Archive for the ‘Panel Rewire’ Category

Manitou Pontoon Boat Wiring

June 10th, 2013 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

I am working on a 2005 22" Manitou Osprey Pro. Is there any source for obtaining a boat wiring diagram for this pontoon?

I just recently purchased this and have been trying to fix some electrical issues. Some are relatively straightforward.

Manitou Pontoon Boat

The pontoon's stereo speaker color codes matched the vendors color codes directly, but the stereo's power hookup did not - both yellow and red leads from the stereo were tied to a the pontoon's solid red wire. There was also a red wire with a yellow tracer in the same (stereo) wiring bundle of the pontoon but it was just clipped. Is one of the these a direct battery connection and the other one an on/accessory connection? The stereo wiring diagram shows two positive connections one labeled battery and the other labeled ignition - I don't want the stereo on all the time. The sun has faded all the indications of position for the ignition switch and all the switch/breaker functions. I don't even know if the ignition switch has an accessory function/position.

I don't know if the 5 function switch panel is a standard wiring. Is there a standard layout for the switches? Since the stereo speakers and power seem to follow the standard color codes for front -rear and power, is it safe to assume all the lights, horn and other accessories follow some standard of wiring? If so what are those standards and where can I find a standard schematic or wiring diagram for those standards?

I can't wait to get out fishing on this pontoon - it has an installation for a trolling motor battery in the console with direct wiring to an outlet mounted at the bow for the trolling motor (no battery installed yet) - there doesn't seem like a way to charge this battery from the engine's alternator/charger. Is there a way to connect this battery to the the engine's alternator but not allow the trolling motor battery to try to start the main engine? I don't what to run the higher gauge wiring for that. I just want to use the trolling motor battery for the trolling motor and accessories when the main engine is not running if that is possible.

I would like to develop a wiring diagram for this pontoon but I would hate to have to start from scratch and trace out the circuits by trail and error.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Hi,

It sounds like a previous owner was doing some wiring modifications. We know the Manitou crew very well, and it is not like them to have hidden wires clipped off in their harnesses.

The key switch accessory position question is based on the brand of the engine on your boat. The easiest way to tell is to turn the key switch. It will either have 3 positions (OFF-ON-START) or 4 position (ACC-OFF-ON-START). If the key has an accessory position, it will have an A or ACC on a tab on back of the key.

There is not a standard layout for the switches on your helm. I would consider calling Manitou in Lansing MI to see if they have replacement panels for your boat that would have the proper labeling for the panels.

Here is the common boat wiring color code used by most OEM boat builders, including Manitou. You should be able to use this to trace down any wires on the boat.

If you want to charge the trolling motor battery while the engine is running, you will need to run some larger wires between the starting battery and the trolling motor battery. This wire size is based on the size of the alternator on your engine. Most VSR smart battery switch systems are capable of handling 125+ amps but the limit is the size of your alternator. If you alternator is less than 20 amp, the VSR is almost a waste of money. You will need to run your outboard at full alternator output for nearly 3 hours to replace what the trolling motor can draw in less than 1 hour.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Batteries, Battery Management, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Lighting, Boat Wiring, Ignition Switch, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Marine Engines, Marine Wiring, Navigation Lights, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats, Trolling Motors, VSR | Comments Off

Bigger Better?

September 20th, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Dear Kevin,

I have a Marinco 12-24/24-36 plug and receptacle installed on my boat for my trolling motor.

I have switched from a 24 volt system to a 36 volt system and noted that two of the four prongs on the male plug are larger than the other two. Marinco trolling motor plug

The trolling motor uses two wires (black and red) for power from the batteries. Should these wires be installed on the two larger prongs, since the 36 volt system will be drawing more current than the 24 volt system. The prongs are labled A+, B+, neg, and NET on the back of the plug.

Thank you for your time.

Arthur

Hi Arthur,

I would use the larger terminals in the plug for your new trolling motor. They have more contact area and will be less likely to get hot during heavy operation.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Thanks Kevin.

That was my thoughts. Nice to have your take.

Arthur

Posted in Batteries, Battery Management, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Wiring, Jon Boats, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Wiring, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats, Trolling Motors, Voltage Drop | Comments Off

Bad Timing

September 20th, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

I am looking for an electrical wiring diagram schematic for 1996 Ebbtide Dynatrack 18.5 foot bass boat…can you assist?Livewell timer

The problem that I’m having is a livewell pump that I can’t shut off without shutting off entire panel.

Any ideas what the problem might be?

Thanks.

Josh

Hi Josh,

I’m sorry, but I do not have a schematic of your boat wiring. In general, boat wiring diagrams are notoriously hard to come by.

As for your problem…

My experience is that the livewell timer circuits go haywire and often cause the problem that you are having.

Your best bet will be to chase the power wire from the pump up to the boat’s switch panel to find the mystery hot wire that is causing the problem.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Accessory Harness, Boat Wiring, Jon Boats, Livewell Pump, Livewell Timer, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Wiring, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats | Comments Off

Backward Boat Wiring?

July 5th, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Hello Kevin,

I am trying to replace the white all-round navigation light on my fishing boat wiring.

My old light had two wires, blue and black which were connected to a black and gray on my boat. My new Attwood light has three wires. One black and 2 red labeled rear and aft. Attwood LED all round white navigation light

How do I wire this?

Thanks,

Tom

Hi Tom,

Connect the black to the black and both reds to the blue.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Kevin

I appreciate your quick response, but I tried that and it didn’t come on.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Is the new light one of the Attwood LED navigation lights?

Thanks

Kevin

Kevin

No, the package doesn’t designate it as led. It’s titled as “Anchor/Stern Light Combination.”

Tom

Hi Tom,

It may be polarity sensitive and your boat may be wired backwards.

Either check the black and blue on your boat with a meter or try hooking up the black on the light to the blue on the boat and the reds on the light to the black on the boat.

Kevin

Posted in Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Lighting, Boat Wiring, Ground issues, LEDs, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Wiring, Navigation Lights, Panel Rewire, Power Boats, Signaling Devices | Comments Off

Boat Wiring Size

April 25th, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

Thank you for your answers to so many electrical questions. I plan to redo my fishing boat wiring and have a couple of questions.

My 1977 18 foot Starcraft has an outboard motor with it’s own circuit and will not be involved in the rewire.

My current marine electrical has a battery in the back of the boat, approximately 16 feet from the fused, marine electrical switch panel.Click to download Kevin's boat wiring size calculator

The old boat wiring is a rat’s nest with each circuit wired individually.

I will be using the standard small boat items: a depth finder, FM radio, bilge pump, navigation lights (bow and stern), gauges and a rear-mounted gas tank.

I would like to run a duplex cable from the rear battery to the switch panel. The total duplex run would be 32 feet and the total amp draw should be no more than 30.

I think I need a 10 AWG duplex cable for the 30 foot run and 16 AWG boat wiring for leads from the switches to the instruments (+) and bus bars (-)?

Does this sound right?

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Teddy

Hi Tom,

I would recommend using my boat wiring size calculator to answer your wire size questions.

  • Leave the voltage drop percentages in column B and G alone.
  • Enter the current draw of you switch panel devices in column C and H.
  • Enter you total wire length run in inches for each device (switch to device and back to ground) in column D and I
  • Enter your total wire length run in inches for the panel feed (battery to panel and back to battery) in cell 25D – 384 is your guess.
  • Your wire sizes will be in Column E and J.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Kevin

Posted in Bilge Pump, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Lighting, Boat Wire, Boat Wiring, Bus Bar, Engine Harness, Gauge Panels, Livewell Pump, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Engines, Marine Wire, Navigation Lights, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats, Pumps, Radio, Switch Panels, Voltage Drop, Wire Size | Comments Off

Navigation Light Short

April 9th, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Hey Kevin,Attwood is the world's top manufacturer of navigation lights for marine electrical.

I just bought a 1987 Fisher bass boat with a 1989 110 hp Johnson outboard.

The boat navigation lights had been removed but the light wiring was still running up to the front of the boat. I bought a new Attwood LED navigation light and connected it (pretty sure I did it right) but the navigation light will not work. The white all round anchor light does work when I turn the switch to just anchor lighting and navigation lighting.

I followed the boat wiring for the lights and found that the negative wire was tied into the main negative wire going directly to the boat battery (this was connected). After those two wires meet, it appears the wiring coming from the two is supposed to be connected to a fuse but it was not.

There were two fuses open, a 20 amp and a 10 amp. As soon as I connected it to the 20 amp, the fuse blew. There was a spark when I connected it. I have no clue where to go from here.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Tommy

Hi Tommy,

It sounds like there is a short in your marine electrical between the fuse and the light.

You can either try to trace down the short or replace the wire. Sometimes it is much easier to replace marine wiring than to find the problem. Make sure to use circuit protection at the power source to protect the wire if a short happens again.

Happy wiring,

Kevin

Posted in Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Wire, Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Cruisers, Ground issues, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Wire, Marine Wiring, Navigation Lights, Outboard Engines, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats, Signaling Devices, Switch Panels, Testing, Voltmeter | Comments Off

Wellcraft Wiring

April 3rd, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Hi Kevin,

I’m considering a total redo of the marine electrical on my 1984 23ft Wellcraft Sportsman Walkaround.

I have a 200hp Mercury and the engine harness is fine as is the boat battery wiring and the switch wiring.

What I need to rewire is my navigation lights front and rear, anchor light, the two bilge pumps front and rear (with the option of adding one more in the rear) and docking lights also adding a few underwater lights on the transom. I also have a horn, washdown pump and trim tabs. I have one furuno 620 and two gps setups.Wellcraft Sportsman

What I want to know is if I order a boat wiring harness and switch harness from your sister marine electrical site, EzAcDc, will they cover everything I need? If not any help you could offer would be great.

Thank you

Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for considering some of the parts on our retail boat wiring site.

Our boat wiring harnesses contain wiring for an automatic bilge pump, a livewell pump, courtesy lights, navigation lights, docking lights, and a boat horn.

When combined with our switch panels, it is simple to connect additional electronics like your Furuno and your GPSs. Additional bilge pump wiring can be run from the pump to the switch panel.

We offer several boat battery switch systems to fit your needs. Our most popular is the smart marine battery switch system. Your 200 HP Merc will work great with this system.

Hope this helps. Thanks again.

Kevin

Posted in Batteries, Battery Management, Bilge Pump, Boat Battery Switches, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Lighting, Boat Wire, Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Engine Harness, GPS, Horns, LEDs, Livewell Pump, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Engines, Marine Wire, Marine Wiring, Navigation Lights, Outboard Engines, Panel Rewire, Power Boats, Pumps, Smart Battery Switch, Switch Panels, VSR | Comments Off

Bot Buddies

April 1st, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Dear Kevin,

Last summer, I purchased a new aluminum fishing boat. It’s great, but I screwed up by “cheaping out” at the last minute. I passed on the trolling motor package and – as you’ve probably guessed – now want to add a trolling motor.

As a long time reader, I know that you are a big fan of Motorguide trolling motors and I’ll be buying one in the next couple weeks. My question concerns the boat wiring.

The Motorguide will be bow mounted, but since I didn’t get the trolling package, the only wire at the bow is a 16 gauge pair for the Attwood LED navigation light. But, according to your boat wiring size calculator, the trolling motor should be wired with 6 gauge.

Is there any way to make the smaller wire work? I hate to start rewiring a brand new boat if I can avoid it.

Thanks.

Sean

Hi Sean,

Since your boat is new, you may be in luck. A lot of boat builders now use Ancor’s new Nanotech Wire. As you’d guess from the name, it uses nanotechnology to solve problems just like yours.

Simply put, Nanotech Wire matches wire size to power demand by moving copper to where it is most needed – sort of a Viagra for marine electrical.

In the past, running a trolling motor on undersized wire caused voltage drops, heat buildup and embarrassing insurance claims. But now, that same temperature increase signals Nanotech Wire to deploy an army of nanobots who quickly rebuild the harness to match the power demand. While at work, these little guys make the wire looks like a python that swallowed a large rat.

Once your harness is properly sized, the same bots then go to work on its insulation so that it correctly corresponds to standard boat wiring colors.

The patented process is called Nanotech Overload Sensing Heat Induced Tranference and it works great. The only time I’ve seen it fail is when there are so many accessories turned on that there is no extra copper available. If this happens a lot, I usually recommend the addition of a copper reservoir to supply additional material as needed.

Have an excellent day.

Kevin

Posted in AC Wiring, Accessory Harness, Batteries, Battery Management, Bilge Pump, Blowers, Boat Battery Switches, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Lighting, Boat Wire, Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Corrosion, Cruisers, Engine Harness, Galley, Galvanic Corrosion, Galvanic Isolator, Gauge Panels, Horns, Jon Boats, LEDs, Livewell Pump, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Engines, Marine Wire, Marine Wiring, Multimeter, Navigation Lights, New Products, Ohmmeter, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats, Pumps, Radio, Refrigerator, Sailboats, Shore Power, Shorepower, Signaling Devices, Switch Panels, Testing, Trolling Motors, Wire Size | Comments Off

Six into Eight?

March 19th, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

According to your marine wire size calculator, I should be using 6AWG tinned boat wiring on my new Motorguide trolling motor.

After running the boat wire, I found that the Marinco trolling motor connector can’t handle any wire larger than 8 gauge. Marinco makes an a adapter, but where the plug is installed, there is no room for it.BEP is one of the world's top suppliers of marine electrical components for boat wiring

Can I splice a short piece of 8 gauge wire on the end of my wiring run to connect to my trolling plug?

Maurice

Hi Maurice,

The 6 AWG marine wire was required to reduce voltage drop in the system. If the run would have been short, 8 AWG would have been acceptable.

With this in mind, then it is acceptable to run a short section of 8 AWG to a junction block and then connect both sets of wires to the studs. This is a common marine electrical practice.

Good luck,

Kevin

Posted in Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Wire, Boat Wiring, Bus Bar, Ground issues, Marine Electric, Marine Electrical, Marine Wire, Marine Wiring, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats, Trolling Motors, Voltage Drop, Wire Size | Comments Off

Manual switch on automatic system?

March 6th, 2012 by Kevin Hannula

Hi Kevin,

I have a few questions about the Smart Boat Battery Switch that you designed for EzAcDc Marine Electrical.EzAcDc offers a complete automatic smart boat battery switch. It makes your boat battery wiring job easy.

Basically I would like to set up my boat battery wiring so that my motor is on a cranking battery with just a fishfinder – I troll a lot – and then the rest of my house accessories (bilge pump, radio etc) on a deep cycle battery with the ability to hook up a solar charger through the 12 volt receptacle.

Can the boat battery switch be turned to another selection while on the run, i.e., from on to combine or vice versa? Can the switch work between a cranking battery and a deep cycle? If the switch is left on at a marina could a solar charger be hooked up without interference from the system.

Any other suggestions or am I on the right track?

Cheers,

Randy

HI Randy,

While in the run, the marine battery switch can be turned from the ON to the COMBINE and back but not to the OFF. As long as the batteries are the same basic chemistry (lead acid, AGM, Gel) you can make any combination.

You can either leave the switch in the ON position or the COMBINE to allow the solar charger to charge the system while you are away.

Keep in mind that when the in the COMBINE position, the batteries are mechanically paralleled together. They will charge and discharge as one big battery.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Batteries, Battery Chargers, Battery Management, Boat Battery Switches, Boat Battery Wiring, Boat Wiring, Marine Electrical, Panel Rewire, Pontoons, Power Boats, Sailboats, Smart Battery Switch, Solar Power, Trolling Motors | Comments Off
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