, such as the horn, the starter motor, the trim mechanism, bilge pump, bilge blower, and so forth. The stereo system, the marine radio, and GPS seem to be non-functional.

What is that it that can cause all gauges to fail like this? By the way, the boat is a 2002 Chaparral 180SE with a Mercruiser 3XL engine and outdrive. The boat has been badly mistreated, and has required a lot of work to get it functioning again.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give.

Steve

Hi Steve,

It sounds like you have a combination of marine electrical problems.

My guess is that you have more burned out wires.

You should start by checking for 12 volts at each gauge. + on purple and – on black

Then, using an ohm meter check the following

  • Trim position – brown/white – 60 ohms down 11 ohms up
  • Oil pressure – lt blue – over 240 ohms 0 psi 33 ohms 80 psi
  • Fuel – pink – over 240 ohms empty 33 ohms full
  • Tach – gray – test for continuity through harness to engine

As for the speedo, check for a plugged or melted pitot hose, if so, replace the hose. You should also clean up the pickup and check for a bent axle on paddle wheel

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Gauge Panels, Horn, Ignition Switch, Marine Electrical, Navigation Lights, Runabouts, Signaling Devices, Switch Panels, Testing, Trim | Comments Off

Boat harness = Beetle harness?

August 11th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Kevin,

I have been thinking about corrosion, road salt and +/- ground systems in relation to rust and basic electrolysis. It is interesting that marine electrical has already addressed these kind of issues.

So, would it be possible to build a custom wiring harness for a VW Beetle that would bypass the body ground a’la boat wiring?

Thanks,Malcolm Buchanan crossing Irish Sea

Scott

Hi Scott,

Boat wiring harnesses avoid body grounds for two reasons:

  1. To minimize galvanic corrosion
  2. Most boats are not made completely from conductive metal

If you built a harness for your Beetle, you could certainly run individual grounds back to a ground bus instead of using the car body/frame. It would nearly double the amount of wire required for your project, but you would potentially eliminate electrical circuit problems caused by corrosion.

Kevin

Posted in Boat Wiring, Corrosion, Cruisers, Harnesses, Marine Electrical, Runabouts | Comments Off

Boat wiring a chart plotter

August 2nd, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Kevin,

Just came across your web page and it seems great. I couldn’t find an answer to my question, so here it is.

I have a 1992 Sea Ray 330 Sundancer. It has two 7.4Ltr engines and 3 batteries. I want to replace the stereo and add a chart plotter.

My question is where do you run the boat wiring? I assume you don’t just splice it to another wire. How do you know which battery you’re wiring it to? Is there a buss somewhere that you tie in accessories?Sea Ray - Where Land Ends, Life Begins

Thanks for any info,

John

Hi John,

Your marine electrical setup has one battery for each engine and one for the house systems – your stereo and chart plotter should be connected to the house battery.

If you are replacing the existing stereo, I would use the existing power wires. These probably run from the stereo to a main DC distribution panel in the cabin or to a breaker panel in the helm. Stereo power boat wiring has not changed color for years. You should have:

  • Yellow (constant power)
  • Red (switched power)
  • Black for ground.

The speaker wires are:

  • White-white/black,
  • Green-green/black,
  • Gray-gray/black
  • Purple-purple/black.
  • You may also have a blue wire from the stereo that is the remote turn on for an amplifier.

Finding power for the chart plotter may not be as easy. In your helm, there should be a ground buss for the negative wire. You will need to do some exploring to locate an adequate power supply. I would look on your helm breaker panel for an electronics or helm accessory breaker. If one is open, use it. Confirm that the breaker rating is the same as the rating required by your chart plotter manufacturer. If too large, install in in-line fuse at the correct rating.

If a helm breaker is not available, your two options are to piggy back your power from another helm accessory or run a new wire to the battery or distribution are. Either way, install an in-line fuse as close as possible to the power source to protect the wire and your new electronics.

My preference is to piggy back your power from one of the helm breakers. Most plotters do not draw an excessive amount of current and it is much handier to have all of your circuit protection in one location.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Kevin

Posted in Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Testing | Comments Off

OK to combine charger outputs?

July 28th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Kevin,

My current marine electrical system includes a Guest charger, Model 2615, and would like to install a Blue Seas 120 amp SI, ACR.

The ACR instructions state to connect the onboard charger to one battery. The 2615 can charge two batteries, is it ok to connect only one battery from the charger?

Thanks.

Pete

Hi Pete,

The ACR or any voltage sensitive relay system acts like a smart battery switch. As soon as one battery has a high enough voltage, the relay between the two batteries closes and connects the batteries together.

I would recommend setting up your boat wiring to connect both charger outputs to the battery in your system that has the most DC loads. The 2615 charger is older technology and may get confused with the relay in the middle.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Battery Switch, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Shore Power | Comments Off

No down side to guessing

July 19th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Kevin,

I am replacing a Sea Ray 225 Weekender ignition switch 4 prong with a new 4 prong.

I understand the boat wiring color scheme however there are two red and purple wires that are exactly alike that could be the battery or the assessory wire. The only difference in the two wires is that one of them has a white tag on it that says I 03.

Any ideas which goes to battery and which goes to accessory?

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Unless the key switch breaks the connection between the ACC post and the BAT post when your are starting the engine, it really doesn’t matter.

You have two choices.

  1. Use a meter and test to see which wire has constant 12v+. This wire goes to the BAT post.
  2. Take a guess. You won’t hurt anything. If the ignition switch breaks the connection between the ACC post and BAT post during starting and your boat will not start, then you guessed wrong. Swap the wires and go boating.

Kevin

Posted in Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Gauge Panels, Ignition Switch, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Switch Panels, Testing | Comments Off

Ac/Dc connection

July 12th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Kevin,

Why are ac and dc ground buses tied together in boat wiring? It would seem to be a possible source of electrolysis.

George

Hi George,

You are correct.

When you tie the AC and DC ground buses together, you definitely create the path for stray current corrosion through your shore power connection.

BUT

The wire provides a ground path in the event of an AC fault to the DC system in your boat wiring. Without it, your AC breaker will not trip. The path to ground would be through the boat’s DC system, through the engine, and through the water. There is too much resistance in the water to cause the breaker to trip. All DC devices would become energized at 115V AC.

It is probably better to corrode a drive than kill a friend. I always recommend keeping the ground buses tied together. So does the US Coast Guard and the American Boat and Yacht Council.

Kevin

Posted in AC Wiring, Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Corrosion, Cruisers, Marine Electrical, Shore Power | Comments Off

12 Volt Accessories – 24 Volt System

May 17th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

Kevin,

On my boat wiring, I have a 12 volt battery for starting my motor and a 24 volt house battery setup for running my trolling motor and accessories.EzAcDc offers Smart Battery Switch Systems to make your boat wiring project easy.

I would like to have my electronics, which are all 12 volt except for the trolling motor, run off my house batteries, and use my starting battery for starting the engine only.

The boat manufacturer had the house batteries rigged up in 24 volt, but has the accessories connected in 12-volts across only one of the house batteries. Although this works, one of my batteries drains well before the other. Also, something tells me that boat wiring like this might not be a good idea.

Is there a better way to do this? Should I try to balance the load across both house batteries, or should I use a DC/DC converter to step down the 24 volts to 12 volts in order to run the accessories properly? Also, can I use a Smart Battery Switch VSR to charge my 24 volt system from my motor once the starting battery is charged up?

Thanks,

Scott

Hi Scott,

Your boat wiring  has been engineered in a safe, conservative way.

You run into potential problems when you start running two, separate, 12 volts systems with their grounds 12 volts apart.

  1. Stray current corrosion.

    The engine is connected to one battery ground, while the hull is connected to second battery ground – engine corrodes away to protect hull

  2. Fires caused by crossing grounds.

    Gauges and navigation lights have same ground to complete circuit. Your engine harness grounds the gauges and your boat harness grounds the navigation lights. If you connect the engine ground to battery 1 ground and the boat accessory harness to battery 2 ground, the 24 volt jumper wire for your trolling motor completes the dead short from Battery 1 positive to Battery 2 negative.

    The short circuit path is the Accessory harness ground which is connected to battery 2 negative (battery 1 positive), to navigation light switch ground, to gauge ground, to engine harness ground, and back battery 1 ground.

    There is no circuit protection in this circuit so the smallest wire burns. This is usually the small ground jumper wire that connects your gauges.

If you are going to separate circuits to both batteries, install circuit protection in both the negative and positive wires and pay close attention. Label all battery connections because swapping a ground at the battery will cause a fire.

Best of luck,

Kevin

Posted in Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Corrosion, Cruisers, Navigation Lights, Pontoons, Runabouts | Comments Off

BEP’s New Coutour Zone – State of the Art

April 14th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula and Nick Kroes

BEP Marines CZONE™ is a state-of-the-art networked power control and monitoring system it has been designed to integrate and simplify on board electrical and mechanical systems and improve the boating experience.

The system has significant benefits to the OEM
Compared to typical circuit breaker installations CZONE™ relocates the circuit control and protection devices closer to the loads thus shortening cable runs, this equates to a reduction in the cost, complexity and weight of the marine electrical/boat wiring.The CZONE™ system through its simple plug and play connection system provides savings in installation time.

CZONE™ offers an extremely high level of versatility and integration:

  • Control AC and DC loads with built in circuit protection
  • Monitor multiple Tanks
  • Monitor multiple AC and DC power systems
  • Programmable timers, dimmers, alarms, load shedding and more
  • All controllable from one of the intuative display interface

The CZONE™ system is made up of multiple input and output interfaces that are networked together on a CAN bus. CZONE™ can consist of a single interface or a multi bus control and monitoring system, CZONE™ is the only system on the market that, affordably, caters to the needs of vessels ranging in size from 25 to 100 feet in length

Configuration
The system can be modified or updated via the Display module or the extremely user friendly CZONE™ configuration program. If a module is damaged a replacement unit can simply be plugged in place of the old device the system will automatically configure the new module.

Designed to withstand the harsh physical nature of the marine environment
The design of CZONE™ was undertaken utilizing the highest quality, proven components and innovative protective circuitry providing a robust reliable on board power control and monitoring system.

CZONE™ is the only power control and monitoring system which can interface with a third party multifunction marine electronic navigational displays.

Posted in Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Cruisers, Gauge Panels, Harnesses, MarineAcDc Forum, New Products, Signaling Devices | Comments Off
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