has anyone done a boat rewire?

[bardern]

After checking out the wiring in my 350V it looks like the boat needs a new harness. too many splices and everything is corroded to he**. definitely a fire hazard.

There is a junction (fuse not breaker) box in the aft compartment that is toast. Can I eliminate this and run a fused 6 guage hot wire to a new fuse block at the console and run the boat accessories from this block? I have bought a 12 circuit block that has enough capacity for all the circuits, plus I will get rid of the old glass fuses. I am sure I can run the bilge and livewell pumps et la from this block but what about energizing the gas guage/sender units?

[SwatDawg]

I have re wired 4 boats from bow to transom. There is no easy answer to the best way of doing it. I personal run my hot and grounds to two fuse blocks under the consoles and go from there... I also put on in the bow for 12V stuff up there.... i have always gutted every wire in the boat and ran all new, and i made a legend as im going so if i ever have problems i can go back and look at what color wire does what... good luck with this... dont let all the wires imtimidate you, its not hard.

[Scrapper]

I agree...its not that hard...I rewired ALOT of stuff...lol...few boats...as swatdog said....GUT IT....every wire. Make a legend so you know where it all goes. If it makes sense to you do it. I do alot of my stuff to where it seems logical to me...meaning where things are run, switches I use...etc. I would really think about putting a main switch back in the bilige so you can disconnect everything when you are sitting at home...no point in everything having the ability to short...just a battery disconnect you can get at an auto store. And when you wire in your accessories...make sure you only put the things on that circuit that you want to use when you have that switch on...the last one I did...someone had my nav lights on acc circuit. Well I don't always like to have that circuit on...not that it matters but I put them on a dedicated circuit so they always have juice...also if you think you want say; 8 circuits...get a 10 or 12..always go a little more than you think you'll want...that way you can always expand and dont do the "splices everywhere National Lampoons Vacation" approach..lol. Ask if you have any questions...good luck!

[knowphish]

Make sure you get tinned wire. Go to http://www.bestbostwire.com they have everything. You can also make every wire a different color and that will simplify everything. It's really a piece of cake and an enjoyable experience.

[bardern]

thanks for the pointers Guys. What time frame am I looking at for the entire job. I have even blackmailed a electrician into helping!

[SwatDawg]

If you sit down and drawout a plan, it dont take long... I sit down and figure out every wire I need coming from the bilge up, or back... I then run all of them at once... this way you wot be fighting wires trying to run one.

[bardern]

what do you use to fish the wires through the hull?

[perfect-storm]

Always keep an extra string or wire when pulling a wire through. That way, you will always have an extra snake wire/string to make it easy. If you gut all the old wire first, just leave a wire or two loose in there to tape up to new wires to be pulled and don't forget the extra string with every pull.
Does that sound to confusing

If you don't have anything already run through the side of the boat to use as a pull for the new wire, you will need to borrow an electricians snake and work it through the side to wherever you want the wire to run.

[bardern]

I can't believe that I never thought to use the old wiring as a fish! All I could remember was the pr**k of a time I had running the harness for my FastStrike!