electronics

[gi joe]

08 DLV 218, This keeps getting worse. There is no extra bus bar or switches behind the instrument panel. I need to wire a compass light, a vhf radio, and a bottom machine. I do not intend to pull more wires. Anybody got any ideas? My last boat had extra bus bars available.

[Shakespeare]

Blue Sea has bussbars, breaker panels, and all sorts of electrical distribution equipment for boat wiring.

See http://bluesea.com/

Their products can be purchased through West Marine and other marine supply stores.

Mike C.

[mbfishing]

I have the Blue Sea 5015, this is the one with the ground bus. I really like the ease of adding electronics or anything that requires power.

[gi joe]

So get a bus block, and pull another hot and ground wire to it?

[Harry]

So get a bus block, and pull another hot and ground wire to it?
yup, did it on my 07 and again on the 08. That's a real nice piece they make and it has the GRD buss too.

Don't forget to fuse the POS wire at the battery.

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

This is what i did with mine
http://www.carolinaskiffowner.com/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=154

[gi joe]

Awesome. I am going to Boaters World in the morning. I guess I will need about #8AWG wire???

[Shakespeare]

Joe,

I believe you'll find that the factory wired the boat for the equiment at hand, with little room for expansion. You're better off pulling a new feeder to supplement your add-ons and/or re-feeding everything in the console.

Got any more questions then fire away... we'll step you through it.

Mike C.

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

Awesome. I am going to Boaters World in the morning. I guess I will need about #8AWG wire???

That is correct.

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

If you are not in super rush try www.bestboatwire.com (http://www.bestboatwire.com) very good prices, i mean VERY good prices.

[bushwacker]

I had to pull a wire just for the GPS unit because any drop in voltage will shut the unit down. I didn't find this out until after I wired it into the back of the panel. Everytime I cranked an engine the Gps would shut off. After calling Garmin and doing more reading in the manuel I ran its own power supply. No problems now. As for the lights on the compass I wired it into the guage light so when I turned them on the compass light also came on. Just crimped a connector on the wire and added it to a guage post and put the nut back on. I always spray some clear electrical coating on all connections to keep them clean and protected from an kind of water. Its like a plastic coating you spray on and let dry. I used this stuff on some trim tabs that I built to see if it would keep them from rusting. They were on that boat for 4 yrs and only rusted when I ran over something and scratched the coating off. Just cleaned that spot and resprayed it again.

[gi joe]

Went to Boaters World and got the Blue Sea fuse block, and some cable. Had to go with # 10 AWG as that was all they had in dual wire cable. I hope that is large enough wire. I don't think that a compass light, vhf, and a bottom machine will pull that much current. Anybody know better? Thanks. By the way, this website is an invaluable resource.

[Shakespeare]

Joe, the 10ga will be more than adequate. If it's marine grade wire rated at 105 deg. C then it's good for 60 amps... but you should not load it more than 80% of it's capacity. None the less it'll handle what you're going to put on it.

See http://bluesea.com/viewresource/529

Mike C.