Boat wiring

[schmied]

Can anyone tell me the method of grounding for accessories on a 2000 four winns 248 Vista? Thanks.

 

[Rscardina]

Re: Boat wiring

What are you trying to ground?

 

[Lrider]

Re: Boat wiring

Everything technically goes to the ground post of your battery(s) depending on what you are grounding power requirements, distance ect the gage of wire is a significant consideration

However, if you are talking about 120 VAC I don't have a clue

 

[Rscardina]

Re: Boat wiring

Lrider is correct when you are talking 12 Volts. For instances when you have an inverter its a bit different. Inverters take the low voltage and bring it up to 120Volts..

if its just 12 volt accesories then most, black wires will do the trick..but again, you must be sure to add inline fuses in the evnt you take the wrong wire and create a short circuit (fuse blows not the accesory)...

Let me know what you got and ill tell you what you need to do.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Boat wiring

if its just 12 volt accesories then most, black wires will do the trick..but again, you must be sure to add inline fuses in the evnt you take the wrong wire and create a short circuit (fuse blows not the accesory)...
.

Not sure if this is what you are saying but you don't put fuses in the ground leg. Nothing magic about a black wire being ground although it helps identifying them later.

As far as accessories go, you can ground where convenient with the proper size ground wire. Your helm usually can handle 20 to 30 Amps so adding something there is limited by the gauge wire feeding the helm, the circuit breaker feeding it and the total loads you would expect on at one time fed by the helm. If you are adding something very high current, best thing to do is add it near the batteries protected with its own dedicated circuit breaker or fuse. My boat has a nice convenient ground bus bar back near the battery so it isn't necessary to tie directly to a battery terminal.

 

[schmied]

Re: Boat wiring

Actually I just bought this boat and it turns out that many things don't work. I suspect most of them are grounding issues. When testing the voltage I get a low reading when the battaries are fully charged. I was thinking that there maybe a ground loop or something that may need cleaning up. For instance when pushing the horn buttom it takes a while for the horn to come up to full strength. Also the stereo is intermitant. The depth sounder doesn't come on at all. Things like that.

 

[Rscardina]

Re: Boat wiring

bruce I was saying make sure you fuse the accesory in the evnt you pick the wrong wire..not the negative leg.. I guess I wasnt clear.

If your meter is getting lower than normal voltages then I suspect dirty or corroded wiring. sometime you just need to clean them up a bit.

I would trace wires as best you can and see that all contact points are clean. you will have increased resistance in dirt wires and that results in lower voltage.. ohms law..

does the boat have a terminal strip that all is connected to or is it just spliced all over?

 

[Lrider]

Re: Boat wiring

Congratulations on the new boat - Welcome to Iboats - hope you love to read

With a Lot of time and TLC you will be as smart or confused as the rest of us

You might look in
Boat Restoration and Building

 

[brianvolt7]

Re: Boat wiring

You should clean all fuse block terminals and lugs, replace all ring connectors, push connectors and spades at the fuse block (or at least cleam them up). This is a cheap fix to go through all of your connectors and once the fuse block lugs are cleaned up things should start working again. If not repost specifics of what is not working and troubleshoot it one thing at a time.

 

[schmied]

Re: Boat wiring

I guess that is my question. Is there a buss somewhere? It is a 248 Vista and is very difficult to trace anything. I have found a compartment with a wiring harness but it is so tight you can hardly move it. I do suspect carosion and bad grounding. It seems like they let if fill up with water over the winter. Water line marks in all compartments. Would there be a bus near the fusses or behind?

 

[Rscardina]

Re: Boat wiring

brians right.. if you start cleaning up some connectors and replacing the corroded ones you should start seeing good things.. I would add that I typically use dielectric grease on all of my electrical connections. it buys you time from nature doing what it does..

do what is suggested.. you can try taking one accessory at a time and clean up the connections, once its good..move to the next...and so on.

If you had space and extra length in wires you could add a splice strip to re-land the wires on as well..if yours are just wire nutted..

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Boat wiring

You should have a fuse panel up behind your dash somewhere. That is fed by a large ground wire and a large wire that originates at a circuit breaker back at the engine. Attach the ground lead of your meter at the battery( will need to make a long lead) and measure voltage at this fuse panel with no loads and with loads turned on to see if the voltage here is correct. You need that as a starting point before you start checking all the accessories that are connected to the fuse panel.

 

[Rscardina]

Re: Boat wiring

bruce. he should be able to do that right at the fuse panel. anything fused is usually the positve side of the battery.. having said that, if he checks between the positive wire that feeds the panel and the negative or black wire coming from the battery he should see battery voltage.. if not , the problem exists between the panel and the batteries as he already stated he has good power at the batteries (unless i read wrong).

 

[schmied]

Re: Boat wiring

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I will start looking at those things. Thanks again to all.

Schmied

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Boat wiring

having said that, if he checks between the positive wire that feeds the panel and the negative or black wire coming from the battery he should see battery voltage.

That's assuming the ground is good from the battery to the fuse panel. Can't assume that. If you put one lead on the negative lead of the battery and then turn on a load, you can probe the negative bus at the fuse panel. Should be very close to zero volts. If not, there is a resistive connection from the battery to the fuse panel.

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: Boat wiring

Not sure if this is what you are saying but you don't put fuses in the ground leg. Nothing magic about a black wire being ground although it helps identifying them later.

That is true on his boat. However many boats do have a fuses in the ground wires. It really can be a pain. Seems like half the problems occur right at the grounding fuses.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Boat wiring

That is true on his boat. However many boats do have a fuses in the ground wires. It really can be a pain. Seems like half the problems occur right at the grounding fuses.

Never seen fuses on a ground leg. If there are some, they don't come from the factory that way. The reason you don't see that is the wire from the battery or power bus can short to ground and it isn't protected.

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: Boat wiring

All inspected boats that carry more than 6 passengers are required to have the grounds fused. Thousands. They do fuse the hot side also. If you buy a high end item usesd on charter boats it's not unusual to see a fuse on both wires. most just have a block with fuses that looks the same as the hot side. Just 2 times the possibly of trouble.

 

[RickJ6956]

Re: Boat wiring

May I ask which governing body has this requirement? Disconnecting the negative side can cause all kinds of stray-current issues.

 

[brianvolt7]

Re: Boat wiring

Current flows from negative to positive.