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I'm sure you all have some great stories of what your boat's prior owners did before you purchased your boat, so let's hear them!
But I do have a question, and it may or may not point to a prior owner... Could just be my inexperience. When replacing my battery on my Aquasport 225, I noticed that Batt #1 (house) has an extra HOT wire attached to the terminal, and the wire joins the bundle that runs forward to the front of the boat. I have no idea what it goes to.
Every wiring diagram I've ever seen has the HOT terminals going directly to the Battery Switch. With my setup, my battery #1 was powering something, even with the switch off. Any ideas why this might be? What would you want to have constant power to, even with your switch off?
Would that be a brown or brown/white wire? It is normal for the bilge pumps auto wire to be directly connected to the battery. I have also seen vhf radios with a hot lead to the battery and an inline fuse at the radio....
If you think boat wiring in the wrong hands is bad, you should work on old British roadsters....
Agreed, could very well be the bilge.
Disconnect it and run the bilge to see if it still has power.
Flip the float switch, not the panel switch.
If it does, put the wire back on until you figure it out.
If it doesn't, it should!
"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
Brown and red is quite likely bilge pump. No it will not run down the battery, unless there is constant accumulation of water in the bilge. However that depends on the type of bilge pump you have. Some have a float switch, and use no power unless the water is above a certain level. Others run the pump every xx minutes, checking for water, and thus use power, if there is water or not. I recently acquired a boat with that type of switch, and will have to do some data logging to see exactly how much power it uses over a month's peroid of time. Most likely I'll have to put a solar pannel on the boat to keep the battery up. However in my boat's case, I moved that bilge pump switch to a switch (no switch was present, and all wiring went to the plus terminal)--so I have to activate the main switch, and a dash switch to have the pumps work.
Bob- we just never know where you'll turn up!! You going incognito today?
Hey, this is a pretty cool forum too, with alot of traffic. Don't want to monopolize the time of our resident Aquasport expert on that other site!
.............. Why would a bilge pump be wired straight to the battery? Couldn't that drain down that battery?
An owner who keeps the boat in the water might choose to turn the battery switch off. You would still want a working bilge pump in case there's a problem.
Even a land stored boat would be better off with a working bilge pump in case the hull filled with rain water or melting snow and the drain plug was left in or the drain became clogged.
Most bilge pumps use a float switch that only supplies power when the switch is raised by rising water. One not too common type operates the pump every few minutes to see if there's water in the bilge. That will draw power, but not a lot.
If that hot wire is your only wiring concern you're doing good. You should see some of the crap I found in my 1994 Scarab. I think most of it was from factory, then the previous (only) owner did some stuff. I rewired most of the boat but there is still some area that need attention.
And yes...the brown/red wire is the bilge pump. To test this just shut the batt switch off and manually lift the float, if you hear the pump go on then you have your answer. The float will be near the pump in the very rear of the bilge. Usually right next to the drain plug hole on the transom.
The hot lead to the bilge pump (or any other hot lead) should contain its own fuse to protect the wiring. You will probably find an in-line fuse holder fairly close to the bilge pump.
The hot lead to the bilge pump (or any other hot lead) should contain its own fuse to protect the wiring. You will probably find an in-line fuse holder fairly close to the bilge pump.
Well, it should be close to the battery. ABYC calls for it to be within seven inches of the source (battery terminal).
fuse should be next to the "source". On a switched battery, the post that the battery connects to(not common, but one of the batt. posts) can be considered the "source" since that is acting as a battery post in that situation. 7 Inches, while true and correct, may not ALWAYS be possible. I would say within 1 ft you are safe, so you don't have to take out a measuring tape and measure it.
I would reccomend a "maxi" fuse, over the straight glass fuses, I just find them cheap and cruddy. Maxi-holders are much nicer looking, more water-proof, etc.
fuse should be next to the "source". On a switched battery, the post that the battery connects to(not common, but one of the batt. posts) can be considered the "source" since that is acting as a battery post in that situation.
That's correct, the switch terminal can be considered the source. In this case (a direct wired bilge pump), it is the battery.
The length of the conductor from the source to the fuse (or circuit breaker) is unprotected. Ideally, there would be no unprotected conductor but often this is impractical. The best plan is to keep this length of unprotected wire as short as possible.
Usually when you buy something with an in-line fuse (bilge pump, VHF, plotter, stereo, etc.) the in-line fuse is about seven inches from the unconnected end of the wire.
...................... No fuse on the bilge pump line, at least that I can see... maybe I'll take another look.
Yes, take another look. You really need a fuse in that circuit. If the wiring or pump shorts or the pump becomes jammed with debris and cannot turn, you risk melting the wire and possibly having a fire.
Yes, take another look. You really need a fuse in that circuit. If the wiring or pump shorts or the pump becomes jammed with debris and cannot turn, you risk melting the wire and possibly having a fire.
The
Good to know...
You mentioned several other devices that have in-line fuse. I just installed a new VHF, and it also has one.
Surprised that my GPS doesn't have one, and it's hard-wired in. Any ideas why not?
If you inherited a slew of spaghetti wiring, and don't have the secret decoder ring, then maybe a good winter project would be to rewire.
What seems like a sloppy mess to you may have been very manageable to someone who knew the layout well. But if you don't know where the power to your vhf comes from, it doesn't help you much. Add to that the problems with old wiring being left behind as new systems get added, and you have a lot of ghosts on your boat.
Surprised that my GPS doesn't have one, and it's hard-wired in. Any ideas why not?
No but it's fine if it's hard wired to a fuse or circuit breaker panel with the appropriate sized fuse or circuit breaker.
I cut the cords short on my plotters and wired them to a fuse panel. Each has it's own fuse (7.5 amp, I believe). I didn't want to have to bundle up six feet of cable and I wanted all the fuses in the same place.
It's not so important how it's done, just that the end result is according to code and safe.
Knucklehead prior owners... and their wiring
