New Member, and Rewire

[dew]

Hi All,

My name is David and I am located in Seattle, while my new to me 1989 17' Sea Ranger is located in Olympia. I've already contacted a few people (big thanks to DevMah and Sikoruk) via PM to get some help with this rewire, but I wanted to open it up to everyone as I'm finally about to get going. I originally planned to be further along with this, but with graduations, weddings, bonus halibut days, etc. I've been delayed.

So far I've torn out the gas tank and cleaned up back there, started labeling wires, removed some wiring, and I've done probably 50+ hours of research on here and other sources. My current plan is to have both batteries located on the starboard side with a Safetyhub and Guest battery charger above the fuel tank on the splash well (ignition protected). I will place the battery switch, ACR, 2104 negative bus, and 5045 fuse panel in the starboard sponson all mounted on starboard. My design is definitely beefier in certain areas than I currently need, with intentions of being able to support additions in the next few years.  I've got one large Amazon order remaining and then I'm going to go mock some things up this weekend, and order my wire as well (more than likely from Greg's). All part numbers are Blue Sea and all lengths should be round trip lengths. Please share any experiences, lessons learned, recommendations, or corrections.

My questions:

1. When calculating circuit length, is this length always from the battery, to the item, and back to the battery? OR just from the closest power source to the closest ground? For example, the helm 6 blade box should be measured from the Safety Hub to the front B- bus bar, correct?
2. Do I need a fuse in between the battery switch and the Safetyhub?

[Fisherdv]

Circuit lengths are measured up and back. Positive and negative added together to get the total.

[GregE]

You have a good start!!

WELKome aboard 

[StreamFixer]

When measuring wire length with new wiring...  Measure to and from for the length of new wire.  If you are running from the battery to a distribution block then to the light, or whatever, then you measure that entire length.  However, if your distribution point has already been wired in, then you only measure from that point to your light. 

Be sure to check the wire between the distribution block and the battery is properly sized to carry the amperage for all the fixtures being fed through that block.  Example: Add all the amperage demands possible being fed from the distribution block, lets say you have 3 - 5 amp units, and a 10 amp motor wired to the block today...  You need to size for 25+ amps, battery to the distribution block.

Tomorrow, You are going to add another bilge pump that draws 10 amps.  Wire from the block to the pump would need to sized for 10 amps.  The wire from battery to block now has to be sized for 35+ amps.

I suspect you have read the basic marine wiring guide posted on here...  I always buy from Gregs Marine wire -- fast, priced right...  And I have learned to buy in 50 foot, or larger, rolls.  There always seems to be something in the electrical system that needs attention in the boat or on the trailer.

StreamFixer

[DevMah]

David

My response to your questions

My questions:

1. When calculating circuit length, is this length always from the battery, to the item, and back to the battery? OR just from the closest power source to the closest ground? For example, the helm 6 blade box should be measured from the Safety Hub to the front B- bus bar, correct?

The above is correct to calculate wire.  StreamFixer has nailed it .


2. Do I need a fuse in between the battery switch and the Safetyhub?
You are already fused at the battery @ 175A on the B+ .


Schematic looks good.

Dev

[dew]

Thank you fellas for your time. I will provide an update after this weekend with my progress, but may chime in before then with any further questions. Stay tuned

[Fisherdv]

Don't forget the small ground wire fused @1A out of the bottom of the ACR. I don't see that in the drawing.

[dew]

Don't forget the small ground wire fused @1A out of the bottom of the ACR. I don't see that in the drawing.

Thank you Fisherdv. It should be on the top left corner (5065 16AWG 1A), but I have had issues of the lines in my schematic not showing up for some reason. Now that you bring it up, I realize that the 5065 in-line fuse actually have 12 AWG pig tails, not 16 AWG. So I will fix this tomorrow. Please keep it coming, you guys are way more experienced at all this than I am which is why I publicly posted this. I also hope this thread will be of some help to someone in the future as I've read countless rewire threads during my research.

[Fisherdv]

You could also put an on/off switch on that wire, or just pull the fuse to cancel out the ACR for charging at home with your dual bank charger.

[DevMah]

You could also put an on/off switch on that wire, or just pull the fuse to cancel out the ACR for charging at home with your dual bank charger.

Fisher in line switch not required, I had him install the ACR after the switch (6011) on the load side, once he turns off the main switch the charger is isolated from the ACR.

This is exactly how my ACR is wired to my boat now.

Dev

[Svinny88]

What happens if you don't pull the fuse when you use the onboard charger?

[DevMah]

What happens if you don't pull the fuse when you use the onboard charger?

Pulling the fuse disables the ACR.

In this post the way it is drawn pulling the fuse will have no effect as the ACR will be isolated when the battery switch is off.

Dev

[DevMah]

What happens if you don't pull the fuse when you use the onboard charger?

If your ACR is on and your charger is on you can damage your batteries if they are of different types ( deep cycle and starting for example). When charging the ACR will combine and charge both batteries as one. The starting battery will recover faster than the deep cycle battery, thus over charging the starting battery as the deep would still be charging. Most new chargers utilize multi stage charging.

By removing the fuse or having the charger on the battery side of the switch with the ACR on the load side when you turn the switch off you isolate the ACR allowing both batteries to charge independently.

https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/experience/2014/04/can-i-connect-dissimilar-batteries-parallel


Dev