Common ground for 1992 2002 trophy bayliner

[chromehead]

Question: Is there a common ground on this boat? I can't seem to find it. Very tight spaces.

 

[Silvertip]

The negative terminal on the battery is the "common" ground. Or the engine block depending on how you look at things.

 

[chromehead]

Watching a perko youtube video for 2 battery set up it shows black/neg wires from both batteries and the engine going to a common ground. How would I hook these three neg leads if no common gound "block"?

 

[sam am I]

Usually one black batt cable jumps/connects from batt 1 neg over to batt 2 neg, then another black batt cable jumps/connects from batt 2 neg to the engine block. This series connection, like Silver said above, the two batts neg's and the block is now THE common ground.

Use either neg posts and/or the block as the return for all electrical devices....

Sometime/usually then a heavy'ish gauge (6/8/10 AWG) black wire will tap off this common ground somewhere (neg post on starboard batt on my boat) and will be ran up to the helm's fuse panel common ground buss bar. Use this ground point as well for electrical stuff return's up front.

 

[dingbat]

On mine, both battery ground cables and the engine/starter grounds are tied together at the ground connection on main power switch (on/off/both)

High and dry. All three grounds at a common point with a single pathway to “earth”

 

[sam am I]

at the ground connection on main power switch (on/off/both)”

Ground connection on the main power (on/off/both) switch? I've not seen a ground connection on a on/off/both switch....Hmmm, what type of switch you got?

Chromehead...See below

 

[Scott Danforth]

everything should be run to the engine block or the battery negative terminal.

there may be a ground buss strip at the helm, however that is connected via the harness to the engine block

 

[chromehead]

Thank you. Engine block is THE ground for this boat it seems, and I have this set up. I like running bilge hardwired to house battery although I've never had any water in the bilge and this is a 1992 trophy.

 

[Silvertip]

I'd like to strangle the folks that apply COM to what is the main POSITIVE terminal on those switches. Very easy for a novice to interpret that as NEG or GROUND. It most definitely is not. Think of it as the faucet on your bathroom sink. One knob turns on the hot water and the other turns on the cold. The individual hot, cold, or mix comes out the spout which is COM if you think of it like your switch. In your case, if both POSITIVE connections from the batteries go to the BAT 1 and BAT 2 connections and you flip the switch to ANY position you get one giant spark because you essentially put a direct short across one or both batteries. Re-check your wiring.