Wiring a 72 glastron v-hull.

[liquidlabfx]

So. I feel kinda dumb. My main question is. Are things like the horn and headlight switch and main engine harness all grounded at the battery? Obviously an all fiberglass And wood boat.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Yes. Via a ground buss

 

[liquidlabfx]

Well I have a battery kill switch. And a quick connect set up that has one main power wire. One ground. Those "I believe" can go to the switch as well. And coming off the main kill switch is longer positive and negative cables that attach to the battery. I have a 30 amp fuse I. Between that and my only two switches. Light and horn. Nothing else.

 

[Chris1956]

Normally on a boat like yours, you would have a dedicated wire from the battery (fused at 20A or so), plus a dedicated ground wire from the battery to a front fuse strip. The accessory circuits would run from individual fuses to the accessories.

However, I like to run everything thru one HD switch, on the dashboard, so shut off is easy to remember.

 

[liquidlabfx]

Normally on a boat like yours, you would have a dedicated wire from the battery (fused at 20A or so), plus a dedicated ground wire from the battery to a front fuse strip. The accessory circuits would run from individual fuses to the accessories.

However, I like to run everything thru one HD switch, on the dashboard, so shut off is easy to remember.

Yes. Now I have

Normally on a boat like yours, you would have a dedicated wire from the battery (fused at 20A or so), plus a dedicated ground wire from the battery to a front fuse strip. The accessory circuits would run from individual fuses to the accessories.

However, I like to run everything thru one HD switch, on the dashboard, so shut off is easy to remember.

So just so I'm clear. I have my battery. And I have a positive cable and negative cable going to a main shut off switch. Also connected to this main switch is this unit. Which as you can see. Also has a main positive and negative connection as well. Then positive and negative leads coming out. This is were my 30 amp inline fuse is located. Then I have power to my horn switch. And both bow and stern lights. The horn and stern lights are grounded to that main harness. Which in turn. Is again. Grounded to the battery. Hopefully that makes sense. The main "kill switch" is this one also shown.

 

[Chris1956]

If that is the way you want to wire it, that is fine. However, you do not want a 30A fuse going to your lights or other accessories that use a small amount of power, as it is a fire hazard. just so you know, lights are usually 3A or so, radios, fishfinders, GPS are generally 2A or less, a horn will be higher amperage, say 5A.

I also like the convenience of a master switch on the dashboard. I am pretty good at turning the ign switch off, but sometimes I would leave the radio or some other device on. The master switch helps me make sure all is off.

 

[liquidlabfx]

If that is the way you want to wire it, that is fine. However, you do not want a 30A fuse going to your lights or other accessories that use a small amount of power, as it is a fire hazard. just so you know, lights are usually 3A or so, radios, fishfinders, GPS are generally 2A or less, a horn will be higher amperage, say 5A.

I also like the convenience of a master switch on the dashboard. I am pretty good at turning the ign switch off, but sometimes I would leave the radio or some other device on. The master switch helps me make sure all is off.

I actually didn't know exactly what amps to use. But your right. They are low voltage. And I didn't want to chew up the original dash which only has these two switches. It's towards the stern near battery. And fuel tank. I can switch out that fuse no problem.