small Lund boat wiring help

[bweese]

I'm wiring up my 16' Lund, and I need some help.
First off, where in the Lower Mainland, can I find marine wiring supplies? 6 gauge wire, 10 gauge wire, connectors, ATC fuses, Blue Sea fuse block, etc?
And what are your thoughts on 10 gauge wire for down riggers? The plugs will be about four feet from the fuse block, so an 8 foot round trip.
The fuse block will be hooked up to the battery with 6 gauge wire, and will be mounted less than a foot from the battery.
Thinking about just a plain-jane flooded 27 group deep cycle battery. It's only for two Scotty DRs and a fishfinder/chartplotter unit.
The motor, a 30 HP E-tec, is a rope start not electric start, but I have the charging kit for it, so the alternator will be charging up the battery.
Thoughts?

 

[Fish Assassin]

You can wire that boat with 10/2 all round and never have any problems cause if the distances your running . I ran 8/2 in a 34 ft circuit to my main panel. 6awg would really be over kill.

 

[daddystoy]

Steveston Marine has all the supplies you are looking for. They have stores in Steveston, Vancouver and Langley. 10 gauge wire for your downriggers are fine. You can buy a 10 gauge wire that comes in a pair. i.e, red/yellow-makes for a neat and tidy job. 6 gauge to your fuse block will be fine. Larger gauge wire never hurts. 6 gauge is still reasonably flexible and easy to work with and bend.

 

[the fog ducker]

http://www.rpelectronics.com Most wiring and all connectors blocks etc , way cheaper

http://www.polarbattery.com/offer/battery-lines/ Great prices , and lots of misc gadgets , great guys

My experience , on short runs of 4-5 feet to ur riggers , 12/2 is all ya need , I've ran 10/2 on one side , 12/2 on the other , on both my 16 foot tinny's , zero performance diff , as far as running a wire up front , what 6 -8 feet away ? # 6 is over kill for a couple electronic loads ? Radio running light pump , sonar ?? They all draw squat , a voltage drop calculation on that short run, the voltage drop is zero , again 12/2 is more than enuff , My boats run flawlessly , pm me if ya have any concerns , Been in the buss for over 20 years

Felix

 

[sly_karma]

I get my parts from an old school truck electrical shop, guy has been supplying logging trucks for 35 years and really knows his stuff. He impressed on me the importance of connections, his mantra is "crimp, solder, heat shrink" - in that order, every connection. Off road trucks are subject to comparable conditions as boats inasfar as vibration and wet conditions are concerned, I take this as valid advice.

We're not talking big price tag items here. If you're not sure on all the details, I suggest you go to a specialist store like the one in Steveston mentioned above, and consider the slightly higher price fair exchange for knowledge and experience. You can save some money buying online if you know exactly what you're looking for, but the savings vaporise if you end up with the wrong stuff.

 

[Wyrguy]

I'm going to say that's all great advice above, but I'm going to respectfully disagree with one point that FogDucker Felix made
Volt drop IS important, especially with a 12 volt system. The benefits of a slightly larger wire size far outweigh the minimal difference in costs. Modern electronics rely on a constant and clean voltage supply to work properly.
Here's a quick screen shot of a Volt Drop app I use:

The ABYC standards for boat wiring (not a 'required' standard, but really good to follow IMO) states that on any panel feed, no more than a 3% VD.
It doesn't take very much to get to 3% drop and if you've maxed out your wire ampacity or distance of the run to just squeak under the 3%, adding or changing something can make a big difference to how things operate (or not operate!) Also one poorly made or loose connection can also add to that problem.

Another item I'll add, don't forget the proper sized fuse in the correct location. Any leads (except for motor starting circuits) coming off a battery must have a fuse. Blue Sea makes a good, easy to install one (MRBF holder) and they've just come out with a small (4 cct?) fuse distribution that mount right to the battery post.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/5024/ST-Blade_Battery_Terminal_Mount_Fuse_Block_Kit

Use the correct adhesive lined heat shrink terminals crimped with the proper crimp tool and you'll never have any problems.

Soldering isn't a recommended practice as it tends to 'harden' the finely stranded marine rated tinned wire and can make the connections brittle and break off. Also, automotive wires are actually a smaller physical size (ie #10 SAE vs #10 AWG) than the marine wire.

Get a good wire stripper too...

Just my $0.02 worth... After almost 50 yrs in the trade.

Rick

PM's are welcomed for any help or advice


Reluctantly sent from my iPhoney using this crappy Tapatalk app...

 

[Troller]

http://www.rpelectronics.com Most wiring and all connectors blocks etc , way cheaper

I would not recommend buying wire for marine applications from RP Electronics. The wire they stock is for general use and is not tinned. You should use tinned copper wire only to prevent oxidation in a marine environment. You can also buy tinned wire at Poco Marine in Port Coquitlam - http://www.pocomarine.com/

 

[the fog ducker]

thats a pretty fancy app you have there lol ,
i used the calc outta my electrical code book that i use daily...
all due respect , your theory all sounds great ......but
ive taken my fluke meter directly to the battery , then to the connector of both downriggers, on my tinny
as i stated , zero voltage drop ,were talkin about a 14 -16 tinny lol , i also have a 3rd rigger mount for the Ace Puller ,
even further past both riggers , also ran a 12/2 20 amp
, it had a .1 volt drop in total , so 11.9 volt in theory , thats squat , if i havent pulled a thousand traps in my klamath
over the past 5 years , out west in nasty wet environment , not a single glitch , and HEAVY traps ,
as far as the electronics go , thats just not true , ive had my electronics run with no issues on almost dead batteries on the end of a trip ,
under 11 volts , on both lcx and hd units , ive got hundreds of hours on that boat , no issues , anyone out west knows the crap i put that boat through ,

( the factory conductor on a hp is only a 15 amp conductor im pretty sure i read ,correct me if im wrong...its 4 feet long ??? )

my larger boat on the other hand , thats a diff story , everything in that boat is oversized , 100 amp feeder to my main up front and
distributed accordingly , all riggers and pullers are in 30 amp , major electronics , and a thirsty 1500 watts of amplifiers , media...

i transfer the riggers and puller to my big boat in the summer , there is ZERO drop in power or speed of my riggers on all boats ,

just trying ta save ya a few bucks is all , rp has a great selection of wire gadgets ,
i dont have tin wire both winter boats , all sj stranded cab tire , (quality black ext cord copper wire) no corrosion or issues ,
my larger 60 amp and 100 amp from polar battery on the Striper
i use white lightning lithium grease on all my connections , Bobs ur uncle ,,, zero corrosion

anyone that knows my boats , knows how immaculate my wiring is ,
and put to the toughest nasty weather conditions !!

m2b , hands on experience , hope 1 or 2 of ya can use this

funny how every time i post a hands on experience , some one has somthing negative ta say ,
no wonder alot the good guys have left here ,

think I'll stick ta fishin , leave this crap for the desktop fisherman....



gd lk....im out

fd

 

[bweese]

Great advice, all.
Thanks for the input.
I installed a Blue Sea fuse block with negative bus today on the Lund. Looks good. Hopefully I did it right, and it won't melt the aluminum this weekend!
I used 8 gauge wire between the fuse block and the battery. The run is 6 inches.
I appreciate all of your input. It's sometimes not easy asking for advice, but I know there are a lot of people here with a wealth of knowledge to share ... even if they disagree with each other from time to time.