Help Wiring a 1436?

[Hooky1420]

Have no electrical experience. Need help with the wiring of my first build. NOTE: I am going to run two 12v batteries. In my mind, this is how I would like things set up:

Front (Bow) Battery will run:

Bow Mounted Trolling Motor

Rear (Stern) Battery will run:

Navigation lights, bow & stern
Two cigarette lighter outlets (for spotlight, etc)
Bilge Pump
Fish Finder

All will be connected through a control panel in this manner:

Control 1 - Nav lights
Control 2 - Bilge Pump
Control 3 - Fish Finder
Control 4 - Bow Trolling Motor

Cigarette Outlets will be "always on"

I would also like to be able to switch the bow mount TM to the rear battery as a reserve if need be.

Can anyone tell me what I'm facing here, problems with my ideas, tips on wiring to use, etc.? I would really appreciate any help I can get. You guys are awesome. I've attached a picture to kind of visually see what I would like to accomplish.

Thanks!

 

[russ010]

everything as you have it laid out will work. The only thing you are missing is a ground bus bar to tie all of your components back to ground on to the battery. You can wire the trolling motor straight to the battery - pos to pos, neg to neg.

On the rear battery, you run your positive from the battery to the control panel. This will be the break in power to each of your components, and will always be hot as long as it's hooked up to the battery.

Just run a ground wire from the neg on the battery to the bus bar, then hook the negative from each component to that and you should be good to go.

I would use 14ga wire for all of your components - you can buy it pretty cheap in 25' rolls from home depot, lowe's, or one of the auto parts stores (which is where I would get it from). You can get a ground bus bar from home depot or lowes. They might have one at the auto stores, but I don't remember.

 

[Hooky1420]

Any ideas on a good control panel to use? I was pricing some at bass pro shops (its the closest fishing store near me) and i read reviews that said switches stopped working or it malfunctioned in some other way. i don't mind going mid-high end if it is going to be durable. boat is going to be stored outside under cover, so i don't want the elements creeping in on me.

also, i hear some people talking about placing fuses on things too. is that needed?

russ010 - thanks for the suggestions on the gague and such. i'll do that.

 

[russ010]

switches... man - I make my own, and for about half the price you can buy them for. Some people use fuses, some don't (and I don't except for on fish finders).

I go to Home Depot in the electrical department, and get their connector boxes for about $10. Drill a hole in the top and put one of Bluewater LED on/off switches in it.

You can look through the last few pages of my build (Link is in my signature) to see exactly what I'm talking about.

Here are the switches I use - https://bluewaterled.com/catalogdetails.php?id=36

 

[Hooky1420]

switches... man - I make my own, and for about half the price you can buy them for. Some people use fuses, some don't (and I don't except for on fish finders).

I go to Home Depot in the electrical department, and get their connector boxes for about $10. Drill a hole in the top and put one of Bluewater LED on/off switches in it.

You can look through the last few pages of my build (Link is in my signature) to see exactly what I'm talking about.

Here are the switches I use - https://bluewaterled.com/catalogdetails.php?id=36

Thanks a lot for the tip. I checked out your build... WOW. Is your Livewell single? Cause I would marry it. That thing is awesome man. Great build! Wish I had that kind of room on my 1436, it is just not wide (or deep) enough to squeeze everything in. I'm afraid that as soon as I get my build done, I am going to be looking for a new project!

On a separate note... you're an insurance underwriter? That's cool. I'm a private investigator down here in florida. I work for a lot of insurance companies busting people on fraud. One thing is for certain... I have no shortage of work. South Florida is the fraud capital of the country!

 

[russ010]

haha.. yea, I'm an underwriter - I work on accounts that generate atleast 700 million in revenues yearly. We catch the people working at places like Home Depot out playing golf when they supposedly tore a rotator cuff or something like that all the time - and you guys are the ones who catch them... So thanks to you for what you do!

I've got a buddy who has a 1436, and the took a 100qt cooler, set it between the ribs of his boat, it's right infront of his rear bench so he marked the cooler and literally cut it down level to the bench. Then he decked over the cooler and the bench so that it is level. He put a 12x12 lid on top.

He did his recirculation and fill/drain the same way I did and it works awesome.

 

[Hooky1420]

haha.. yea, I'm an underwriter - I work on accounts that generate atleast 700 million in revenues yearly. We catch the people working at places like Home Depot out playing golf when they supposedly tore a rotator cuff or something like that all the time - and you guys are the ones who catch them... So thanks to you for what you do!

I've got a buddy who has a 1436, and the took a 100qt cooler, set it between the ribs of his boat, it's right infront of his rear bench so he marked the cooler and literally cut it down level to the bench. Then he decked over the cooler and the bench so that it is level. He put a 12x12 lid on top.

He did his recirculation and fill/drain the same way I did and it works awesome.

I catch people doing stuff like that all the time. Have hundreds of stories like that. We never get into the whole cheating spouse thing. We don't need to. South Florida is the fraud capital of the country, and I stay really busy.

I thought about the cooler idea for a live well. But this is my first build and 95% of the time I'm practicing catch and release. I may just make a removeable livewell after the fact and put it on the boat when I'm going out to bring home dinner. Who knows, after a year or so I will probably be looking for ways to change the modification to better suit my needs and may dig back in for another project.

 

[longjohn119]

In my last boat I made my own control box. I used one of these from Radio Shack (Except mine was an 8 fuse holder they don't carry anymore but you look to only need 4)
https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062258

You can take your fuse holder, ground buss and switches and mount them in a box like this
https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062285

I used the aluminum cover and put a short piece of piano hinge I had left over on the bottom so you could swing open the panel for servicing

Then I came off the device side of my switches with a 680 ohm resistor and a red led as an indicator light for switch On and mounted the LED's in the front aluminum panel

I had some other stuff in there else like a livewell timer circuit and a couple of voltage regulators (9V and 5V) for my radios and other non-12volt devices which is probably more than you'll need but gives you an idea of how much room you have to work with inside the box.

I wish I could show you a picture of it but I can't find the CD that has that build on it. My current set up is even more complex, overkill for most people's setup and not easily reproducible ... Here are a couple of in progress pictures of it just for reference

Currently I have this panel 90+% wired up but I need to add a power cord to my computer/GPS, a USB hub and a serial to USB converter for my fishfinder output before I can finish trussing up the harness before I take the final pictures.

 

[Hooky1420]

WOW longjohn... looks great. Absolutely overkill for me though - you are right about that. Is that a Grizzley you have? I bet that thing rides great. I would have my hands seriously full attempting something like you are doing. I'm struggling to do mine, and it is no where near as complex. Thanks for the advice on the radio shack products... one just opened up down the street!