Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

[fastlearner]

My 2006 Sea Ray 185 its moored in seawater 180 days a year, so I thought I'd put a simple battery switch to stop battery from discharging between uses and help reduce passive electrical current that I hear can cause galv. corrosion of the outdrive (the annodes disolve in about 6 months).

My new battery switch directions show hooking the switch to the positive side of the battery. But it seems easier to connect to the negative side, as there are two leads off the positive terminal.

Wouldn't it work just as well switching off the negative cable? I realize my bilge pump will be off, but since it doesn't rain here in socal for 6 months, its not at risk of flooding/sinking. Seems like I need to kill all current to reduce corrosion and stop passive discharge, right?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

You really want to switch the positive side.

Edit: Probably more convention than anything.

 

[Don S]

Re: Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

Positive cables go to the switch
Ground should always be hooked up and connected.Auto bilge pump and float switch go directly to 1 battery. Leaks sink boats more often than rain.


Moving to Electrical, Electronics forum.

 

[fastlearner]

Re: Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

I'm low tech, only have one battery. Guess I'll play it safe and switch the larger positive cable. Thanks!

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

Unless of course you have "European" wiring from LUCAS.
there positive ground.

 

[AGENT 37]

Re: Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

There's a safety factor of hooking up the battery switch to the positive lead; have it as close to your power source as practicable so that in the event of an electrical malfunction (such as a short to ground) you can isolate the power source and prevent a fire or other terrible things. I saw a 21' aluminum skiff that caught on fire because the positive battery lead chaffed through and shorted to the hull of the boat. Mind you this was an all metal boat and it burned to the ground and then it kept on burning. Amazing.

 

[180shabah]

Re: Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

Are you really doing this to protect your annodes??? They are sacrificial, they are supposed to disolve, so your drive doesn't.

Have you done any testing/troubleshooting to determine the source of the "stray current"? While a six month annode life is not ideal, it is not uncommon in some marinas.

 

[180shabah]

Re: Battery Switch - Pos or neg side?

I'm low tech, only have one battery. Guess I'll play it safe and switch the larger positive cable. Thanks!

You still need to run the bilge pump directly to the battery.