[Public-List] Re-wiring

[David Terrell]

I rewired my boat and found the process one I could handle easily. I did 
not come with a mechanical background, but have learned a lot with the 
alberg. When I first purchased the boat, I installed DC and AC  and this 
year anew engine harness I followed Moyer's directions but did not 
purchase thier wire kit. I think that was probably a good decision. For 
all the projects, I just read the directions and followed them and took 
my time making sure I knew what I was doing. This year I added an AC 
connection for the computer. Initially, I used soldered connections but 
have since decided that crimped connections are better. One think I 
found helpful was that after I had removed the old wiring, the boat was 
wide open for the new wiring. The one thing that I would improve if I 
could was the level of neatness at the DC Panel. I redid it this winter 
when I replaced the engine harness, and it is neater than it was, but 
there is still room for improvement there. Part of the problem is that I 
have a large DC panel and that makes it harder to get a result like the 
ones shown in the sailing magazines. I think doing the circuits one at a 
time as suggested would help a lot. Based on my experience, the 
suggestions have been outstanding.

Having done this job on two boats, my bottom line is that you can almost 
certainly do this  yourself if you follow the directions and go slowly. 
Keep the 6K in your pocket.

David, 432


On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 2:07 PM, Robert Kirk wrote:

> At 11:23 PM 10/3/2010, gregr at nethere.com wrote:
>> ...
>> 1. Ancor has charts for figuring out what size of wire to use for 
>> each run.
>> DO NOT guess how long the run is; you will be wrong. Run a fish tape 
>> or
>> test wire and measure it. A run is measured from the battery, to the
>> breaker panel, out to the device, back to the panel, and finally, 
>> back to
>> the battery...
>
> I wouldn't worry about sizing the wire. When you do the measuring & 
> calculations, you'll usually come up with answers of #14, 16, or 18 
> wire. In which case, you can simplify the logistics & possible 
> confusion by wiring everything in #14 and by bypassing the possibly 
> wrong calculations. The extra weight of wire will not sink your boat 
> and you'll wind up with a good conservative wiring job.
>
> I once took a wiring class from a master electrician. He said he used 
> only 4" deep boxes with appropriate plaster covers for every fixture 
> when he wired a new house -  no special switch boxes, junctions, etc. 
> It cost him a little more, but he made it up in inventory simplicity & 
> time savings. I should think the same thought applies to boat wiring.
>
> Bob Kirk
> Isobar #181
>
>
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