Electric Wiring

[Hooper]

Hi Guys-

Wondering about this...Has anyone, during their restoration projects, come up with an easy wiring scheme? When I peer under my console there is a maze of wire and switches. It is so bad that, recently, my anchor light stopped turning on. Tracing it from the light to the switch has been hard to say the least.

Has anyone built a better mousetrap? I have seen some larger sport boats that have the wiring laid out so well that following a wire to its' source is cake...

Just wondering what the experts have done.

Thanks once again, Hooper

[John R]

Hooper - there are a couple books out on wiring boats. I picked one up and read at Borders for a couple hours and it had some interesting ideas... Consider mapping out a harness before doing it, might add a few hours to the front end but will save time in the long run...

Anyone know a good online source for marinized wiring harness connectors?

[FELLOW-SHIP]

HA HOOPER
I JUST SPENT THIS LAST WEEKEND PLUS ONE DAY LAST WEEK WORKING ON MY WIRING MOSTLY UNDER THE CENTER CONSOL AND PUTTING IN A NEW BILGE PUMP. I GUESS I WOULD HAVE TO SAY I DID THIS BOAT GOOD NOT GREAT BUT GOOD. I HAVE HAD ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS IN THE PAST WITH OTHER BOATS AND DECIDED TO THINK THIS ONE OUT FIRST. I HAVE THE BIG CONSOL ON THE 23’ OPEN FISHERMAN. ONE OF THE FEATURES I LIKE THE MOST ABOUT THE BOAT IS THE BIG DOOR IN THE FRONT OF THE CONSOL IT ENABLES YOU TO GET IN THERE AND DO WORK. I MADE A 12” HIGH BY 40” LONG SHEET OF ½” MARINE PLYWOOD WHICH I LAMINATED AND PAINTED AND INSTALLED IT ACROSS THE CENTER CONSOL JUST BEHIND THE SECTION THAT STARTS TURNING UPWARD FOR THE INSTRUMENTS AND GAGES. I THEN DEDICATED THAT ENTIRE AREA FOR WIRING. IT STILL PROVIDES ENOUGH ROOM FOR BATTERIES AND FRESH WATER AND OIL TANK TO FIT UNDER THAT WIRING WALL. I HAVE TWO PVC TUBES THAT GO FROM UNDER THE CENTER CONSOL ONE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE CENTER CONSOL UNDER THE DECK TO THE TRANSOM ONE TUBE IS 4” THE OTHER IS 3” IN DIAMETER. I HAVE 4 FUSE BLOCKS AND 2 NON FUSE TYPE BLOCKS PLUS MY TRIM TAB MOTOR AND MY BATTERY SWITCH CONNECTED TO THAT PLYWOOD WALL. ONE OF THE FUSE BLOCKS IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO ONE OF THE BATTERIES FOR AUTO BILGE PUMPS AND ANYTHING I ALWAYS WANT JUICE TO THAT BLOCK IS SEPARATED FROM THE OTHER 3 FUSE BLOCKS. THE OTHER 3 FUSE BLOCKS ARE USED FOR ALL THE OTHER WIRING HOOK UPS WITH THEIR INDIVIDUAL FUSES. ONE OF THE NON FUSE BLOCKS IS SET UP FOR THE GREEN BOAT GROUND AND THE OTHER IS SET UP FOR A ADDITIONAL BLACK ELECTRICAL GROUND. I HAVE AMPLE ROOM THE RUN ALL WIRING THROUGH WHAT I WILL CALL WIRING HIGHWAYS THAT ARE SET UP ON THE PLYWOOD AND OF COURSE LOTS OF WIRING STRAPS TO KEEP THINGS NEAT AS POSSIBLE. FOR ME THEIR WILL ALWAYS BE SOME AMOUNT OF A JUMBLE LOOK ESPECIALLY AROUND THE SWITCHES BUT FOR THE MOST PART THE WIRING HIGHWAYS ATTACHED TO THE PLYWOOD TAKES A LOT OF THE MESS OUT OF THE PROJECT. I ALWAYS CUT THE WIRE LENGTHS TO THE CORRECT SIZE TO FIT MY WIRING HARNESS, I ALSO SODDER AND SHRINK RAPE ALL FITTINGS THAT HELPS A LOT AS WELL.
FELLOW-SHIP [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Rich]

Some Wiring diagrams. For those of you with a slow internet connection beware of these pigs. Unfortunately I had to scan them LARGE...

http://seacraft.snetsol.com

click on Wiring.

I'm working on drafting the Whole boat in AutoCAD, which in turn I will post some DWF files that you will be able to see and use as reference if you want... you will have to download a viewer though....

[John R]

Rich, I have some quick planform Visio layouts for the 23 that I did for general object placement. They are slightly above eyeball engineering but I can attach them if you or anyone else is interested.

[deepsushi]

Rich,

I think I can hear AT&T's network start to whimper when I download that thing.....lol