Trolling motor, bow lightgs, and fishfinder wiring.

[Thompy_04]

Building a casting deck on my 14' Monark v-bottom and wanted to wire everything up correctly. I've bought a bus bar with 5 connection screws and just wanted to know how this thing works before I go and burn something up. The bus bar looks like this, http://www.iboats.com/mall/index.cg...bar&current_category=bu bar&*******=418407351. I just want to hook up a trolling motor, fishfinder, and my bow lights to this. Do I send a positive lead to it, ground the batter, and only send positive leads to the little screws, then ground the trolling motor, fishfinder, and bow lights to something else? Or is there some other way? I know this is a little confusing (for me at least) just hope I can get a little help.

 

[crab bait]

Re: Trolling motor, bow lightgs, and fishfinder wiring.

yea, sortakinda.. what you have ,,has no fuses.. <br /><br />what you have is just a busbar/terminal port..<br /><br />run a fused # eight MARINE wire to it.. as the main feed from battery..<br /><br />then whatever you got ,accessory wise gets screwed down to it.. <br /><br />each accessory wire must be fused somehow .. i.e. inline fuseholder..<br /><br />the trolmotor,, from the other big screw also fused.. if'n # 8 wire is big enuff.. if not,, run a # 6 wire from battery stra8 to the trolmo..<br /><br />that takes care of the " hot/positive'.. <br /><br />you still need another one of those busduckys for the ground/neg side.. <br /><br />alittle high dollar,, huh..??<br /><br />i make my own.. <br /><br />i brass bar stock at a good hardware store 1/8 thick or so... bore an tap a series of 10/32 holes an install 10/32 brass screws.. <br />for the 2 big screws,, 1/4 brass thru bolts <br /><br />screw the whole assembly down to a bigger slightly piece of wood..as per insulation an attach to boat.. <br /><br />all/ both for less then 7 bucs ( no shipping .. .)

 

[cajun555]

Re: Trolling motor, bow lightgs, and fishfinder wiring.

I just wired up my boat. Bought a fuse block for 5 circuits. Ran 1 common hot wire up to fuse block. Branched off to each toy with it on correct rated fuse. Also fused wire off battery so if I did have short between battery and fuse block it would protect wire. Also ran a ground up to a terminal block so each toy would have its on ground. Made a real neat looking job.

 

[Thompy_04]

Re: Trolling motor, bow lightgs, and fishfinder wiring.

What about the other large screw on the bus bar? I realize now I need a ground terminal, I have one laying around somewhere. Can I just run a wire straight from that to the trolling motor to the other large screw on the "hot terminal" then ground it to the other black wire from the trolling motor to the "ground terminal?"

 

[PAkev]

Re: Trolling motor, bow lightgs, and fishfinder wiring.

It is usually recommended to run seperate wiring for the trolling motor and fish finder since the current draw can cause erroneous readings.