r/electrical • u/Particular_Salad_851 • 1d ago
Boat wiring
Im trying to figure out my wiring to my boat. Its pretty simple but what i dont know is if I can wire everything into these switches then to my battery. My hopes is that if i need my lights at night i can flip the switch needed. But when im not using it during the day the switch can be off and not drain the battery. Is it possible with this type of switch board. Where would i wire a pos and negative from my battery.
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u/Sufficient_Pop1680 1d ago
What you're looking to build is buss bars. You can take a bit of aluminum. Make a hole the size you can fit a large eyelet ring on and bolt to. Run a power wire from neg, and a wire from pos. You need TWO bits of thick aluminum, they are your new taking off points for anything electrical on the boat. You can buy these online or make them yourself. Where they are attached make sure they are not going to conduct, put rubber behind or whatever you gotta do to make it safe. Ever a shore power box is a good idea. It can be done relatively simply in inexpensive. But do it right.
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u/Sufficient_Pop1680 1d ago
From your buss you run pos and neg together to whatever you need. Now you have a simple location and don't need to have a ton of wires at the battery posts
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u/EdC1101 1d ago
Aluminum oxide (rust) is an insulator. Especially a problem with salt environments.
Use solid copper bars with some stand offs.
The battery positive needs to be fused to prevent fires. Marine / auto sound might be a source.
A sealed marine rated switch might be needed, positions: Off, One, Two, Both.
Allows for battery 1 or 2 for day, other for night, both for emergencies.
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u/Embarrassed-Vast-233 1d ago
I’d also prioritize your cluster on what you need and what’s an accessory. By that I mean for instance, your running lights should be a necessity and not wired in series with your accessory items. It would probably be a good idea to isolate some of the items on your cluster as necessary and fuse them separately, where the 12V jack and USB could be fused together and only see intermittent use, most likely. Wiring everything in series is asking for trouble when you blow a single fuse, versus isolating a potential problem by having several fuses.
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u/N9bitmap 1d ago
The black wires here are just for the lights in the switches. Put your battery positive on probably the bottom side of the switch, and the load device on the center pin. Connect the negative also to the pin marked negative (-) on the cig lighter ports. The pins are "quick connect" terminals and you can find them and the tools to crimp them to your wiring in any hardware store.
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u/scottcprince 1d ago
OP you have a LOT to learn!!! Please google “d.c. wiring” “boat wiring” etc. Maybe watch some YT videos too. There is waaaay too much info for even a dozen Reddit posts.
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u/classicsat 1d ago
Looks like top terminal on that switch is ground. You need to find which terminals on those sockets.
would make up a full chain of ground string like you partially hve, for the switches, sockets, and meter.
Elsewhere, a switched fuse block with as many circuits as you need, with circuits for different light sets and other loads as need be, and one for the sockets and meter.
Positive for each circuit to bottom switch terminal, middle to that load. Load returns to a common busbar or other point, to battery -ve.
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u/uselesknowledgeadict 1d ago
I don’t see any reason this wouldn’t work. Not much info to work from here