crashnburn63
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2008
- Messages
- 30
This is a similar question to one that was posted about using jumper cables...
My situation is that I've got a little 14 foot al. boat with 10hp, electric start Merc. I would like to have the battery all the way up front, but the cables on the motor would only reach about 6 ft. So I said to myself, "small electric starting motor, amp draw can't be very high, so probably ok to have 12 feet of 8 gauge cable between the battery and the starter motor".
But my issue is to how to safely connect the two sets of cables. I want to be able to run the cables in the bottom of the boat (ahem, the bilge, such as it is) under the floorboards. That means that the connection is likely to get submersed in a bit of salt water... Sounds like a good way to create a spectacular short circuit to me. One option would be to cut off the existing connectors on the cable from the motor, and solder the wires together and cover with heat shrink. That would probably be water tight. But has anyone tried just connecting them by using a bolt and nut thru the "O leads" and just slobbering vinyl caulking over the mess and wrapping with electrical tape? Or is there a more elegant solution?
Thanks,
-dm
My situation is that I've got a little 14 foot al. boat with 10hp, electric start Merc. I would like to have the battery all the way up front, but the cables on the motor would only reach about 6 ft. So I said to myself, "small electric starting motor, amp draw can't be very high, so probably ok to have 12 feet of 8 gauge cable between the battery and the starter motor".
But my issue is to how to safely connect the two sets of cables. I want to be able to run the cables in the bottom of the boat (ahem, the bilge, such as it is) under the floorboards. That means that the connection is likely to get submersed in a bit of salt water... Sounds like a good way to create a spectacular short circuit to me. One option would be to cut off the existing connectors on the cable from the motor, and solder the wires together and cover with heat shrink. That would probably be water tight. But has anyone tried just connecting them by using a bolt and nut thru the "O leads" and just slobbering vinyl caulking over the mess and wrapping with electrical tape? Or is there a more elegant solution?
Thanks,
-dm