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With the electronics, usually there is a fuse/breaker near the battery (as note should be within 7" of the "source" for the wire which goes to the bus bar or switch pannel where the wiring is taken off for the electronics . But there is also a second fuse in line to the radio.
I recently purchased a nearly new boat from a THT member, but he must have missed the wiring instruction section. (His name remains unknown, since the sale was off list) Everything he added: GPS plotter, Fish finder, Sterio, LED lights, etc were basically wired with zip cord, and twisted wires. Where the twisted wires were too bulky, he used a wire nut! Not one swaged terminal fitting. I spent a couple of weeks (OK I have slowed down in old age)--and pulled all of his wiring (the original boat was fine), but in a new split bus bar, and all marine grade, fused, breaker protected wiring with appropiate fittings etc. Makes me feel a lot better, and far less likely to have a wiring failure or fire at a critical time! Oh yes, there was also some 110 volt wiring which wasn't up to par either--needed several extension cords for the battery chargers....
Your story is really pretty mild. I once bought a very used 1969 Bertram 20 Bahia Mar and the previous owner said he had re-wired everything himself, he actually seemed pretty proud of that. I knew it was done AFU but that didn't worry me as I would just fix everything right. I kept running into square knot connectors. In case you have never heard of them they work like this; 1. strip back 4" of wire on both wires you want to join together 2. then tie them in a square knot ( a simple double know would probably do) 3. then apply a liberal amount of electrical tape. He probably made about 20 such joints on his re-wire project. Evertime I found one I just laughed.
Your story is really pretty mild. I once bought a very used 1969 Bertram 20 Bahia Mar and the previous owner said he had re-wired everything himself, he actually seemed pretty proud of that. I knew it was done AFU but that didn't worry me as I would just fix everything right. I kept running into square knot connectors. In case you have never heard of them they work like this; 1. strip back 4" of wire on both wires you want to join together 2. then tie them in a square knot ( a simple double know would probably do) 3. then apply a liberal amount of electrical tape. He probably made about 20 such joints on his re-wire project. Evertime I found one I just laughed.
Unfreakenreal but true.
You should have taken photos!
Of course, one regular member here insists that the best way to make marine electrical splices is to strip the wires, twist them together, put a glob of 3M5200 on them and seal the entire area with heat shrink tubing. We will leave out the name to protect the guilty.
Your story is really pretty mild. I once bought a very used 1969 Bertram 20 Bahia Mar and the previous owner said he had re-wired everything himself, he actually seemed pretty proud of that. I knew it was done AFU but that didn't worry me as I would just fix everything right. I kept running into square knot connectors. In case you have never heard of them they work like this; 1. strip back 4" of wire on both wires you want to join together 2. then tie them in a square knot ( a simple double know would probably do) 3. then apply a liberal amount of electrical tape. He probably made about 20 such joints on his re-wire project. Evertime I found one I just laughed.
Unfreakenreal but true.
I think that one takes the cake! My PO did some goofy stuff with wiring in the console, but nothing that extreme.
This brand new boat came to us recently for electronics and this is how it is wired from the factory. It is a very prominent name in the business, discussed here weekly and not at all an "economy" boat. Cleaning this up took sevralhours of work befoe we could go forward.
Check out the alligator clip connecting something in the bottom of the pic:
While we are on this subject, anyone have any suggestions for resources that we can use to do this stuff properly? I usually just pay people to do any work, but would like to become a little more self sufficient.
sure...get a delcity.net catalog sent to you....a good connector store...put it on the back of your toilet for reading material...in a short while you'll know about all you need to know...
and:
and everyone should get this paperback book off Amazon:
This brand new boat came to us recently for electronics and this is how it is wired from the factory. It is a very prominent name in the business, discussed here weekly and not at all an "economy" boat. Cleaning this up took sevralhours of work befoe we could go forward.
Check out the alligator clip connecting something in the bottom of the pic:
At best, WOEFULLY PATHETIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we actually did not do anything with it...we pointed it out to the owner and he said he would do it later. But he was turned white when we told him. Our install was to straighten out a minor problem with a bad mounting on the t-top for the gps antenna.
Interesting note: our tech estimated 2 full days to straighten it out ($1400) and a couple hundred in wiring, blocks and breakers.
I usually don't like "bashing" posts, but I think it would be appropriate in this case to name the manufacturer if you're sure this is the factory job, not something a dealer or owner might have done.
I work with every manufacturer known to man and I would not divulge the mfr. But the shrink wrap came off this boat the day before and these were taken the day after. And as usual, I don't care who believes it or not. I'm not getting into that Balla thing where the owner's of this brand rise up and 5 pages later end up accusing me of being gay and "I don't know how to fish"...(LOL)
The simple fact that I won't divulge it shows I'm not bashing, but pointing out how important it is to inspect before you buy. This is not unusual, I have many other mfr pics that are not as bad as this, but need improvment. I personally think it has to do with most of the skilled riggers have left/been laid off and the lot kid is left to rig at some of the more cash strapped builders.
Id be tempted to send that boat back to the mfr. No skill level there whats so ever. Its probably more difficult to do a job like that then to do it neatly.
The bilge pump was installed with screws that were 1/2" longer than the thickness of the hull. Yep...had three screws coming out of the bottom of the hull.
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I recently finished a project boat. The boat was striped to the bare hull. I had to install a console and every foot of wiring for it. Project came with a motor, cables, binicale control, and wiring harness. Trouble was, the wiring harness was from one year, and the motor was several years different. I had to figger out which wires went where even though the colors didn't always match. I need two different wiring diagrams to trace wires. What I did once I had everything sorted out was to make lots of notes on both diagrams so I would not forget in case I had to trace wires. That scenario just presented itself when I had to change out a finiky key switch. The terminal arrangement wasn't exactly the same. My notes of a year ago enabled me to quickly figger out where to put all the wires.
Moral to this story: keep a physical guide to your boats wiring. It will prolly prove invaluable in the future.
Humans are blessed with a brain that can quickly forget stuff.
Glen's pics look a lot what like what I found under the helm first time I took the underbelly cover off. It wasn't until the third year of ownership that I "dared" to go into that rat's nest and make it right. And then I spent about two months during the winter sorting it all out wire by wire. And all during those first two years, I sucked it up every time we got into rough weather - just imagining all that crap bouncing up and down in there.
Please tell what boat or maybe just zoom out a photo........
