wiring

Even-tide · 01-08-2006, 05:26 PM

I was going to rewire the power to my console. the boat came with what looks like 12 awg.( I haven't stripped it out to measure it) I have a 14 foot piece of tinned 10 AWG ...is this enough wire. I have a wiper, sonar, VHF, GPS. I am installing radar when it gets here JRC 1000.
I want to plug a small radio/ cd player to the 12v outlet this summer. adding it all up and adding 5 amps for a safety I get around 20 amps the 10 AWG is good to 20 amp at 15 feet. should i go to 8 AWG.

01-08-2006, 05:29 PM

Don't forget to add in the length of your return (ground) when figuring out the wire needs.

When I replaced the wires on the Striper I went with 3 circuits using 1 8ga and 2 10 gage wires for both hot and ground. This was probably overkill but I wanted separate circuits for the sounders (2) and radios (2).

BTW, Welcome aboard....eh.

BM-FISHER · 01-08-2006, 05:34 PM

Very good point Keta

tracker · 01-08-2006, 05:36 PM

Yes there is a post that I saw that also talked about making the wire bigger than you are talking about. As soon as my garage is done that is the job I will be doing on my striper.

Even-tide · 01-08-2006, 07:19 PM

thanks for the advice, I think I'm going to go with 6 AWG. with a 50 amp fuse.

01-08-2006, 08:20 PM

A fuze is a good thing!

Is the run length and power draw enough to require 6ga? The cost goes up drastically for 8ga and I would think much more for 6ga.

Onokai · 01-08-2006, 08:28 PM

Whatever size you decied put a small curcuit breaker on it to match amp size of wire. I have these mounted in dry space and they work better than fuses. # 8 will do your job- # 6 will fire my electric kiln to 1800 degrees and as noted needs a 50 amp breaker.Keep all connections clean. Good luck. Mark
As noted below these are some of the best(-blue sea systems bus bars)

tomictime · 01-08-2006, 09:31 PM

cool thread. I have redone several circuits on my boat this way - best is to plan entire circuit w current and planned loads, voltage drops (driven by wire L, GU and number of connections). I have had good luck using blue sea systems bus bars. I have the 3 elec riggers on 100A and the main bus to cab fwd is something like 80A. I did buy the ancor battery lug hammer crimper tho...I have a tool addiction..no it's tackle...well, I guess it's both...

JD