Simple wiring project?

H

hoorenga

New member
Electrical isn't one of my better skills. I'm patient enough to get it done but it's still pretty much a mystery to me how it all works. What I'm doing is replacing the simple wiring in my 16' Angler. Not much to it but I'm already stuck. When I tore the old wires out it looked awful and was a real patch job. One thing that confused me was that all of the negative wires terminated on a fused bus. The positive wires went directly to switches in the dash with no fuses. Is this typical for a marine installation? What confused me even more was that the new bank of fused switches had a common wire that went across all the switches that terminated at one of the mounting screws on the face plate. Why would a positive wire be terminated to a screw that is exposed on the dash where it could be accidentally grounded? Also all of the wires on the switch panel were red going into the fuses and black coming out where they would connect to incoming devices. I'm thinking marine wiring must be reverse of automotive? Black is negative and white is power right? That would explain the main wire on the switch assembly being attached to one of its mounting screws. I bought a simple negative bus with six posts. Should I just reverse everything and use the negative bus as a positive bus and run the negative wires through the fused switches? I'm lost.
 
You clearly have a mess. You will be safest to start all over. First, there needs to be a big 'ol fuse not more than six inches or so away from your battery. Then, the downstream side of that fuse should go to a buss bar with a red wire appropriately sized. on the other side of that buss bar will be screws, each supplying power to one of your devices. Run a red wire from terminal number one to fuse or circuit breaker number one. Out of that circuit breaker run another red wire to...say the depth finder. Repeat for as many devices as you have, appropriately sizing the fuse/circuit breaker.

As for the negative side of the batter. NO fuse in the negative size. Run the negative terminal of the battery to another buss bar. I mean it is literally a bar with a big 'ol terminal for the neg of the battery. And a bunch of screw terminals to run the neg sides....black wires all...of your devices. NO fuse in the negative sides.

In short, all grounds to the common neg battery terminal buss bar.

All positive power from the battery to distribution bar that will have a big ol' screw for the positive lead from downstream of the batter pos big fuse. then smaller screws for each of the pos (red) leads to your devices.

That is the quick and simple for a 16 foot boat. At least, that is what I've done on many boats for decades with no bad results.

If you are doing salt water, be sure to use splices in wires that are sealed with stuff to keep the salt out.

Lots of good sites in the internet with simple to complex wiring schemes. But you won't go too wrong with what I've given you.

Also, tie wire bundles neatly and route them nicely. No birds nests like the one you have when you are done. 5% more time to make it look nice is a good investment.
 
One more thought. If you are also using a switch panel to power your devices. Place the switch downstream...closer to the device input...from the fuse for that particular device.
 
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