Channel Sailor
Well-Known Member
On a thread here a month ago someone mentioned that automotive blade fuses can be a problem on boats as then can corrode. ?
I have annually had trouble with an auto pilot and occassionally with a VHF on blade fuses that have suffered damp uk wintery conditions. It was fixed by cleaning the fuse and holder with silicon grease. I now annually clean and grease all the blade fuses. But recently the VHF failed when transmitting at Hi power to the Coastguard. Wiggled the fuse and that fixed it. That was the last straw so I rewired it to instead have the in line fuse supplied with the radio and fed it direct from the battery feed busbar. Much better, should have done it years ago.
Tiller pilots I know are not particularly reliable, I have owned them on of a number of yachts and use them a lot. if there are any problems with my tiller pilots I always check the 12V supply first. Corrosion in the deck socket and plug are the number 1 most common. I must remember to dry it and grease the pins with silicon more often (Monthly). The next most likely problem on my yacht is the blade fuse, again this seems to be cured by cleaning and greasing the blade fuse holder at least annually.
Btw, I have slightly overisized cable between the fuse board and the tiller pilot socket to help reduce the risk of volt drop problems. But if you do this then you may find at the socket the copper cores will not fit in the tiny terminals, which means you need down size the cable for the last 25mm or so with high quality crimp joint.
I have annually had trouble with an auto pilot and occassionally with a VHF on blade fuses that have suffered damp uk wintery conditions. It was fixed by cleaning the fuse and holder with silicon grease. I now annually clean and grease all the blade fuses. But recently the VHF failed when transmitting at Hi power to the Coastguard. Wiggled the fuse and that fixed it. That was the last straw so I rewired it to instead have the in line fuse supplied with the radio and fed it direct from the battery feed busbar. Much better, should have done it years ago.
Tiller pilots I know are not particularly reliable, I have owned them on of a number of yachts and use them a lot. if there are any problems with my tiller pilots I always check the 12V supply first. Corrosion in the deck socket and plug are the number 1 most common. I must remember to dry it and grease the pins with silicon more often (Monthly). The next most likely problem on my yacht is the blade fuse, again this seems to be cured by cleaning and greasing the blade fuse holder at least annually.
Btw, I have slightly overisized cable between the fuse board and the tiller pilot socket to help reduce the risk of volt drop problems. But if you do this then you may find at the socket the copper cores will not fit in the tiny terminals, which means you need down size the cable for the last 25mm or so with high quality crimp joint.
