Boat Wiring

[stamfordian]

i,am just about to wire up my project from a bare hull as it were ,i,ve done the dashboard and engine instruments,and about to install a diss board for the nav lights etc,on the instructions it mentions a boat earth,which is a common neutral,do i really need to fit one given the boat is only a fisher/cruiser,or could i wire everyhing back to the neutral on the battery???,pros and cons??

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[chippie]

I prefer to have everything wired back to the battery as it keeps things isolated and in my opinion easier to trace faults.
I would be interested in seeing others points of view.

Cheers

 

[snowleopard]

i saved a couple of miles of wire by running a heavy car battery cable to a series of busbars along the hull and taking the negative lines for each appliance from that.

given that you'll never have everything running at the same time you won't need to cater for the full amperage of every appliance where you would have to for individual wires. (is that clear as mud?)

 

[BarryH]

As mentioned on another post, busbars are the way to go. It simplifies things and saves a lot of work. I done the same with the live feeds to busbar on the positive side located near the main fuse panel makes fault finding so much easier. Make sure the cable from the battery switch is of sufficient size to handle the total current draw and maybe a bit bigger to be on the safe side.

Theres a book out published by Fernhurst called the Boat Elecrics Bible or something like that. Being a tightarse I got a copy from the local library. Very useful and easy to follow. Well worth getting hold of a copy if your doing a major wiring job like this.

 

[dignity]

I've wired my steel motor barge, on the 24volt side everything goes back to a bus-bar, and then back to the batteries. But I also have a common cable going to the shell to eliminate stray currents (and hopefully help against electrical corrosion).

 

[chippie]

When I wrote that I run everything back to the battery I actually meant back to a bus bars on the distribution board.
I was thinking of the fact that I dont have a common negative running through the boat. I just run double wire to everything. I have a fairly basic installation with no shorepower at all.
Maybe I misunderstood the post.

Cheers