Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

[Racingman24]

I'm getting to the point of putting things back in the boat...FINALLY...and I know that I should run conduit under the floor to make running all the wires easier.

The boat in question is an older Alumacraft, 87 to be precise. And there is no space on the side of the boat to conceal the wires, so I have to run them under the floor. Ok, so I don't have to, but I want to.

All the wiring was run just on the side of the boat, before, and it looked like hell. And most of it didn't work. So ALL of the old wire got scrapped and all new will be run.

The boat has a right side steering console, and rear battery. There will be a main power and ground lead from the battery up to bus bars up under the console. Then disbursement from there.

What I'm wondering is, should I just run 2 conduits, one from the console to the rear, and one from the console to the front? Or should I try to add things in somewhere along the way.

There will be a fair amount of new wiring that I'll be adding, as there never was a stereo, and I'll be adding one. There was never a bilge, and there will be now, there was no courtesy lights and I'll be adding them.

So as you can see there will be a fair amount of wiring that's gonna be added. So I need to know the best way for going about it.

If anyone has any pics or any advice to lend me that would be great!

 

[rirory]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

1st----Make sure your battery is powerful enough and a good reserve capacity to power all your stuff.

There are many neat ways to do it. If you have open sides, home depot sells 8' x 4'' square pvc hollow fence posts. They are very light($ 20) . you can easily cut it with a jigsaw or skill saw. For my application, i cut the top down to 2 ", then i cut the side against the boat off but left a 3/4'' lip to hold the wires in. It was bolted from the top of the 2'' gunnels. this system fit perfectly in my last project and the wires were easy to get to and the brilliant white square tube looked great.

When i run them under the floor, i use 3'' pvc pipe to run the wires in( drain pipe is lighter, do not use SCH 40--it is too heavy). i usually pour foam the pipe in place in 2 or 3 spots, as i don't like pour foam in tinnies except for small applications.

just a couple of ideas that have worked for me.

good luck

ri rory

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

Race,

The electrical/electronics/trolling forum has good info as well. They also have some example wiring diagrams.

 

[jonesg]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

Go big on the tube, besides all the other stuff you need to get the canon plug for the ignition through there.

I installed a secomnd battery under the console for all the house applications(lights, guages, GPS etc), the rear battery is engine only.

 

[Racingman24]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

rirory,

The battery will be plenty good, it will most likely be put on the charger whenever I come off the lake.

Do you have any pics of what you did on the side...or any pics of PVC under the floor?

I most likely will be running them under the floor, but maybe if it looks good enough on the side I might do that.


Greg,

I'm not overly concerned about wire color and connections right now, as I know how I'm going to do that, just wondering if anyone took any pics on running the conduit, or pvc or whatever you wanna call it.

jonesg,

Do you have any pics of what you did? I probably won't run a second battery, unless it's for a trolling motor. And the stuff I'll be running won't be anymore than a modern boat runs...probably even less still.

And I won't have to run the starter wires under the floor, as sadly I can't. The switch is in with the throttle assembly and therefore I have to run at least that on the side of the boat along with the steering cable and throttle.


Here's a rough MS Paint drawing of what I want to do and where I want to put all the stuff

So.....Anyone have any more ideas or pics given what I drew up here?

 

[Biged007]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

I'm sorry I don't have any pics but here's a thought on the (control) and what I did for a friends tinny
Okay I'll try to describe this as well as possible without typing a book. Home depot and or Lowes sell pvc wire mold take some time and look you will see they have what they call 11/2" double deep It's primarily used in commercial office buildings where the walls are cement and or block. get enough inc. the right amt. splice blocks. okay now how I did it was to glue the (channel) into place using automotive trim adhesive and clamps when it was dry I simply loaded the all the crap into it now for the (cap) I put it on heating it with a blow dryer as I went to heat set the curve of the hull and the put it down perm. with a few clear silicone tacks I will say the channel at the curve does get a little distorted not bad mind you but it makes the cap a little tricky thus the silicone. and using Krylon plastic painted it to match.Nice thing is repair or the addition of wires is as simple as pulling the cap and putting it back
just another option

 

[Racingman24]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

Hate to say this, but I don't think I understood a word of what you just said.

Pics. Or rather.... Pics?

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

Hello Racingman..

You dont show were your "fuse block" would be.. You do plan on having a fuse block for added features right ?

Your Bilge pump..is that on a float switch .. with or without a momentary switch in line ? ( so you can actuate when you want ).

You really need to put a fuse block in ( for your music and extras ). That should be accessible..

Your wiring..well now that would be dependant on How your going to set up.. If going from a fuse/bus then how to you channel your speakers under your floor? or your bilge ? or your .. etc.. ? ..

Your first thought should be your buss/fuse/breaker bar.. you power that first..then run lines under/over/behind.. or what suits you..

You dont have to have Conduit to run wires..just make sure they are one wire to the other contact of Whatever your trying to power up ( some cases might include water resistant boxes ).

Of cource you dont want to pull so tight to expose the outer "sheathing" of wires.. nor put them in a position where they can chafe through.. ..

YD.

 

[Racingman24]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

Hello Racingman..

You dont show were your "fuse block" would be.. You do plan on having a fuse block for added features right ?

Your Bilge pump..is that on a float switch .. with or without a momentary switch in line ? ( so you can actuate when you want ).

You really need to put a fuse block in ( for your music and extras ). That should be accessible..

Your wiring..well now that would be dependant on How your going to set up.. If going from a fuse/bus then how to you channel your speakers under your floor? or your bilge ? or your .. etc.. ? ..

Your first thought should be your buss/fuse/breaker bar.. you power that first..then run lines under/over/behind.. or what suits you..

You dont have to have Conduit to run wires..just make sure they are one wire to the other contact of Whatever your trying to power up ( some cases might include water resistant boxes ).

Of cource you dont want to pull so tight to expose the outer "sheathing" of wires.. nor put them in a position where they can chafe through.. ..

YD.

Dr,

The fuse block will be on the back side of the console. Sorry I didn't mention that. And the bilge will be run only by switch on the console. I'm pretty conscious of water back there as up til now I had a bit of a leak, so I always kept an eye on it. That, and I don't exactly trust float switches, My old man ended up with a flooded basement because of a failed float.

Anyways, the reason I want to run conduit under the floor is to make it that much easier to run the wiring once the floor is in. I know that it's going to be more difficult than just running it on the side, but I want it to look nice, and running a big loom of wires down the sides of the boat is not what I want to look at.

And the way I'm going to run it, is from the battery, to a bus bar, through a fuse, to the switch and then on to whatever it's going to be powering.

Again, I know how I'm going to wire each individual circuit and component, I just want to know if anyone has any good ideas on the best way to get from here to there and how to conceal it.

Right now, the best way I see is to run 2 conduits, one from the back to the console, and one from the console to the front. That should allow me to run everything I need under the floors, concealed, and protected and should all look good and function, but was just looking for other/better ideas.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Anyone have pics of how you ran wiring?

I cant myself see any other way to conceal the wiring other then what you want to do..

Use PVC.

When mounting your pvc .. run some leading wire through so you can fish your wireing through..

only way I can see this ...

YD.