Archive for the ‘Cruisers’ Category

Columbia Rewire

December 5th, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Hello Kevin,

I’ve recently became the owner of a Columbia 22 sailboat built in 1969. I’ve gutted the boat wiring from her and need to rewire.

I need bow port and starboard navigation lights and some minor interior lights she currently has a white masthead light at the cross tree and a transom light. Both of them seem to look fine however I would like to convert to LED for all the lighting.Attwood is the world's top supplier of navigation lights for boats

She also has in place a Guest battery switch

I’m considering buying everything that I need from your snap-together boat wiring site.  But, before I do, can you tell me everything that I will need?

I think I need to control three separate lighting systems

  1. The red and green bow lights
  2. Masthead and stern
  3. Interior lights
  4. Perhaps nav/GPS and cell phone charger?

Any help would be appreciated. Your snap together wiring system seems like a real timesaver, but I didn’t want to get the wrong parts.

Finally, do you also furnish instructions on how it all hooks up to everything including battery?

Thanks again

Peter

Hi Peter,

I would start with our smaller boat wiring harness. This will provide wiring for your red/green boat lights, your white, all-round light, and interior lights.

On your boat, I would combine this harness with our five switch marine electrical panel. This panel will provide switches for your nav/anc and stern lights along with your cockpit courtesy lights.

We have several navigation light kits that plug directly into our wiring harness. Simply choose the mounting configuration for your boat.

The installation is easy and instructions are provided.

I would keep the Guest battery switch in the system. The main power connection from your new boat wiring harness will connect to the battery switch to allow you to completely turn the power off when you leave your boat.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in ABYC, Anchor Lights, Boat Wiring, Bow Light, Circuit Protection, Courtesy Lights, Cruisers, Horn, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Masthead Lights, Mood Lights, Navigation Lights, Sailboats | Comments Off

Custom Marine Electrical Panels?

November 28th, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Hi Kevin,

I found your sister operation, EzAcDc boat wiring on Ed Sherman’s site.

I am about to rewire my 42 foot ketch with new boat wiring and distribution/breaker panel.EzAcDc also has a complete kit to rewire you existing switch panels - a big part of any boat wiring project.

I have HF radio (35 A), water pump, sewage treatment (both 15A), VHF radio (8A)fridge (3A), plus the usual internal lights and external nav lights. No power winches or other serous current devices, other than of course the Yanmar 54 bhp starter battery and motor. I have a 300 AHr ships battery bank (3 x 100 AHr) and a 900 CCA starter battery.

Your marine electrical panels look interesting and also the boat wiring harnesses seem well made and should simplify installations.

Can EzAcDc supply panels suitable for larger numbers of circuits? What form do your harnesses take, can I get lengths custom made if I provide lengths?

Johnson

Hi Johnson,

At this time our partner sites, EzAcDc and Boat Wiring Store, do not produce custom switch panels and boat wiring harnesses.

Usually, when expanding an EzAcDc system, our customers purchase a fully wired marine electrical switch panel and then purchase either an unloaded switch panel or an unwired switch panel to install in conjunction with the fully wired system.

This give them the ability to have a second switch panel made from the same material and same switch style. We offer a complete line of tinned boat wiring and marine electrical connectors so they can custom wire the second panel to their needs.

Hope this helps.

Please let us know if you have any questions,

Posted in AC Wiring, Anchor Lights, Bilge Pumps, Boat Batteries, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Wiring, Bow Light, Bow Thruster, Courtesy Lights, Cruisers, Gauge Panels, Harnesses-Dash, Harnesses-DC, Horn, Marine Electrical, Masthead Lights, Navigation Lights, Switch Panels | Comments Off

Bow Light Always On

November 21st, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Kevin,

I recently built a new marine dash panel for a used Invader Boat. I bought all new gauges and switches, but I’m having a problem with the new Attwood navigation lights. The bow light comes on when the switch is in both the anchor position and the navigation position.Attwood is the world's top manufacturer of navigation lights for recreational marine.

I used a Contura rocker switch, an on-off-on. Do I need to change to a double pole/double throw switch?

Thanks,

Seymore

Hi Seymore,

Please check out this post on navigation light wiring from our sister boat wiring site, Easy Ac/Dc. It will explain how to correctly wire both the switch that you purchased as well as a double pole/double throw.

Happy boat wiring,

Kevin

Posted in Anchor Lights, Boat Wiring, Bow Light, Cruisers, Gauge Panels, Marine Electrical, Navigation Lights, Switch Panels | Comments Off

O’Day Dilemma

November 14th, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Hello Kevin,

My boat wiring question is:

I have a 1979 37′ O’Day sailboat, with an Aft Cabin with the original 4 breaker terminal mounted on the locker.

When I bought the boat in 2000, I replaced the existing Loran with radar and wired it into the panel where the Loran had been and added a VHF radio to the back of the panel. Both have individual fuse protection. O'day Sailboat

Everything has worked fine until a few weeks ago when I noticed I have no power to the panel – cabin lights, engine room light, radar, radio, and autopilot do not work.

Both the positive and negative lines from the main power source in the forward part of the boat were tested by me and tested good.

I was told that it could be a ground problem. I looked at the negative marine electrical bus bar inside the locker and what is there are the negative wires from the accessories and the negative wire from the main bank in the forward part of the boat. There was also another 10 gauge wire but not attached to anything.

Should there be a ground wire attached to the buss bar to the engine and could this wire be my problem in that it somehow become disconnected?

I installed a new six breaker panel replacing the original; I installed a new 30 amp terminal (6 terminals) inside the locker and ran each accessory positive to it and then from there to the panel; Each accessory negative goes directly to the to the bus bar along with the 10 gauge negative wire from the main power source. The new panel has a negative bar which I also attached to the bus bar.

I then turned on each switch and they all light up meaning power is there. But when I turn on any of the accessories at the actual device they do not work and all the panel lights go off. When I turn off the individual accessory the panel lights will go back on. This happens with each item- cabin lights, engine room light, radio, radar, auto pilot.

Can you help me?

Confused

Jordan

Hi Jordan,

The problem is either in the feed wire or the ground wire.

The best way to find your problem is to test voltage levels when the system is under a load.

The panel indicator lights will initially turn on because the low current draw of the lights induces a small voltage drop in the wire. When you turn on a higher draw device, the voltage drop increases and the light turns off.

You will probably find a bad cable connection or hidden splice.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Thank you for your response.

While waiting to hear back from you, I continued to investigate the problem.

Although I found numerous other problems as the O’Day has the original wiring, the cause for the failure was due to corrosion inside the positive wire where it entered into the front panel for power. As I tried to pull the wire to locate it, it broke off and was corroded inside the insulation. The joys of an old boat.

I have rewired the entire aft by replacing all the wires and panel and everything is back in order.

Regards,

Jordan

Posted in Anchor Lights, Boat Batteries, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Corrosion, Cruisers, Galley, Gauge Panels, Ground Issues, Harnesses-Dash, Harnesses-DC, Marine Electrical, Masthead Lights, Sailboats, Switch Panels, Testing, Voltmeter | Comments Off

Reverse Engineering

November 9th, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Dear Kevin,

Thank you for all your boat wiring advice which I find very useful.

With regards to your post, Excellent Mileage from October 3rd, 2011, does the explanation also apply to reverse readings on the boat’s fuel gauge?

  • Full tank but empty on gauge
  • Removed sending unit, moved sensor to bottom
  • Gauge shows full.

I switch the wire around but with same results.Attwood has the marine industry's best solutions for installed fuel systems

Thanks!

Gary

Hi Gary,

It sounds like something has gone haywire with your fuel gauge or sender.

Most fuel gauges read a sensor that is 240 ohms at empty and 33 ohms at full.

  • Test the sender with an ohm meter. 240 ohms down and 33 ohms full.
  • Test the gauge with ground wire.
  • No wire connected to the gauge sending wire stud, empty.
  • Wire connected to the gauge send wire and to ground, full.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for your quick reply.

While surfing around on the net I managed to find this answer on the Wema site

I hope that it will help other boat owners who wish to change their gauges or senders.

Cheers and best regards!

Gary

Posted in Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Fuel Gauge, Fuel Sender, Gauge Panels, Ground Issues, Harnesses-Dash, Harnesses-DC, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Sailboats | Comments Off

Three questions

October 24th, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Hello KevinYow.

Based on this picture, if you found this on your dock:

  1. How safe would you believe this boat wiring to be?
  2. Would you complain to the marina about it?
  3. Would the marina’s insurance company accept its usage?

Mickey

Hi Mickey,

I would recommend having a qualified electrician check it out – unless you decide to simply finish chopping it into even smaller pieces and throwing it in the garbage.

Kevin

Posted in ABYC, AC Wiring, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Marine Electrical, Quality-Control, Runabouts, Sailboats, Shore Power, Shore Station | Comments Off

Plane Pain

September 13th, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Hi Kevin,

I have a 1991 Sea Ray 220DA with a 2006 Mercruiser 5 litre mpi.

Last time we were out on a trip, we were on plane and everything was fine. All of the sudden, we lost all power and the boat shut down.

After messing with the boat battery cables, the engine compartment blower came on, so I thought maybe it was just a loose connection.

I start the boat and go to get on plane and lose everything again, no power what so ever. Again I went through the wiring from the batteries to the battery switch and back to the starter and all seemed to be in good condition with good connections. So, after a while of just sitting there the blower comes back on and everything is back to normal.

Again, I start the boat and put it in gear and again it dies and we have no power. As you can imagine this was a very frustrating trip, this continued to happen the whole weekend and I never figured out the problem.

The last time it happened after messing with everything under the engine hatch with no luck I moved to messing with the boat wiring under the dash near the ignition switch just by giggling the wires blindly then all of the sudden we had power. I should mention that before just losing everything all of my gauges would bounce down to nothing then back to normal real quick and at the same time the engine would die for that second then back then do it for good.

So, obviously there is something loose and when we hit a wave or too much vibration we would lose the connection. After the trip, back at my house, I took the dash panel off and looked at everything but cannot figure out what the problem is.

Any thoughts on what I should look for? I don’t know what would cause total loss of power.

Hope you can help.

Thanks,

Dewayne

Hi Dewayne,

My best guess would be to look at the main boat harness plug on the engine. It is a black, molded plug that is about 1 1/2″ in diameter. It usually on the stbd side of the engine.

When you unplug it, the two big terminal pins are the main positive and negative that feed power to you helm and gauges. Intermittent connection of this positive pin would cause these problems. Engine temperature and vibration would amplify it.

Kevin

Kevin,

Thank you for your quick response.

I just checked the plug and you were right! I turned the battery switch on and the bilge blower, when I moved that plug the power cut, moved it again power came back.

There was a hose clamp helping to hold it in, so I loosened the clamp and pulled the plug. The pins looked ok so I plugged it back in and tightened the clamp. Seems to be ok, but was able to cut power by giggling it hard.

Hope this fixes my problem.

Thank you I appreciate your help,

Dewayne

Posted in Blower, Boat Batteries, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Ground Issues, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Marine Engines, Testing | Comments Off

AC Lights. DC Power.

September 7th, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Kevin,

I have a 26 foot, 1979 Sea Ray Sundancer.

I have recently added LED rope lights to my boat wiring. They are in the front berth but are AC powered. I put a 400 watt converter off a 12 volt battery for the lights. I am trying to put a switch at the helm and in the front berth, so I can turn on the converter for the rope lights at ether location.Vista is the marine industry's top supplier of waterproof LED lights

Do you have any boat wiring suggestions for this project?

Randy

Hi Randy,

The closer the inverter is to the battery, the smaller with DC wiring will need to be.

A 400 watt inverter will draw a max of 33 amps. Most common marine DC switches are rated at a max of 20 amps. So, if your switch is not rated to handle this high current, you will need to use a relay.

As will all wiring, use appropriate circuit protection as close as possible to the source of power. The USCG standard is within 7″ with some exceptions.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in AC Wiring, Boat Wiring, Courtesy Lights, Cruisers, LED Lights, Marine Electrical, Mood Lights, Rope Lights | Comments Off

Automatic Attwood

August 22nd, 2011 by Marine Ac/Dc

Kevin,

Hello and thank you in advance.

I have an Attwood bilge pump that I would like to install. It has wires with three colors – black white and green.

I want to connect the pump to a switch which is labeled Automatic, Off and Manual. The wires on the pump are Positive, Manual Positive, and Negative.

Could you please tell me which wire goes where?

Norma

Hi Norma,

Here is how to set up the boat wiring for your new Attwood pump:

At bilge pump:

  • Black wire to pump negative
  • White wire to pump positive
  • Green wire to pump manual positive

At the switch:

  • Black wire to ground (not on switch)
  • White wire to automatic
  • Green wire to manual

Supply power to switch using appropriate circuit protection.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Bilge Pumps, Boat Batteries, Circuit Protection, Cruisers, Harnesses-DC, Marine Electrical | Comments Off

Extension or Outlet?

June 20th, 2011 by Kevin Hannula

Hello Kevin,

I’m considering getting one of the Easy Add AC Shore Power systems from EzAcDc.

Could you please suggest the best way to hook up the boat wiring for the battery charger which is mounted near the transom in that boat’s engine compartment?This complete shore power system arrives ready to install for your boat wiring project.

Should I run a 10 foot, 15 amp extension cord or use triplex boat wiring and put a plug end on it to plug into panel?

Thanks

Marc

Hi Marc,

There are two individual outlets on the back of the AC panel enclosure which I helped to design for our sister boat wiring site.

These are there to allow you to direct connect devices such as battery chargers and refrigerators. You can either run an “extension cord” from your charger to the panel or just mount one of the remote AC outlets in your engine room.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Kevin

Posted in AC Wiring, Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Galley, Marine Electrical, New Products, Refrigerator, Sailboats, Shore Power | Comments Off
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