Run wires under floor or along gunwale??

[BigTerp]

Thinking about how I'm going to run my electric in my 1648. I'll be installing an aluminum floor with foam boards underneath. Was originally planning on running all my wires along each side of the gunwale in the "crease" that's about halfway up. I've been noticing that some guys run their wires under their floors and also have seen a few factory boats that have wires under the floor. It would certainly be a cleaner install under the floor, but I'm not sure how water would effect the wiring or even how the wiring would effect water getting back to the bilge. I'll be running the following:

-Starter wire for outboard
-Anchor light wire
-Fishfinder/transducer wire
-Interior lights
-Bilge pump wire
-Stereo wire

I'll for sure be running a stick steer cable and throttle cable along the gunwale "crease", so adding wire to that may get a bit crowded. But I'm sure there is enough room for everything. What say you guys??

 

[RivRunR]

You can run them along the gunwale, but they may get in the way of mods you want to make later, like rod storage or whatever. It would be cleaner to run them under the floor thru conduit, especially for the runs from bow to stern. You'll want to allow room for adding more wiring later, so you might want to run a string thru the conduit to make pulling new wire easier. But you don't want to block your drainage path to the bilge either, so it depends on whether you have the space to do it.

BTW, you should keep your transducer cable as far away from power leads as possible, and might want to run that in a separate conduit.

If you use tinned marine wire, and you don't have any connections below deck for the water to get to the copper, then water won't matter.

 

[Captain Ahab]

I like them along the gunnel and in conduit - the more dry the linger they will last (plus easier to fix)

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks for the responses!!

Ahab - That makes sense. Especially the part about wire fixes. Would be a pain to have to tear up the floor because of a bad wire.

 

[Colbyt]

Use properly run conduit (no sharp bends) either place. Then pulling a new wire is no big deal

 

[BigTerp]

Colbyt » Today, 2:31 pm[/url]"]Use properly run conduit (no sharp bends) either place. Then pulling a new wire is no big deal

Thanks. Where do you reccommend getting the conduit. And what size?

 

[Captain Ahab]

BigTerp » Fri Jun 14, 2013 3:20 pm[/url]"]

Colbyt » Today, 2:31 pm[/url]"]Use properly run conduit (no sharp bends) either place. Then pulling a new wire is no big deal

Thanks. Where do you reccommend getting the conduit. And what size?

I used PVC piping - and made it large enough so I can replace (pull) a wire or add more anytime

 

[Wallijig]

If have room under or on put more then one conduit in second with pull string. If have a conduit with wires in already and want to add it is real bear trying to pull more wires threw it if other wires in it already. One would have to unhook existing wires and pull new wires added with it. Having extra conduit makes it alot easier.

 

[Colbyt]

PVC conduit is a tad less costly than PVC pipe and includes a coupler on one end. The have it at Lowes and HomeDepot. Something under $2 for 10 foot.

There are some electrical rules about the number of conductors in a specific size. I'm not sure if that applies to a DC system or not. I would run 2 or more .5 or .75" ones before I went to a bigger size. If you can avoid using any 90 degree bends you will never have a problem pulling a new wire if you need to do so.

If you are running 6 or 8 gauge from one end to the other I would only put those two wires in one run. The low voltage stuff can have more wires in each tube.

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks for all the help.

The longest runs I'll have will be the wire for the starter, bilge pump wire, stern light wire and FF transducer wire. They will be running stern to bow. The rest should up towards the bow where I plan to house my batteries. What I'll probably do is run my starter, bilge pump and stern light wire in the same conduit along the starboard side and run my FF transducer wire along the port side.

 

[chazrull]

I ran my wires in a split conduit along the side - makes for a neat install and was easy to change (as when I upgraded fishfinders).