Ranger 485V - Rewiring Job

[Soardo]

Hey everyone...as part of my total refurb on my Ranger, I'm cleaning up the battery compartment and other wiring. I thought I'd post my configuration and ask a couple questions to see what I'm missing.

Boat - 1996 Ranger 485V with 2016 Evinrude Etec 175 on Atlas 6" hydraulic jack plate. 24V Minn Kota Fortrex Riptide TM.

Electronics - Three Garmin 7607xsv consoles. GT15 transducer in bilge. GT52 on holeshot plate and on TM. PS31 Panoptix on TM. Garmin Meteor 300 black box stereo. Two Point-1 pucks, one near rear and one near TM.

Batteries - Four AGM batteries. Starting, House, and two for TM. Cranking battery supports pumps, dash and lights. House battery for all electronics.

Charging - I removed my four bank ProMariner Tournament Quad 300 and wall mounted it where the boat is stored to free up some space. I replaced the ring ends of the charger leads with quick connects (same size wiring as charger) and have ring connect to quick connect leads for each battery. I have an AUX charging cable for my engine and can run that second alternator charge to the house battery. I do have a Tournament Saver Elite that I haven't hooked up yet. I would assume this goes to the positive on the starting battery and the negative to the TM battery where the TM negative attaches.

Breakers/Fuses - I will put the starter and house batteries each on their own 100A Blue Sea circuit breaker. The TM on a 60A breaker of same type. The starter and house will each have a Blue Sea 5026 blade fuse block. This model fuse block has both positive and negative buses. I removed the old Ranger fuse box and will reconnect the wire harness (positive) ends to these, with the electronics separated and run to the house with blade fuses versus the inline fuses. I'm not sure what I should be doing with the negatives. All electronics are being run with STP wire and both pos/neg terminated on the house fuse block.

So my questions are:

Grounding - do I need to do anything for the trolling motor side of this? Right now it's completely isolated from the other batteries in a standard 24V wiring format. Does the TS Pro Elite present any concerns here? Similarly the house/electronics battery has no connection to any other grounding or battery negatives other than it's own. Does the starting battery fuse block negative need to be tied to anything or can I just ignore it and leave the existing negative block in place?

Charger - does my charger have any issue with connecting in this scenario? I have tested it outside the boat/other wiring and it functions properly. I assume I'd flip all three breakers off when charging?

Direct wiring - other than the engine and a common negative, what, if anything, should be directly wired to the starting battery? Should I run NMEA power to the starting battery since the gauges (Evinrude I-Command and Icon Pro) are NMEA based?

What have I missed? My primary concern is safety followed by reliable performance.

Thanks!

-G

[CatFan]

There is no ground on a glass boat like you'd see on a vehicle. That's why you have two wires going to everything on the boat for power. Your engine itself has a ground, but that is local.

There is normally no connection between TM batteries and the cranking battery. This can happen inadvertently on a metal hull, but normally not on a glass hull. Your TS however will make such a connection, so like you said, you need to be sure you are on the battery with TM negative. You will probably want to run a jumper between your house battery negative and cranking battery negative if the outboard doesn't already accomplish that with the 2nd charging circuit. This will make sure everything works.

When selecting a breaker, remember that you size it for the wire you have. With a 100A breaker, you need wire, switches, connectors etc. to handle 100A between it and the point of use or the next circuit protection device.

One issue that you'll encounter is that a master switch at the console won't be practical anymore. This could cause you to accidentally leave your electronics on and run the battery down.

[Soardo]

There is no ground on a glass boat like you'd see on a vehicle. That's why you have two wires going to everything on the boat for power. Your engine itself has a ground, but that is local.

There is normally no connection between TM batteries and the cranking battery. This can happen inadvertently on a metal hull, but normally not on a glass hull. Your TS however will make such a connection, so like you said, you need to be sure you are on the battery with TM negative.

Thanks....that's pretty much what I assumed. I have to confirm, but I think all existing negatives run to a bus that connects to the starting battery. I just have to confirm that the only things remaining there are the non-electronic items that are also on the positive side.

[Soardo]

I haven't located it, but I would think the Atlas jackplate has an inline fuse somewhere?