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Posts: 537
Location: Gilberts IL/Rhinelander WI | Just got an HDS unit and see that an inline fuse is to be installed on the power cord. This unit is going to go on the bow, so I will be pulling power from the battery which is in the back of the boat. Do I leave enough slack in the wiring to be able to reach this fuse ,if it ever blows, without pulling the wires again? What kind of wire do I use for the power? Gauge? Special insulation?
I have never rigged any electronics on a boat before. Have been reading as much info as I can find. Is there any website's spelling out HDS installation, other than Lowrance, which does not seem to spell it out for someone with no experience.
Thanks for any info .
Brad |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | The install instructions should dictate specific minimum wire size, which I believe is 14, but could be 16. I've intstalled three, but I can't remember off the top of my head. Make sure you use marine grade wire though. You can get and use standard wiring from Home Depot. But take it from a guy that works with corrosion and wiring all the time...get the marine grade. The tinned wire is worth it when you're not chasing electrical gremlins in the middle of the season when your unit is shutting down due to low voltage because corrosion has created too much resistance through the circuit. No special insulation needed, but standard wiring rules apply.
And yes, do what you have to do to keep the fuse accessible. I've got mine wired on a master switch so I can kill the GPS pucks when not in use and just isolate the units. I've got the fuse up by the switch in the dash so if I get to the point where I'm troubleshooting, it's all in one spot. If you're not up on wiring and circuits, adding switches, etc, you can find simple examples drawn out online. |
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Posts: 307
| I would use a bare minimum of 14 ga wire and would probably go with 12 ga. The old large LCX's had a tendency to shut down and Lowrance was saying that people were not using heavy enough wire, even though that's what they recommended in the manual, and the wire coming from thier power plug was quite light. Maybe the new HDS units are better, but I would rather be safe than sorry if you ever go through problems and Lowrance tries to blame it on your wiring.
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| If your boat has a factory installed fuse block, it is a lot easier to run a circuit from the fuse block than use that "in line" one that comes with the unit. The fuse block will look just like the one that is under the dash on your car. They are usually mounted in a accessible location and somewhere that is dry. Usually they have a couple spare slots for additional circuits. The power for the block is already there from the battery. Sometimes you have to buy a different style fuse that fits the block, buy a couple extra for spares in a pinch. Buy spare's of the other sizes in there while your at it.
I wired the lcx's on my boat and used 2 circuits off the fuse block. They recomended having a switch to turn the power off when not in use and recomended having no power on the network when not in use. (least chance for corrosion) I bought a couple switch's at the NAPA store that are lit when they are on (handy at night, when you are packing the boat up) They even have some plastic trim pieces that the switch's snap into for surface mounting.
PMV |
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Posts: 537
Location: Gilberts IL/Rhinelander WI | Thanks guy's! I will look into running it from the fuse box, and will use marine grade wire. I do find it strange that it's suggested to use 12ga. wire, when the power cable that comes with the unit is really small. Like 18 ga. Seems as that would be the weak spot regardless of what ga. wire I used. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | I went and checked my boat, I'm 14g for my GPS units, and 12g for the VHF and 10g for the Power Pole
Edited by esoxfly 3/9/2010 11:10 AM
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Posts: 1
Location: Oklahoma | If you could, use 10 gauge. If not, the smallest I would go is 12. I've always had more problems with smaller gauge wires! |
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