Boat Wiring

Great idea. This is what I do as well.

Add your box in the back (for your riggers and other accessories). Main bus box with positive and negative. Wire the box direct to the battery with a quality gauge wire. ALL accessories you put in to this box should have inline fusable links (unless you go with a fuse panel and dedicate a circuit to each device).

Run wiring from your battery to the box at the HELM. Don't wire it from the rear box to the front as you will be daisy chaining an issue. Wire this box direct from the battery. Do a search online to find the appropriate wire gauge. Reason I say this is you will lose amps in lower gauge wire when running it over distances. There is a conversion chart to help you choose the correct gauge wire. Again, a main bus positive and negative should be fine as long as you are using fusable inline links on the positive side of all your devices. Otherwise, go with a breaker panel to eliminate the inline fuses. Most of the newer boats have these main bus bars under the helm.

Use good quality end terminals. I prefer to use the ones with a solid circle so the screw has to physically come out to lose connection. The ones that are slotted are nice for easy insertion but, if the screw comes loose, you are going to lose power. I always use shrink tubing on all my wiring connections! Barrels, terminals, the works.

Never run any electronics off from your trolling motor batteries. Too much RF interference associated with trolling motors and radios, fish finders, etc... If you have room in the back of the boat, consider running two batteries either "parallel" (to give you 12 volts over two batteries) or with an isolation switch allowing you to change from one battery to another.

While running your wire, consider running the wiring for a dedicated battery charger with the "banks" necessary to charge everything on board. I have a 3 bank charger charging my two trolling motor batteries and my main battery. It is located in the back of my boat in a box that is easy to get to the cord without removing the cover.

I've removed floor panels, side panels, and anything else in the way to ensure a good seamless fit without wires showing. In some instances I have to pull a fish tape and pull ropes. I leave an extra pull or two inside for future use.

The heavier the wiring, the better off you will be. Anything worth doing is worth over killing on this one. It avoids draw issues later down the road! Any additional questions, shoot me a PM. I'll be more than happy to help. I've rewired my fair share of these things over the last 4 or 5 years. That includes new boats direct from the factory.

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Boat Wiring