Panel Juice

[Starman8]

Any comments appreciated.

I have my dash broken down(removed). I have tagged my bilge, horn, Nav lights, and courtesy lights. Going to purchase a pre-wired switch panel with adapters to connect it up.

The only 2 gauges I am retaining are the speedo and fuel gauge. Do I add a ground bar for these 2 gauges? I assume yes. If so, do I split the main red and black coming from the house battery to a) power up the gauges, and b)ground them to this bar?

I took pictures of the existing panel wiring after I removed all the discarded items and it was still a nest.

 

[Bwana Don]

Re: Panel Juice

On a tin boat which is conductive you use a two wire system. One red wire going from the battery to the fuse box, one black wire coming off the battery going to the negative junction block (bus bar). You ground everything back to the negative side of the battery, via the negative bus bar.

From here you can draw power from the fuse box to the dash. I jumped from one gage to the next. Low amp draw here, no need for multiple wires. Wire in series, one to the next etc.. Same with the negative, which completes your circiut. From the battery to the battery. Never ground to an aluminum boat.

If you get too technical on electricity I'm goin to refer you to the electrical forum. I am not an electrical expert.

 

[Starman8]

Re: Panel Juice

On the SS, anyone know what the small speaker attached behind the dash panel is? Was it for the horn or engine alarm, or did anyone else evr have the factory installed Lowrance sounder and it is the fish alarm maybe?

 

[dozerII]

Re: Panel Juice

I highly recomend you run a tachometer as well, it is the only way you can make the right choice for props, and is one of the first questions they will ask in the Prop forum.
Glen

 

[GLG fishing]

Re: Panel Juice

On the SS, anyone know what the small speaker attached behind the dash panel is? Was it for the horn or engine alarm, or did anyone else evr have the factory installed Lowrance sounder and it is the fish alarm maybe?

No idea what a speaker would be on a small boat. One thing for sure is that it should go in the scrape pile. All modern equipment like radio and fish finder have built in speakers. You can put an external speaker on a VHF radio but you need a larger boat to even bother.
GLG