Blue Sea ACR Installation Question

[Captain PartyMarty]

I installed a Blue sea ACR system in my boat this week, everything went well until I attempted to fit my new house battery in the spot where Trophy planned to have it. Unfortunate when they installed the steering cable they installed it diagonally across this area and now I can’t fit the battery. (Now I understand why the previous owner had a small motorcycle battery as a house battery).

I found a new spot for the battery mid ship behind the oil tank but I have few concerns about wiring it up front.

For those of you familiar with the Blue Sea ACR you know than each battery has three connections. One negative, one positive that goes to the load and one positive that comes from the fuse after the ACR. In the new location the battery is going to need a 20ft cable to make the correct connections. This means I have to run 3 AWG 4 wires from the ACR installation up to battery which makes a total of 60ft of very expensive wire.

To reduce cost I would like your opinion on if I can combine the two positive cables near the ACR on a bus bar then run one positive up to the battery?

Instead of running the negative all the way to the back of the boat could I simply connect the negative side of the battery to the negative bus bar under the dash?

I am no electrical engineer so I am hoping some of you wire wizards can provide your input

Capt

 

[pescador]

I had questions re my ACR and called their tech desk in Bellingham. They were really fast and helpful.

 

[AlK]

I did not follow the wiring as shown by Blue Sea but wired it as per the attached picture. That way you only need two cables.

 

[staying alive]

I wired mine as per bluesea instructions ,it cost a lot but it all works fine, if you have an electrical background then good on ya for being innovative (magiver) if not sadly sometimes we have to read the instructions

 

[staying alive]

send that diagram to bluesea for a ruling

 

[Sharphooks]

I'm with pescador on this one--call the Bluesea technical guys and be very specific with what you're trying to do and why you're choosing that route,

Here's my set-up:



I installed the whole deal on a piece of starboard that is modular---the entire unit can be removed from the boat in one piece.

I agonized over the fuse issue: I ran out of real estate to put a breaker between the battery terminal and the ACR. Blue Seas insisted that a fuse between the ACR and the battery was critical

I finally solved the problem by installing two of these fuses---they attach direct to the battery terminals themselves:

 

[Sr SQ]

I installed a Blue sea ACR system in my boat this week, everything went well until I attempted to fit my new house battery in the spot where Trophy planned to have it. Unfortunate when they installed the steering cable they installed it diagonally across this area and now I can’t fit the battery. (Now I understand why the previous owner had a small motorcycle battery as a house battery).

I found a new spot for the battery mid ship behind the oil tank but I have few concerns about wiring it up front.

For those of you familiar with the Blue Sea ACR you know than each battery has three connections. One negative, one positive that goes to the load and one positive that comes from the fuse after the ACR. In the new location the battery is going to need a 20ft cable to make the correct connections. This means I have to run 3 AWG 4 wires from the ACR installation up to battery which makes a total of 60ft of very expensive wire.

To reduce cost I would like your opinion on if I can combine the two positive cables near the ACR on a bus bar then run one positive up to the battery?

Instead of running the negative all the way to the back of the boat could I simply connect the negative side of the battery to the negative bus bar under the dash?

I am no electrical engineer so I am hoping some of you wire wizards can provide your input

Capt

Not sure if I am reading your post right but a 60' run will likely need larger than 4awg depending on the load and an acceptable voltage drop?
4awg would only be good for 20-25 amps with and acceptable voltage drop for voltage sensitive electronics, check out this website.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/amps-wire-gauge-d_730.html

 

[sly_karma]

Marty, you can run a single 4 ga from your pos terminal to a post type connector at your hardware location, make sure you have a fuse close to the battery. The terminal ones shown above are fine. Then from the post you can have short runs to switch and ACR.