pulling the floors out...WARNING Long post

[Dave-O]

I have a 1981 bass tracker Aluminum boat. I will be pulling all of the wood flooring out tommorow (Sat) and I bought some plywood its a little under 3/4" thick from HD. I plan to cut the wood according to the sizes I pull out and then next weekend I will coat the new wood with Beirs sealer and then I will glue new carpet on.
The wiring is a mess, their isnt much to it but what is their is a mess. under the consol is a fuse panel with wires going into the top and the bottom, switches are not active and then at the back of the boat in the battery compartment their is one or two boxes with screws in them and wires going to the screws (no I am not an electrician LOL) two batteries, only one hooked up.
Any advice on how to run all this wiring? i want it simple. also since I will have it open is their some kind of tube that I can run the wireing thru to the front of the boat so wires arent going everywhere?
and then I will batten down the floor....any recomendations on hardware ie screws?
I will be taking pics if interested, also if it helps you to understand my questions I will take pics of what you need.
thanks and sorry for the long post.
Dave

 

[sport15]

Re: pulling the floors out...WARNING Long post

Dave,
There is no real easy way to deal with wires.. The bigger question is what do you want to run? Bilge pump /bottom machine/ radio trolling motor? The easiest solution is to run a length of the biggest PVC that will fit in bilge from under the console to the stern and have it come up to the battery box. This will contain the wires from the battery to the console, and when fishing wires through, always leave a "chase" string in the PVC to make pulling the next set wires/antenna/speed pickup/ easier. The two batteries can separatly switched with a marine 3 position battery isolate switch. This way you can set it up so there is a cranking battery and a battery for all the "other" stuff. It is also wise to run a separate hot/ground wire from the battery to the panel, the size of the wire will be determined by the load you want to run. For radios/electronics 1012 #10-12 size wire should be plenty. If you choose to add a spot light, see what the power draw of the light is and go from there. For switches that are not in use you can leave them in for use later, adding bait pumps, tunes etc. or remove them. Again: what do you want to do... Good Luck!

 

[Dave-O]

Re: pulling the floors out...WARNING Long post

Thank you sport15 this is the advice I was looking for.
Thank You again
Dave

 

[JasonJ]

Re: pulling the floors out...WARNING Long post

You should also get one of those multi-switch panels that have switches with circuit breakers next to each switch. It is a much cleaner install, and you don't have to mess with fuse panels or any of that. You may also want to think about marine grade wire. You can use regular wire and get years of service, but if you are boating in or near a salty environment, you would want the greater corrosion resistance of marine wire.

The main difference between marine and regular wire is marine wire has each strand tinned vs regular wire which is not tinned. The tinning helps prevent corrosion. You will also want to solder and heat-shrink each connection, try to avoid as much crimping as you can. Crimp connections can corrode as well. Get lots of zip ties, route your wiring so they can be ties to each other, keeps it clean. Good luck...

 

[willamettejeff]

Re: pulling the floors out...WARNING Long post

I installed the largest gray plastic electrical conduit that would fit under the gunnel of my boat to run all the wiring through. This included the motor control cable as well. Installed a T-connector at the point where the motor cable needed to come out while the other wires continued on to the front. Nice clean install and can add or remove wiring as needed since no wire ties along the way. Wiring is very protected also. Just be sure to use the largest diameter that you can and that will still let the motor cable pass through with all the other wires installed.

I used marine wire and Ancor regular marine crimp on connectors instead of the very expensive heat seal ones. Chose instead to just cover/seal the connections with clear heat shrink. Quarter inch works well and provides a clean finished look to connections. Good enough for a boat that is never in salt water and only stays in fresh water for at the most a week at a time. Probably overkill actually, nice to know I could take into salt water if I wanted to though. BTW, just can't beat the $9.99 heat gun from Harbor Freight for shrinking tubing.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: pulling the floors out...WARNING Long post

We are restoring a 15 ft. lund and plan to do the wiring in conduit just like williamettejeff said. Just make sure to use "sweeps" instead of "elbows." It makes it easier to pull the wires through.

 

[Dave-O]

Re: pulling the floors out...WARNING Long post

Thanks for the advice. I like the route you took willamettejeff. I think that is the way I will probably go.

Ok, time for my next dummy question: I have managed to pull all carpeted floors up except for the main floor I will attempt to add pics. I cant seem to get the floor up, I have removed all the screws that I can see...I can lift the right side (steering side) a little but the left side is solid not moving. Any ideas?
Thanks Dave
I will look at this a little more tonight to see if I can add pics.
Thanks
Dave