What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

[DjPro]

I am helping my brothers wire there late 80's J/24 sailboat. The boat is equiped with minimal electronics:<br />Running light<br />3 interior lights<br />depth sounder<br />boat speed indicator<br />lighted compass<br />12 volt plug (cigarette lighter type)<br />Mast light<br /><br />The boat has a fuse box switch plate and a ground block plate.<br />What gauge wire do I use from the battery to the fuse box switch plate and from the ground block plate to the battery? The distance is +/- 8' in each direction.<br /><br />Also, my brothers have no way of charging the battery. Any suggestions short of removing the battery?

 

[crab bait]

Re: What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

i'm not quite sure what your askin' in the last part.. <br /><br />but i'd feed both positive & negitive blocks with # 8 wire.. but no less then # 10.. but i'd run # 8..

 

[ThomWV]

Re: What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

Yeah, you don't have any real load there and only a 16 foot round trip. I'd think you could get away with the 8 but I have to tell you, the part that bothers me is that DC cigarette lighter plug. You never know what might get plugged into one of them. I'd probably go with #6 wire myself and then simply attach the battery charger to the lines where they go into the fuse panel and the other lead to where your #6 cable attaches to the negative side buss bar. The #6 might be more than you need to feed the fuse panel but if you are sending power back down it from a smart battery charger when on shore power then the larger wire makes a lot of sense.

 

[DjPro]

Re: What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

The only thing that will be plugged into the lighter plug will be:<br />Cell phone charger<br />1,000,000 light spot light<br />Hand held GPS<br />Hand held VHS radio<br />One at a time, of course...<br /><br />I'm trying to figure out if I can add a high output altenator to their 2000 9.9 HP pull start 4 stroke Yamaha and run a lead back to the battery? Since it it a pull start I don't think it has one from the factory.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

If it was me, I would look into a solar charger for it.

 

[highvoltage]

Re: What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

if u want to run a spot light...u better go with at least #6 wire...,,,i have #4 ....i have seen #6 melt with extended spotlight use !!!

 

[Boatist]

Re: What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

DJpro<br />With what you listed you can get by with 10 guage easy. 10 guage is good for 30 amps and with all listed I dout you go over 12 amps. If you want to have extra capacity for future gear then go with 8 guage. I bet that spot light will only have a 16 or 18 guage cord.<br /><br />Many Yamaha electric starts motors had two charging circuits on them. One for charging the battery and the other for a lighting circuit. The lighting circuit can also be used for charging the battery but you have to add a retifier. I think you can probably add the alternator to the manual start motor. Give you Yamaha dealer a call and they should know. 2004 model has a 6 amp alternator.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: What guage wire from battery to fuse box?

I agree with Boatist. Even 12-14 Ga. would probably do it just to run what you have. You're not trying to start an outboard, just run some small electronics. I just re-wired my Toon from the battery up to the distribution panel for my accessories and used 12 GA and it works fine. They had 14 Ga. going up there originally. Seemed a little on the light side for what I run.