I'm lost on this

WOW! I have got to print this out and read it! Seriously these posts give us so much great info. Thank you!

When you say sealing crimp points is that with heat shrink connectors?
Thank you!

Grace... again I love this website. If I can ask what solar controller did you buy? I bought solar output meters so I will know what is coming into our system.

I bought the book!

Kevin
Amen to that! Pulling out speaker wire the other day and one was hot and went behind the stern head. My voltmeter is my dearest friend. My wife found a pile of breakers that were marked "bad" and a monster AC 4 up breaker that the handles were broken off marked "good"

Hi Jim,

I have a very similar situation as part of the original wire is behind bulkheads that i don't want to pull. I am cutting them back as far as I can, removing all power, and noting to remove when i have to service anything behind those bulkheads. One other thing I found works great is a tone sniffer where you hook on the wire and you can follow it by listening to the sound on the wire. I got one at Harbor Freight and it is a god send along with my meter. Especially as all my panel is out with the exception of unswitched to the bilge pumps and my inverter/generator system. As that runs on seperate house bank I did that first so I could have cold beer as I worked. Priorities. 12V system is next.

I simply replaced all the breakers on the boat as well as backing each circuit with fuses in front of the breakers. It was a few more wires and dollars but worth it to me. I also am using round lugs on everything and got rid of the spade lugs. In addition on my controllers and connections that takes a wire like the charge controllers, I put a pin lug and then I heat shrink all with marine heat shrink. My schedule went to shit on this project but I figure I am learning the cruising style where you do it right and don't worry about the timeline. Much like waiting for a weather window. Only thing that stinks is I really want to go sailing but I must have this wiring complete first.

Like you, I printed all the notes these guys were kind enough to share. i will review them this weekend when I get back to the boat and modify if I think it is applicable to my boat. I am always open to new ideas and better ways to do things.

Good luck on your wiring. Cheers!

Hi Grace,

Thanks for the notes. I have separate solar for start and house batteries. If I need to parallel I am also using jumper cables \. My alternator only charges the start battery although I have a VSR on a separate isolation switch if I ever need to charge to house bank. I am using a victron multiplus to handle my generator/shore power and charging from AC buss. It has a built in AC isolation and will switch over once the generator is stable.

Thanks for the diagram. I am also going to get a external regulator down the road. All my instruments are fired from the lightning so I am replacing with old style engine gauges for now and using a camera on an ipad to monitor while I am motoring. I have mechanical oil pressure, tach, and temperature. Next I will put alarms on them but now I just have to be diligent.

I'll draw my system out when I am done. It keeps evolving as I originally was going to add a bunch of stuff but now I just want it simple so I can sail. Just more junk to get fried by lightning. LOL


Cheers