Electrical Wiring For My Boat

[SLAYERSHOOKSET]

Hey, everyone. I'm a new member on here who is also a new boat owner. I've built myself a 16 foot aluminum Starcraft fishing boat with great success. However, my knowledge in the electrical department is very poor. I'm now at the stage of needing to wire my 101 lb. bowmount trolling motor, along with my bildge pump, livewell, lights,etc, Any suggestions on where my first step should be? Your input is much appreciated.
Cheers

 

[Grandad]

Welcome to Iboats. This "stickie" would be a good place to start. - Grandad
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...agrams-how-to-s-and-other-helpful-information

 

[HT32BSX115]

Howdy,


Welcome aboard!


Well I would start with a battery suitable to run those items!

Then you'll need to obtain a marine type fuse panel that has enough connection points to power the items you want to operate (lights, bilge pump, etc)

Examples: http://www.iboats.com/Marine-Fuse-B...2843321--session_id.243669972--view_id.216615

You'll also need to decide how you'll want to wire your trolling motor in. It'll take fairly heavy wire. See the following link http://www.minnkotamotors.com/Support/Battery-Selection---Rigging/

You would power the fuse panel with a heavy enough cable to handle ALL the items on the fuse panel. The trolling motor would probably be best directly connected to the battery with it's own fuse or circuit breaker.

If you're going to also have a gasoline powered engine on the boat (and it has a charging system) You'll want to connect it to the battery if it's also your starting battery. If you use a separate battery for your trolling motor, you can use a battery switch or isolator.

Exmaples: http://www.iboats.com/Boat-Battery-...2843321--session_id.243669972--view_id.216584

Isolators can be pretty expensive depending on what you want them to do.

An electrical system can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.



You could also power the trolling motor as one of the "Branch" loads on on the CB/fuse panel but you would need to ensure that BOTH positive and negative feeder wires were heavy enough to handle the total current of ALL the loads. (it would just be easier to power the troller directly from the battery.


Regards,


RIck

 

[gm280]

:welcome: aboard slayershookset. Nice for you to join us...

WOW a 101lbs thrust trolling motor on an aluminum 16' boat. What are you trying to do? You could as easily got by with a 40 to 50 lbs thrust outfit. Why such a large trolling motor? :faint2: I'm sure that trolling motor will take at least 24 volts and that means extra weight... :noidea:

 

[Silvertip]

101# trollers typically are 36 volt motors meaning you need three batteries wired in series. That also means you need a three bank battery charger (four if you want to charge the starting battery as well). Where do you plan on putting four batteries in this boat. There will be no room for you.