Old boat, new stereo - does this setup make sense?

aphillipe

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Joined
May 24, 2012
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9
So... parents finally parted ways with their 90 Chris Craft 217 to me. It's been in our family since new and is in fantastic shape! I installed an Aerial Airborne tower on it yesterday with 2 sets of 2 6.5" speakers and wired them up appropriately. Also purcahsed an Alpine deck with the plug & play amp that provides 4x45W for the speakers. I have a Bazooka bass tube that's self-amplified that has 250W of power to it as well. Because of the age of the boat, the pre-existing deck was a tape deck (yup you heard me!) with only 2 4.25" speakers. The pre-existing electrical lines are just the power, ground, and speaker lines. They are all 16 gauge. I went ahead and tested my new deck/speakers using those and noticed if I turn it up too loud it auto-shuts off. I'm not that surprised given the gauge of those lines.

What is my safest setup to power the 250W amp for the sub, and the 180W amp for the speakers? New power line directly from the battery terminal in a heavey (10 or 8?) gauge fashion? I assume since I'm trying to use such a thin gauge line that was NEVER supposed to provide that much power, my system isn't going to operate worth a damn until I do, correct? Also - The deck has a yellow (to-battery) line and a red (to-ignition) line- Should I go ahead and fetch an ignition line over from the starboard side to use or just attach both of those deck lines to the power line I create? It'll function just fine doing the latter but I didn't know if fetching the ignition over had a benefit.

If any of you have a similar deal doing an install on an older boat like this and can provide the safest route to providing the best amount of power to it that would be awesome!

On a side note- On a typical day on the lake, I arrive with the battery off, turn it on for operation, turn it off when we stop to eat/relax in the sun, turn it back on for the remainder of the day, then turn it off for towing and storage. With this deck, it appears I will then lose all settings (audio) and bluetooth pairing EVERY time I shut off the battery. Is there a way to avoid that occuring? A bit of a hassle if every time I go out I have to re-enter my settings and re-pair my phone for playback.
 

Bondo

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Re: Old boat, new stereo - does this setup make sense?

Also - The deck has a yellow (to-battery) line
On a side note- On a typical day on the lake, I arrive with the battery off, turn it on for operation, turn it off when we stop to eat/relax in the sun, turn it back on for the remainder of the day, then turn it off for towing and storage. With this deck, it appears I will then lose all settings (audio) and bluetooth pairing EVERY time I shut off the battery. Is there a way to avoid that occuring? A bit of a hassle if every time I go out I have to re-enter my settings and re-pair my phone for playback.

Ayuh,... By-pass the battery selector switch with the Yellow wire goin' directly to the battery....
 

aphillipe

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Joined
May 24, 2012
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9
Re: Old boat, new stereo - does this setup make sense?

Bond-o thanks for the reply- By doing that, will the battery drain to any extent during the week when the boat is stored? Or would it be so insignificant that it won't affect it. I assume at the end of season it would then be necessary to remove that line before putting her away for winter right?
 

scb1712

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Jul 25, 2011
Messages
105
Re: Old boat, new stereo - does this setup make sense?

The draw on the battery to maintain the clock and memory of the head unit will be minimal and shouldn't be an issue during the week while you're away. But you would still need to disconnect it over the winter. If you decide to have both the yellow and red lines hot, you run a much greater risk of killing the battery by accidentally leaving the stereo turned on. If it's wired hot, and you accidentally leave it on (even with the volume off) the trigger wire will keep the amp(s) turned on and that would significantly drain your battery. My preference would be to wire it switched.

As for the head unit shutting off, i could be a power issue, though in my experience i would think it would be more of a heat issue. How is the ventilation around the back of the unit? Is the 4x45W the power rating of the deck or do you have a separate amp to run the 4x6.5's. If you have a separate amp, i'd run an 8 gauge wire off the battery (with a fuse block) and then into a power distribution block. From there, you could run a separate power line to the amp and to your bass tube.
 

aphillipe

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Joined
May 24, 2012
Messages
9
Re: Old boat, new stereo - does this setup make sense?

Yea that makes sense scb1712 - I am going to run an 8 gauge power and ground directly from my battery up then use a power box with fuse to split the power to the amp/sub and the amp/deck so each gets enough power. Amp/sub will pull 250W, the amp/deck about 180W. Confirmed it with a couple different stereo installers and they said that's the safest route to avoid any over heating or power issues. Should fix the deck shutting off - those old wires were like 16 gauge and were never intended to carry much power... Gotta love a 20 year old boat!
 

delirious

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 20, 2012
Messages
101
Re: Old boat, new stereo - does this setup make sense?

in this situation, i would run the red acc wire where the yellow wire once lived...giving you the battery switch as your "turn off" option, then rerun the yellow dirrect to the battery with a 30-40amp inline fuse at the battery, then all your settings will be retained, and the battery switch insures that you never have to remember to shut the deck off.
 
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