Hi Kevin,
I am trying to set up the boat wiring on my 1999 Suntracker Party Hut for the season.
Our marine electrical includes a starter battery for the engine, and two “house” batteries for the cabin. We would like to add a boat battery switch to keep the batteries from draining when not in use.
We would also like to hook the navigation lights to the starter battery, but isolate the cabin lights, radio, etc. on the house batteries.
Currently, when we hook the navigation lights to the starter battery, the cabin lights stop working. If we hook the black wire from the nav lights only to the house battery the cabin lights are wired to, the cabin lights work again, so we think the nav lights and cabin items need to be linked to complete a circuit somehow.
Anyway, Do you have any diagrams that might help and does your retail boat wiring site carry the items we need to get this rolling?
Appreciate any help you could provide!
Best,
Janice
Hi Janice,
First off, all of your boat batteries should have a common ground. I would recommend using boat battery wiring that is at least the size of the engine starting marine battery cables – probably 4 AWG, but maybe 2 AWG. This will eliminate the switching of the black wire from battery to battery to make devices work.
If your motor is at least 50 hp, I would recommend the Automatic Smart Marine Battery Switch System that is offered on our sister marine electrical site, EzAcDc. This will give you master shut off for both batteries, isolation to prevent a dead starting battery, and smart charging to allow your engine alternator to charge the starting battery along with the house.
Hope this helps,
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the reply. Our engine is a 2011 Honda 40 hp.
Also, where should the ground originate and terminate?
Thanks,
Janice
Hi Janice,
You can either add a ground block and run individual ground cables from the ground block to each battery or simply chain the grounds together going from battery 1 to battery 2 to battery 3.
Your Honda has 22 amp alternator and will work great with our smart charging system.
Hope this helps,
Kevin