Power management on open inflatable

[jondavies]

I have a 15' inflatable with tiller steering (no center console). I'm running a fishfinder/GPS and a fixed VHF radio (both mounted on the transom). Up until now, I've wired these units directly to the battery with inline fuses and wrapped the wiring together with electrical tape. It's pretty crude but seems to work fairly well at the moment. However, I'm concerned that this set up will fail at some point -- probably at the least convenient moment.

I'm wondering if it's worth rigging a more professional power distribution set-up for my boat. With this in mind, I bought one of these DC panels at West Marine:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...toreNum=50523&subdeptNum=50549&classNum=50552

I'm thinking of mounting this panel somewhere on the transom in a small plastic project box that I picked up at a local electrical supply store. Obviously, since the boat is open, the panel will be exposed to the elements so I'll have to waterproof the box.

Can you think of a better solution for power distribution in an open boat environment?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[sutor623]

Re: Power management on open inflatable

I did the same thing, except I bought a project box, and put my own switches in it. They are weatherproof switches and the box was insulated with weatherstripping. I can post pix once I get home.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Power management on open inflatable

Each of your devices has its own power switch so adding a switch panel gained you nothing. You have in-line fuses so again, the switch panel gained you nothing except appearance and convenience. You still have two power wires going to each device so adding those to the panel rather than the battery provided no advantage either. You still must run two wires from the battery to the panel so you've actually increased complexity and potential points of failure rather than reducing them. What you had was perfectly acceptable. The switch panel allows adding more accessories that actually need a switch (such as NAV lights for night operation). If you go to a boat dealer and look at tiller steered boats you will generally see a weather protected panel mounted to the port side of the boat. A seaparate fuse panel or a panel similar to what you have with integrated fuses or breakers is mounted in an enclosure with a clear or smoked platic lid that hinged for access to switches and instruments.