Wiring Nightmare

[brhodes]

After putting my 20' 1970 cc in the water for the first time the weekend of 6/21, she's out of the water again. My buddy (the SeaCraft Nursemaid) noticed some oddities in the wiring. Upon further inspection, bare wires that had melted through the insulation were everywhere. Apparently, someone decided to use 16 gauge wire and 30 amp fuses in some places. As these wires are extremely close the gas tank, we thought it best to remove them.

But all of the above is not even the most amazing part! Nothing was color coded either. In fact, some connections had three or four different colored wires taped together. After removing the damage wires and those that went to nothing, Pat figured there was well over 50' of wire taken from the boat most of which connected to nothing. It was just a huge rat's nest of wire.

I no longer consider the boat "purchased." It was rescued!

Bruce
"Could somebody please tell me why?"

[JohnS]

So you had a "Rat's Nest"? You are not the only one that has had this problem and you will not be the last. I do not quite remember where and exactly what statistic I found one time. It was on boat fires that were caused from improper wiring that was done by people that should not even be allowed to walk into a Radio Shack, no offense to that company intended whatsoever.

One of the things that everyone should remember when purchasing a boat. Check the wiring, thoroughly, before purchasing the boat. If you find things that do not make you comfortable, make sure you understand that you WILL be going through the entire vessel, possibly rewiring it, and making it safe. I check every boat I buy and have ever bought. I have turned away from boats for the simple reason that the wiring was REALLY bad. I have rewired several boats, only to find things that scared me to death when I was working on them. One time, I was working on a boat for a friend of a friend. I found a short that has been arking to the tank, black marks and all. I also found his tank had a leak, small but none the less a leak. This guy was taking his family out in a bomb and had been doing so for years. In doing this favor, I probably saved his families life.

Sorry but this hits home with me, I had to comment.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

There are 4 types of people that do work on boats. The first group are paid for their services take pride in what they are doing and have to charge accordingly (not cheep but they are good) the next group are cheep or lets say cheaper that the first group what you got is exactly what they do or their usually standard procedure cut, re run new and then say done that will be $$ please fast and crappy. Then there is the third group who do work on boats they are just like the second group except they have a excuse they own the boat but don’t have the foggiest idea about doing anything (monkey sees monkey does) or another word is IMPROVISE on my boat I even found a nail hammered in the deck boy that was improvising. The last group are the best of them all that’s “you” the only one that really cares about your boat, so do it yourself and it will usually turn out better than if some one else does it for $. The sad truth about most industries in the U.S. is the skilled labor is gone, now a days it’s usually the cheapest unskilled labor that can be had that is doing the work (because of profitability) no matter how much $ is being paid for the job to be done. These unskilled guys don’t know, or they don’t care I figure even if I am unskilled in working on my boat I care a lot and probably that will make a bigger difference in the end results. Gosh after that I need to go home a pop a Bud. See you later.
Fellow-Ship [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Jon G]

My boat came with some nasty wiring in it [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] . Its was one of my first project last fall. Fifteen minutes with a pair of wire cutters and all of it was in a trash can. Three weeks to put it all back the right way, use good tinned wire and keep it neat it will last forever. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[brhodes]

This is my first used boat purchase. Even with all the advice of friends, relatives, and "experts" I certainly missed some problems when checking the boat out. Fortunately, none of the problems have been so bad that the boat will never run again. I just have to keep asking myself why anybody would have even considered doing what was done. They were not repairing the boat; I'm not sure what they were doing.

On the upside, now when the boat goes out I know everything will have been repaired correctly. The actual wiring replacement does not seem to be so bad a project. It was more the shock of what was found under the console. I figured we might be able to wait on the wiring until the winter. Oh well.