Pontoon Boat Wiring attempts to answer your questions about marine electrical techniques, concepts, and products. We get lots of mail from folks in mid-project or who are just curious about their boat’s electrical setup.

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Hey Kevin,

I’ve got marine electrical question for you.

I just bought a 5-watt solar panel battery charger from Bass Pro Shops to add to my double-decker pontoon boat wiring.

I put the charger on the upper deck so it would get plenty of sun, then ran the wire down to the main battery and hooked it up. I then threw the box for the solar charger away.

Two days later, I went back to Bass Pro for something else, and I happened to look over at the solar chargers and realized that I had purchased the 5-watt 24-volt charger. Will this work with my 12-volt batteries, or will it cause problems?

Thanks as always for your help.

Calvin

Hi Calvin,

I am not sure what it will exactly do. It depends on the technology in the charger. It may do nothing, it may short out, but I am pretty sure it will not charge your pontoon boat battery.

Sorry,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

My name is Brad and I was given your email address by a friend. He said I could email you with a marine electrical question I had for my parents’ pontoon boat. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

My parents have a 2006 18′ Suncruiser with a four-stroke Mercury 25hp outboard. The tach, fuel gauge, and volt gauge stopped working and I can’t seem to figure out the problem.

I was thinking that the problem could e a common ground wire since all three gauges went out at once, but I tried a different ground and couldn’t get anything to work.

I also checked the two 20 amp fuses under the motor cover and they were both good. I don’t know if either of those were for the gauges, but I see no fuse panel anywhere on the boat.

Thank you for reading my email, and also for any insight you may be able to provide.

Brad

Hi Brad,

If all of the gauges have quit, it is either the ground or the power. Since you have already checked the ground, I would chase down the power lead.

According to standard boat wiring colors, you are looking for a purple wire that runs from the ignition switch up to the gauges. If the boat starts, then you have power to the switch. Trace it from the key to the gauges to find your problem.

Good luck,

Kevin

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

Kevin,

We recently bought a used pontoon boat and the navigation lights won’t come on.

We looked at the boat wiring and there are several wires that are not connected to anything. We are unsure as to what wiring would go to the light.

Do you have any suggestions? Or any site you know of that would have boat wiring advice or diagrams?

Thanks!

Charles

Hi Charles,

Your red and green navigation lights should have a gray/green power wire and black ground wire. The white all-round stern light should have a gray/blue power wire and a black ground wire.

Here is a link to common marine wiring color code that is used by most boat builders.

Check out page 2 of our sister site’s Rewire Your Switch Panel instructions to learn how to properly wire your navigation light switch.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Kevin,

I have a 1999 Playbuoy Fish N Fun Pontoon Boat with a 75 HP Yamaha.

After sitting in drydock for the winter, I tested the boat wiring today and have problem getting power to the motor and tilt motor, however, none of the lights or other accessories will draw power.

I cleaned the dual boat battery wiring terminals and checked all the in line fuses that I know of, but still no power. What could be causing my issues?
Thanks,

Barry

Hi Barry,

Most pontoon boat marine electrical systems are divided into two segments: engine electrical and boat accessory. It sounds like there is a missing or bad connection on the boat accessory side.

• Confirm that all cables have been re-connected to the boat battery
• Confirm power and ground to the helm fuse panel with a voltmeter

The system is simple and you will easily find the boat wiring problem,

Kevin

Kevin,

I recently ordered the automatic smart marine battery switch from your retail marine electrical site.

I got the system to add to the boat wiring on my 24′ pontoon boat. I already have a dual battery system on my pontoon, but the boat battery wiring doesn’t include a boat battery switch, I have them wired separate.

The problem with this setup is that my house battery has to be recharged after each trip out. I purchased your switch to tie them together. Do I have to use this switch in conjunction with a battery disconnect switch, or can I just wire the hot side of each battery to the VSR and use a common ground for the batteries and the VSR?

Thank you

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

If you only want to charge the second battery, there is no need to combine the VSR with a battery switch. Simply connect a wire from the positive of each battery to the VSR, make sure the batteries have a common ground, and connect the ground lead from the VSR to the common ground.

Thank you for your business. We really appreciate it.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I recently purchased the Pontoon Boat Switch Panel that you designed for Pontoonstuff.

It is installed and works great, but I wish to make a change in configuration.

In marine electrical, is it possible to wire a panel with two different battery feeds? That is, have one battery feed three of the switches and the second battery feed the other remaining two switches?

I plan on adding a second boat battery but I would like the one panel to handle all the switching.

Also, for the second boat battery, what gauge of tinned boat wiring would be most safe for a run of about ten (10) feet from battery to the marine electric panel?

I would think the new lead would not go directly to the switch panel but first go to a newly installed distribution terminal. What sort of terminal is preferred?

Thanks,

Vern

Hi Vic,

This should be fairly simple.

I would run a 12 AWG power feed from the switch panel to the boat battery. At the battery, install a 20 amp inline fuse or circuit breaker.

On the rear of the panel, there is a chain red jumper wires that connect from breaker to breaker. Remove the breaker jumper between the two breakers where you want the split.

Connect your new power wire at point where you removed the breaker jumper to provide power the breakers.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Kevin,

I’m working on a pontoon boat wiring job and need your help tracking down the marine wire.

I’ve used your marine wiring calculator, and figure that I need tinned 14/2 bonded.

By bonded, I am referring to a lamp wire format, i.e, the two wires fused together like a lamp cord.

Have you seen this in marine electrical shops or online? Cabela’s has 16/2 in the lamp format, but not 14/2. If someone is making it in 16/2, there is a decent chance that same source is making 14/2 – or so it seems to me.

Many thanks,

Jamie

Hi Jamie,

14/2 does exist at our sister boat wiring site, EzAcDc. Here is a link to the marine electric wire page. We carry it in Gray-Black to be used for docking lights.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Kevin

I have a boat wiring question regarding how to use an AC outlet provided by my marina in my boat slip to power my pontoon boat while in dock.

We often sit and listen to the radio while we wait for everyone to arrive and it constantly drains my boat batteries.

Is there some way to set up my marine electrical so that all of the boat resources run off of AC power when in dock and then switch to the boat batteries when we head out on the water? Maybe something with the boat battery wiring similar to the boat battery switch I have to switch between batteries – just one would be AC power.

Thank you for any help.

Sean

Hi Sean,

The easiest solution is to add a marine battery charger that is big enough to run all of your devices while at the dock and recharge the batteries. Maybe a 20-30 amp charger. No complex wiring or switches – just plug it in and forget about it. All of your marine electric will work at the dock and on the lake.

Happy boating,

Kevin