I started the boat on fire.

[forsythia]

Okay...so I rewired my navigation lights to a togel switch and then to the battery. Everything worked out great turned on and off. When I pulled out the light in the back without turning off the switch the wires got red hot and melted the plastic right off them. I'm using 16ga wire.

I bought a 6 switch panel from bass pro shop and I want to install it but not if I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to burn that up too. The switch panel has 7 black wires and 1 red wire sticking out of it. One black and the red one get wired to the battery...Right?

Then how do I hook up everything else if there is only on red wire? I tried reading the wiring guilds online but they confuse me. Can anyone break it down to like the red wire from the light goes to....the blah blah blah and so on

 

[cubanredneck]

it sound like you got a short

 

[crazymanme2]

That's why it's important to fuse your different circuits,than your wires wouldn't have melted. [-X

 

[caveman]

16 g is to small never use any thing smaller than 14 g #12 is best.But this all depends on how far you are running the wires?

 

[Brine]

Can you post a link to the swith panel you bought?

I'm sure you'll get the info you need and won't have to worry about it ever again.

Sounds like a short to me too.... Maybe shoot some pics of your wiring.

 

[forsythia]

I took this picture from someone elses post but it looks like the one I have.

 

[Brine]

Well, as long as you have the appropriate size fuse in the wiring, that should keep you safe, but it doesn't solve what is wrong with the current setup.

If you can take some pics of how it's wired now...to the battery, the switch, and the light, maybe someone will see where the problem is. Otherwise, I assume you have visually inspected all of the connections and they look good to you?

 

[forsythia]

hahaha well....they did look good before they all melted. I'm going to get 14ga wire tomorrow. I'm calling my electrician friend tomorrow and I'm going to have him supervise. I will take pictures tomorrow also.

Some guys on here make it look soooo easy.

 

[ForkliftJeff]

I use nothing smaller than 12ga wire when installing any kind of lights on the forklifts I work on. Nice durable wire and can transfer enough power for a spotlight and not get hot.

 

[russ010]

16ga should have been fine for nav lights... and it definitely sounds like you've got a short somewhere. You could have had a bad toggle switch too...

i still run 14ga for everything - except for the LED lights from bluewaterled which will get whatever size wire he sends me. I think it's either 18-22 though.

The fuse panel you have sounds like it has the red for the main positive which will be the main power source for all of your wiring. I would run atleast 12ga wire to that. The way to look at it is like this - if you have everything turned on at the switch, the main source of power will have to run from the battery to through that wire - so the larger the better. Let it carry every bit of juice it can. I would run 14ga off of the black wires to each accessory you have. The extra black wire you have is a common ground for the switch panel.

You would then connect each other black wire to the positive wire of the accessory you want to run. You still have to run the negative from the accessory back to the battery, or to a bus bar which is also connected to the battery.

 

[Nevillizer]

{16ga should have been fine for nav lights... }

I aggree here, you probably had some bare wire some where. The navigation light will draq very little. The only other item you can use ligh wire on is your fish finder, they also draw very little juice. Everything else (running light, bilge, areator, etc.) should be 12 gauge (IMO).

 

[Bush Hawg]

I put fuses on everything, had an electrical fire while on the river once with a boat load of little kids. It wasn't pretty, saw what was happening 1st thought battery next to gas tank..... BOOM! Was about to start throwing kids overboard but I thought of them swimming back to the boat instead of away from it, reached down grabbed the wing nut bare handed couldn't turn it, grabbed the wires and gave them a good snatch and broke the wires, grabbed the fire extinguisher put the carpet out. Had some pretty nasty burns on my hand but I was just glad I kept my head and got control of the situation.

 

[forsythia]

I put fuses on everything, had an electrical fire while on the river once with a boat load of little kids. It wasn't pretty, saw what was happening 1st thought battery next to gas tank..... BOOM! Was about to start throwing kids overboard but I thought of them swimming back to the boat instead of away from it, reached down grabbed the wing nut bare handed couldn't turn it, grabbed the wires and gave them a good snatch and broke the wires, grabbed the fire extinguisher put the carpet out. Had some pretty nasty burns on my hand but I was just glad I kept my head and got control of the situation.

That's what I was thinking oh god this is so close to the gas tank and gas line good thing I had the extinguisher and it was in working order.

 

[cavman138]

for that switch panel you need to run your positive wires to the black wires on the back and run your negative wires to the battery or through a buss bar. I have the same switch panel.