Terminal strip from RS Components

While the mast is down, why not change it anyway? It won't be funny to find that you have a problem just as you are doing your pre-passage checks for the annual summer cruise....which is the way things always work out, like toast falling butter-side down.
 
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I have some real horror photos of the stuff I took out ..... including some of the things people are suggesting/mentioning on this thread.

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I would be genuinely interested in which of the suggested items you had found had failed.

I removed rusted "chocolate block" connectors, blackened and rotting un-tinned copper wire, disintegrating in-line fuse holders, etc. and replaced them with the terminals and wire discussed in this thread. To date they look pristine, and have not given any problems, but if I'm going to experience problems in the future, I'd like to know sooner rather than later.

Not trying to start a fight, honest! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Andy
 
My understanding is that the terminal (or to some, barrier) block in the original post is plated brass. I have used the same and others on board with no problems whatsoever.

With respect to the need for tinned cables I think people get a bit carried away on the need for this as to claim MUST be tinned sounds authorative as a point of difference. Obviously if ones boat is a wet one one needs to probably be careful, but modern boats are not wet as long as of reasonable size. I am not saying it is a waste using it, but that it is not as important as some make out. Would have to be a very wet boat for me to ever consider tinned cabling for AC, but would be more inclined to fix the leaks myself if that was possible.

More importantly, and many forumites seem to miss this is that the cabling should be sheathed, that is the conductors inside are insulated and then all carried within an outer insulating sheath. There are frequent references to use of "auto" type "wire" in some threads.

When one buys instruments, radios, etc they mostly all come with untinned cables and even things intended to go in the bilge and from reputable manufacturers, such as bilge pumps and switches, often (maybe mostly?) have untinned cables.

Outside the boat is, of course, wise to use tinned in my view, but with one exception. It is claimed by forumites from time to time that the coaxial transmission line to the VHF (and other) antennas "must" be tinned. That is pretty much a fallacy because tinned or not, once water has entered the cable it is stuffed due to greatly increased transmission loss at rf frequencies, that whether corroded or not. The important bit is to make waterproof terminations on it (which is easy to do), tinning is not important.

For the record our own boat was specified as all DC cabling tinned and sheathed except for large conductors (battery and charging high current circuits), the panel cabling, and tails on manufacturer supplied equipment (radios, etc). AC not tinned but sheathed and coaxial cable not needed to be tinned (and isn't for ssb, vhf, TV, am/fm - GPS I don't recall).

John
 
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Would have to be a very wet boat for me to ever consider tinned cabling for AC, but would be more inclined to fix the leaks myself if that was possible.


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What a frightening prospect! I would go further and say that if the boat is so wet as to require tinned cable, it is too wet for a safe AC installation
 
I suspect that is a very good point that you make - a very tingly boat probably /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John
 
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