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Random Quote: It's only a short run from here....what could happen?
I feel stupid. I have a new to me boat ,my first, its a 92 stratos 2000dc. I bought it so cheap I feel like I stole it. Ive been fixing it up getting ready to splash it for the first time. Well I was hooking up my batteries and whoever wired it had a red connector on the wire going to the ground plate mounted to the hull. <still my fault though. Well I know what happens when it's hooked up to the POS on the battery now. Where there is smoke there is almost fire.
No engine damage blew the fuse. Got that running good again. Melted the ground wire where it connects to the guages. Melted it to a POS wire and kept blowing the engine fuse till I found it. So glad I didnt blow some multi thousand $$ eletric engine part.......
I get to rewire my ground wire to my guages tomorrow, Maybe fried my guages I dont know yet. I can de-rats nest all those wires under dash and get it nice and neat now. haha learning lots about wiring.
I completely fubar'd my boat last summer. Battery seemed to go dead parked on the beach at a friend of a friend's house. He offered to charge and we sat at the beach the rest of the day listening to the radio off the supposedly dying other battery. Thinking back, I'm not sure what was really going on because I randomly said, "I wonder if it'll crank because we've been running a lot longer than I thought it would," and cranked it right up on the one battery.
At the time, it seemed pointless to diagnose the problem because we were just relaxing and the other battery was being charged. No reason to worry. Anyway, when my friend handed me the newly charged battery, I just willy nilly hooked it up "like normal" and watched the battery terminal melt off said battery between my legs. Reverse polarization. Fried everything and I'm lucky the thing didn't blow up with me standing over it.
I remember looking at pos/neg on the battery, but thinking back later, I also realized I rotated my wrist while setting it down into the tray. Horrible day, but lucky in many respects.
If you would've told me about this happening to someone else, I probably would've asked if he also screwed holes in the bottom of his hull installing new carpet lately. I wouldn't have thought I could've ever done that.
I feel stupid. I have a new to me boat ,my first, its a 92 stratos 2000dc. I bought it so cheap I feel like I stole it. Ive been fixing it up getting ready to splash it for the first time. Well I was hooking up my batteries and whoever wired it had a red connector on the wire going to the ground plate mounted to the hull. <still my fault though. Well I know what happens when it's hooked up to the POS on the battery now. Where there is smoke there is almost fire.
No engine damage blew the fuse. Got that running good again. Melted the ground wire where it connects to the guages. Melted it to a POS wire and kept blowing the engine fuse till I found it. So glad I didnt blow some multi thousand $$ eletric engine part.......
I get to rewire my ground wire to my guages tomorrow, Maybe fried my guages I dont know yet. I can de-rats nest all those wires under dash and get it nice and neat now. haha learning lots about wiring.
you can all laugh at me know
Dont feel stupid, we've all done it, if we've been around alittle.
When I once did allittle airplane driving, there was a saying:
There are those that have done a wheels up landing, and there are those that just haven't done it yet"
I've been down the road, more than once, restoring older boats. It's not all that bad to keep in mind the:
1) Hole in the water............
2) Happiest day.................
No, it doe's not make you stupid, it makes you just like the rest of us.
According to the frog, "WIND AND THE WILLOWS"
"THERE'S NOTHING QUITE SO SATISFYING AS SIMPLY MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS"
Nature of the beast!
Mike Carrigan
There is a reason why, but we don't need to get into that just yet.
A personal pet peeve -- battery switches and battery fuses. Yes, a fuse on the the battery between it and all things deriving their power for it. Prevents from happening what just happened to you. Would cost you about $20 or so to replace the type T fuse, would have saved you from all of that fried wiring.
I feel battery fuses should be required on every recreational boat that has a battery onboard, especially with AGM batteries.
Blue Sea System class 'T' fuse Block:
Class 'T' fuse - get whatever you need to allow your motor to start without blowing the fuse, 150amp, 200amp, 300amp ...
Dont feel stupid, we've all done it, if we've been around alittle.
When I once did allittle airplane driving, there was a saying:
There are those that have done a wheels up landing, and there are those that just haven't done it yet"
I've been down the road, more than once, restoring older boats. It's not all that bad to keep in mind the:
1) Hole in the water............
2) Happiest day.................
No, it doe's not make you stupid, it makes you just like the rest of us.
According to the frog, "WIND AND THE WILLOWS"
"THERE'S NOTHING QUITE SO SATISFYING AS SIMPLY MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS"
Nature of the beast!
Mike Carrigan
Well, I sure do make a lot of mistakes, but I'm glad that I've yet to get the polarity wrong on a vehicle battery and really glad that I've never done a belly landing. I think I'll try and remain among those who have not yet done so.
There's another lesson here too. That's to the jerk of a prior owner or prior mechanic (I hope not a pro) who put that red connecter on that negative cable. That is why it is so important to follow the code (if mains voltage) or conventions with DC. You may know that you used all red connecters, or all black, but the next guy won't. And he'll assume, like the OP here, that you did it right. So do it right.
(Most any electrician can tell you a personal horror story about misleading DIY stuff encountered by them when digging into existing residence or commercial wiring.)
Code! If you don't know wiring code in a boat,just google "boat wire color code".Alot of times in used boats,over years,people just start throwing in crap and before you know it,you have one hell of a rats nest.
Over 90% of used boats that I looked at had rats nest and wrong wiring in them. Yes,that high of used boats! So,if you are looking at older used boats,take some time and look at the wiring before firing the boat up.
It took me like 15 minutes to read this thread. Kept going back to the juggies. Anyways thanks for sharing, you are not alone dude. My son hooked the bat backwards in his Nissan Pathfinder 2 days ago. Still not running. Wires melted everywhere. I am finishing a rebuild on a 24 sportcraft, just added a fuse to the list of things I still need to get.
the problem with the fuse idea is the fuse has to be matched to the wire size. In other words if you have a 2 AWG wire going to the motor and size the fuse for that, a 14 awg wired downstream of the fuse will still melt (the fuse passes more current than the wire is rated for). So make sure each wire going to the battery has it's own fuse of the correct size for the wire or if you use a block, each branch needs its own fuse. That being said, I do agree about the fuse idea in general.
the problem with the fuse idea is the fuse has to be matched to the wire size. In other words if you have a 2 AWG wire going to the motor and size the fuse for that, a 14 awg wired downstream of the fuse will still melt (the fuse passes more current than the wire is rated for).
You're thinking like a normal fuse application -- fusing for the current the conductor can safely handle. It is important to do that, too, probably already done on most boats. Fusing a battery is a bit different. It is intended to protect against a direct short. A single AGM battery can have a short potential of 6000-amps. The idea is that class 'T' fuse will blow first. T fuses are very fast, current limiting, with high AIC (amperes of interrupting capacity). Your wiring will never see those 6000-amps, and the fuse can handle stopping it without bursting into flames itself.
When fusing a battery you select a fuse size that allows for the biggest load, usually your motor's starter. If your starter pulls 110-amps, use a 200-amp T fuse. It will let you start you boat with no problem, but if there is ever a direct short between + and -, it will blow.
You've probably already got fuses on the wires from the positive side -- so put the battery fuse on the neg side. The following is from Ample Power's website:
Fusing:
Why do your drawings show a main battery fuse on the negative lead? I thought you were supposed to fuse on the positive wire.
Fred, a great amount of thought has gone into the proper location for a main battery fuse. We wish to achieve safety with a minimum cost, which fusing on the negative side of a battery permits. If someone were to give you a sealed box with a battery and a fuse inside it, you would not be able to determine which side of the battery was fused by any kind of electrical measurement. That being a fact, why not put the fuse where it will be most economical? If you put the fuse on the negative side, it will not need to be insulated. Even if you do drop a wrench on the fuse, shorting it to your metal hull, no electrical damage will result.
A fuse on the positive side must be enclosed inside an insulator of some sort, which adds unnecessary cost to the system. Should you fuse on the positive side? If you need Coast Guard certification, then you will have to put the fuse in the positive lead of the battery. Please don't ask us to explain Coast Guard regulations.
Your wiring diagrams show fuses to instruments and regulators in the positive leads. Isn't this contrary to fusing the battery in the negative lead?
Fuses are always used to protect wiring from excessive current flow which may cause fire or other damage. As such, fuses should always be placed as close to the energy source as possible. Since most loads share a common negative distribution connection, fuses are not practical in the negative leads of loads.
Any wire leaving the positve battery terminal, which is not of sufficient gauge to be protected by the main battery fuse, should be separately fused as appropriate for the current capacity of the wire being protected.
well atleat I can learn from my mistake 
