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Wiring with the under-deck wave shield...

PDX Hosedragger

PDX Hosedragger

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Hey all- I have a 2275 GCW with ESP. I need to run some cable from the battery compartment under the port lounger to the helm compartment. Is there an easy route short of drilling out rivets and pulling the wave shield?
 
You could use an electricians snake, but you still won't know where the wires are passing metal that could chafe the wire and short out. You could drill a bigger hole and run split plastic wire conduit with wires already inside to add insurance to wire chafing.

Also, what wiring are you running from battery?

Any power you need should already be able to be sourced at the helm??
 
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I'm running 8 gauge power cable. I am installing a battery combiner (Yandina.com C-100) in the main battery compartment, and running the cable to charge a second house battery under the helm. This battery will run the additional load from the aftermarket amplifiers and underdeck lighting I plan on installing. There isn't much room in the stern battery compartment, and my boat is to heavy in the back anyways so putting the house battery in the helm makes it easier to make the connections to the electronics.
 
This is probably obvious to you since you are installing the amps and stuff yourself, but for others reading this, this is a situation where you would need to fuse both ends of the cable! If you get a short under the deck from the cable rubbing on a sharp corner or edge or burr somewhere, you could have fault current from both ends and your boat will likely catch on fire. Fuse it at both ends (at the combiner end and the remote battery end).

Your amps will enjoy having the house battery right next to them. They won't see the voltage drop in the cable. That's a big advantage to doing this the way you are. The amplifiers will run cooler and last longer.
 
Make sure you properly ventilate the new battery location. Off gases from battery charging are explosive, and the switches and electronics installed in the dash may not be intrinsically safe(spark proof).

I ran a transducer cable from the same areas you are wanting to go and had no problems You should find the wires crossing over from the port to starboard side at the front of the motor pod.
 
Fyrfightr said:
Make sure you properly ventilate the new battery location. Off gases from battery charging are explosive, and the switches and electronics installed in the dash may not be intrinsically safe(spark proof).

I ran a transducer cable from the same areas you are wanting to go and had no problems You should find the wires crossing over from the port to starboard side at the front of the motor pod.
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Fyrfightr, do you have the under deck wave shield? If so, did you just snake the cable along an existing run?

Also- where are you a fireman?
 
If you haven't already, I strongly suggest that you look at the Blue Sea Systems 'Add-a-Battery' package. It has a combiner/isolator like the Yandina and a switch allowing manual combining of batteries should you ever encounter a situation where the starting battery alone could not start the engine. It does require a bit more in wiring and installation, but I can't say enough good things about it.

Another thought is to see if someone here that has a 2275 GCW without the wave sheilds could snap some pictures of the cable run to give you an idea of how the house wiring was run by Bennington.

Worst case you could run through the deck and wave sheild using grommets and loom as appropriate, and surface mount your cable run to the business side of the wave sheild before going up and through to the helm. Or would removal and resinstall of the wave sheild be worst case? :lol:
 
When I ran the harness for my power assist steering pump from the battery (in the changing room), to the helm on our rl, I used the same hole that is there. It has a large rubber boot around it so I had plenty of room. I used plastic wire harness shielding (from Lowes) and a fishtape to run it to the helm. I ziptied it to the other harness running up the side to the helm. It was pretty easy even working on it while on the lift. But, as was mentioned before, you might want to reconsider where you are wanting to put the battery. Or make sure it's a sealed AGM battery. My $.02 I forgot, we have3 tubes and underskin.
 
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Ah yes. Definitely going to use a sealed battery.

I have a riveter, but wanted to avoid drilling them out only because it would be awkward working overhead in that tight of a space.

Jim- I looked at the Blue Sea system, but don't really need the combiner function or the switch. It is a nice setup though.

I think I'm going to do just what CWag911 suggested. Run it up the side in split plastic conduit and up into the rubber boot. The hard part is crossing over from port to starboard with the transom in the way. I'm not above attaching a conduit to the side of the tube supports, so I'd I had any future runs I could just fist through that.
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
Ah yes. Definitely going to use a sealed battery.

I have a riveter, but wanted to avoid drilling them out only because it would be awkward working overhead in that tight of a space.

Jim- I looked at the Blue Sea system, but don't really need the combiner function or the switch. It is a nice setup though.

I think I'm going to do just what CWag911 suggested. Run it up the side in split plastic conduit and up into the rubber boot. The hard part is crossing over from port to starboard with the transom in the way. I'm not above attaching a conduit to the side of the tube supports, so I'd I had any future runs I could just fist through that.
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Just to be clear as to what I did, I fished the wires between the deck and the skin. From the side of our boat there is about a 2-3" space where I could get my hand in to fish it across. Our boat has the full length filler trim from the tube to the deck but there's a gap between the deck and the trim.
 
Look at the under side of the decking under the console by the fence. you will see the wiring coming out of the console. I was able to follow the wiring down the starboard side of the boat. Then fished the wiring over the wave shield into the front of the motor well. Then on to the other side...
 
If i was doing this sort of thing on our S, there is a clear route along the perimeter going around the BOW of the boat. This may be different than the G, but our wave shield does not go all the way to the front. You would need longer wire, but no fishing involved.
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
...

Jim- I looked at the Blue Sea system, but don't really need the combiner function or the switch. It is a nice setup though.

...
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Well, I am reversing myself. I still really like the Blue Sea Systems combiner, but for an application where the alternator is less than 60 amps, I'm liking the Yandina Combiner 100, and I now have one on order. FYI - while the yandina can be configured in conjunction with a regular dual battery switch, another option is to wire in a simple toggle switch to force the Yandina to combine the batteries should the starting battery somehow get run down. I'm going this route.
 
Jim_R said:
Well, I am reversing myself. I still really like the Blue Sea Systems combiner, but for an application where the alternator is less than 60 amps, I'm liking the Yandina Combiner 100, and I now have one on order. FYI - while the yandina can be configured in conjunction with a regular dual battery switch, another option is to wire in a simple toggle switch to force the Yandina to combine the batteries should the starting battery somehow get run down. I'm going this route.
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The only issue you may have with toggling the combiner open is that you could potentially drain your starter battery with your house battery, should you forget to turn it off.

Ok, so I'll post pics when I'm not on my iPad, but here is what I did as far as wiring.

I used an open maxi-fuse slot in the factory installed Blue Sea fuse block, and ran an 8 gauge cable inside split-loom up the port side above the tube. I was able to reach in and zip tie to existing cabling for support. Once I was up as far as the helm, I was able to fish the cable along the cross member to the starboard side right up into the helm. Under the helm I glued in 2 wood furring strips that I screwed a 24" x 20" x 3/8" plywood. This is where I bolted a 400 watt subwoofer amp, a 400 watt 4ch amp for the speakers, the C-100 Combiner, fuse block, and power distribution.

The 8 gauge is connected to the C-100, which charges an Exide AGM Battery. From the battery I used 4 gauge cable to the fuse, and distribution block. From the distribution block I ran 8 gauge to the individual amplifiers.

Photos to come soon.
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
The only issue you may have with toggling the combiner open is that you could potentially drain your starter battery with your house battery, should you forget to turn it off.

Ok, so I'll post pics when I'm not on my iPad, but here is what I did as far as wiring.

I used an open maxi-fuse slot in the factory installed Blue Sea fuse block, and ran an 8 gauge cable inside split-loom up the port side above the tube. I was able to reach in and zip tie to existing cabling for support. Once I was up as far as the helm, I was able to fish the cable along the cross member to the starboard side right up into the helm. Under the helm I glued in 2 wood furring strips that I screwed a 24" x 20" x 3/8" plywood. This is where I bolted a 400 watt subwoofer amp, a 400 watt 4ch amp for the speakers, the C-100 Combiner, fuse block, and power distribution.

The 8 gauge is connected to the C-100, which charges an Exide AGM Battery. From the battery I used 4 gauge cable to the fuse, and distribution block. From the distribution block I ran 8 gauge to the individual amplifiers.

Photos to come soon.
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Excited to see! I was looking at a Wet Sounds SYN6 amp, might be able to do it all with one amp. Have to figure out subs and see what kind of power I want to it/them.

Derrick
 
I looked at the 6ch amps, but being old school and liking the flexibility of two amps that's what I went with. The work was in running the power cable, anything beyond that was pretty easy (just time consuming)
 
I got it all hooked up today, and it sounded fantastic. Here is my new dilemma, which is more electronic than marine:

With the ignition "off", it all works great. When I turn the key to "ACC" (engine not running) I get a ground loop hum. Is this from the power steering circuit?

I also left the stereo head unit and depthfinder on the original starter battery, while running the amplifiers off the new house battery, would this make a difference is is it just a bad ground situation? Seems like it shouldn't make and noise in ACC, with no alternator running right?
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
I got it all hooked up today, and it sounded fantastic. Here is my new dilemma, which is more electronic than marine:

With the ignition "off", it all works great. When I turn the key to "ACC" (engine not running) I get a ground loop hum. Is this from the power steering circuit?

I also left the stereo head unit and depthfinder on the original starter battery, while running the amplifiers off the new house battery, would this make a difference is is it just a bad ground situation? Seems like it shouldn't make and noise in ACC, with no alternator running right?
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Alternator noise is more of a variable whine where the pitch usually increases in sync with the RPMs. I suspect you are right in calling the issue a ground loop hum, as the two batteries are effectively isolated when no charging source is present, but turning the key to ACC creates the ground loop by bringing the two power sources together. When the engine is running the yadina combines them and no ground loop. I would suggest moving the helm wiring connections to your 'House' battery, and only running the outboard connections to your starting battery. You could temporarily disconnect the helm wiring from the starter battery and jumper it to your house battery to test my theory.

*edit - did you ground your House battery directly to the Starting battery?
 
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