Whats the best way to get power to chartploter and vhf radio?

[rbryant1492_mfb]

I need to add my radio and gps to my boat. The guy I got the boat frm had wired the stereo directly to the battery.
Should I wire directly to the battery? Or add a fuse block?
My boat is a 1979 chaparell 187xl.

 

[Sorrento 25]

Re: Whats the best way to get power to chartploter and vhf radio?

If your wiring looked anything like my '88's did you may want to just pull the POS old fuse block and add one of these:

http://bluesea.com/category/5/21/productline/126

They are very inexpensive, and if you rewire from the battery and fuse all your accessories to this new panel you will have a much better electrical system. The main power wire to this panel needs to be fused at the battery too. Calculate the maximum load of the panel with all accessories on and fuse it just above that current level.

But yes any power wire definitely need to be fused as close as possible to the battery, and as close as possible to any distribution block(s) thereafter.

 

[jurgenscraft]

Re: Whats the best way to get power to chartploter and vhf radio?

In my opinion ,the best way to wire up a Chartplotter and Vhf radio, is to have it wired ,fused,directely to their own independent battery marked radio and chart plotter and the rest of the vessels electrics connected to the working battery marked general battery, so that in the event of an emergency you will be able to call the coast gaurd and make your calls, the seperate battery will also eliminate most ignition and motor noise as well as alternator whine,

 

[dingbat]

Re: Whats the best way to get power to chartploter and vhf radio?

I don?t want anything between the power supply and my navigation and communications lifelines. Both the chartplotter and VHF are powered by a dedicated heavy gauge wire run directly to the back-up battery. An in-line fuse is used at the battery connection to protect the circuit from that point forward.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Whats the best way to get power to chartploter and vhf radio?

I would put a dedicated distribution block(with fuses) near the battery with twisted pair power lines running from there to each device to minimize noise on the power lines.