buying new rocker switch..Advice needed

floatingwoody2006

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Feb 2, 2006
Messages
500
I am going to re-wire the 16'er tonight..All easy access. The old wires in it i just dont trust..I have a couple of questions. I will be buying a 4 panel rocker switch. Firstly..I will be using the starting batt. Just for starting. The other..A deep cycle i would like to have run 2 lights, horn, and bilge. I also will have a small radio, and trolling motor in it, but those can be run direct i believe. So..I think i need to run the pos. and neg. from the battery to the front where i will be installing the panel. Then..can i jump the negs from the switches all together?..I think yes.. but checking. then it's running the pos and negs from the lights and horn up to the individual switches. Do i ground to the boat itself somewhere in this configuration as well? And..any suggestions as to what guage wire i should use for a 16 foot run to the panel, and where should the inline fuse be?.. Towards the batt.. or panel. ?
 

bruceb58

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
30,454
Re: buying new rocker switch..Advice needed

All grounds, no matter what battery you are coming from, should be common. You don't use any switches to switch grounds.

The positive of your battery runs up to a fuse panel. The wires off the fuse panel, from the individual fuses, then go up to the switches. The negative wire from the battery also goes up to the fuse panel but is connected to a ground bus bar. Grounds that are needed for instruments, lights, etc are connected to this bus bar. Think of the bus bar as the distribution point for individual grounds to everything near the front of your boat.
 

DRIFTER_016

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 5, 2008
Messages
360
Re: buying new rocker switch..Advice needed

Main fuse should be within 12" of the battery.
All grouds attach to a bus bar and to main neg cable back to battery.
Any negs on the switches are to power the lights in the switches i.e. on/off signal and can all be grouped together and hooked to the neg bus bar.
I would go with 10 or 12 guage power and ground wire in your application. It is a little more than you need but leaves room if you want to hook up more accessories, fuse at 30 amps for 10 guage and 20 amps for 12 guage.
The pos of horn and lights go to the switch out put with the negs going to the bus bar.
If the trolling motor is near your deep cycle then you can attach it directly. If the battery is in the rear and the trolling motor is in the bow you will need to run atleast 8 guage power and ground to the battery and install a 50 amp automatic circuit breaker on the pos within 12" of the battery.
The radio can also be hooked direct if you want. Just make sure that all pos connections at the battery are properly fused to avoid problems should any short circuits happen.
 
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