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hi everyone

jeff cote here with votingtechtalk.com

we have a question from a fellow voter

robert is about undertaking a big

project

robert asks jeff i'm beginning a rewire

of a center console boat and was looking

for tips on proper wire management and

neatly securing the wire

inside the console how should i start

this project

hey good question robert well first of

all

as we all know um and some of us

certainly obsess over this

order when it comes to electrical wiring

is super important

super super super important because why

because when you look at something that

is unorganized

you know or you doubt if it was done

properly

right it's very very rare very rare

for us as electricians to come aboard a

boat

that has very neatly wiring and it's

done wrong

generally i don't know why but the

people that worry about the details of

how something looks

are the same people that worry about

details of doing it right

so there's serum seems to be some sort

of correlation there between the two

so a it's going to be really good for

resale that's one thing

second it's much easier to troubleshoot

a wiring that is

all meat so i agree with robert on

why i too would do it properly so what

you want to start thinking about

is are you going to be terminating all

the wires from all the different things

on your boat

directly to the switches or are you and

these switches are

switches on the boat turn different

things on are you going to be terming

everything directly

or instead of bringing things directly

to the switches are you going to be

terminating them on terminal strips

and then have these looms of wires that

go from the switches so the terminal

strips and from the terminal strips to

the loads

big fan of using terminal strips for

terminating loads uh big boats use that

i did it on my catalina

it really makes things super easy you

never have to end up changing the loom

from the terminal strips to the switches

so that would be one tip that i would

give

the other thing is label label label

label label even if it's your own boat

and you have a perfect memory

honestly i was shocked when i realized

that i had forgotten certain things

about my own boat that i did

and i didn't remember what that wire was

for thinking how could i ever forget

something that i had done on my boat you

know and my boat to me is not just sort

of this thing

it's almost like a living entity it's a

an entity that has a soul and i'm

thinking how could i ever forget what i

had done on that boat

because everything i do on that boat is

about love

and i did and the reality is that time

does erase certain things

even for things that we love so label

label label the other thing too is

create

a wiring schematic and have it nearby

it doesn't have to be perfect you know

some of us don't have computer skills

that's okay you know even if it's a hand

sketch a hand sketch works

so definitely draw it out and don't just

draw it out at the end

you think about it when we build houses

you know does the architecture

or the architect come at the end of the

project and say hey you know what i'm

going to actually

show give you plans of your the house

you built or is he gonna

or they are they gonna give you plans

for the house you plan on building

so to save time the best thing is to

draw it out all on paper prior to

starting

that's when you have control that's when

a change takes seconds to erase

literally seconds to change

and that's fine at least have the intent

of building

to an architecture that you thought

about and then

if you're making modifications along the

way then of course

update the diagrams or the schematics to

reflect reality

that'd be another one the other thing

too is having wires think about okay

well how am i gonna in that center

console how i'm gonna have the wires

come

from you know the deck up are you gonna

have multiple channels

are you going to have ac dc wiring if

there's ac dc one

you want to have them in separate

bundles so that would be one thing i

would do as well

make sure you use heat shrink connectors

on everything even if they're more

expensive

our time is the most valuable thing for

most of us

some people have more time than money

but for a lot of us

time is a very rare thing and so

my adage there is saying okay since i

know that i have a little bit of money

and i have practically no time

if i'm going to do something on my boat

i want to do it once ideally

right i mean it's sort of the perfection

that we're shooting for

and the way to do that is having tin

wire having

proper heat shrink terminals and again

if you do that properly

the other one too is look up the code

for color

wire colors right why not

choose different colors for different

things

some boaters and i've seen it do the

whole boat in black

not a big fan not a big fan at the very

least have

red and black or red and yellow for

positive and negative for dc

but also remember you know there's other

colors

different things have different colors

so take the time and buy maybe more

spools of wire and yes i know it's going

to hurt because you're going to be like

i'm going to have leftover

but again this project should be done no

one should once you're done that center

console

robert no one should touch that in 20 30

40 years

so if you're gonna do it do it right

sometimes on the channels

um what we end up doing is you see that

on bigger boats they actually have sort

of like

these channels and they put these sort

of they're more for

i guess land-based a lot of people here

are like on my boat i use a lot of zip

ties with saddles

so that i create bundles i make sure

that it's not too tight but tight enough

so it's aesthetic but not so tight that

it could

generate heat and the other thing too is

if you've got large dc wires

you know you might have different routes

for different things

there would be another one and lastly

don't forget about fusing

and again it should be on your

schematics and figure out what is the

right fuse and where should that fuse be

located

and remember many of us many of us and

i've seen it all too often

think that the only thing that deserves

to be fused is the appliance and not the

wire

don't fall prey to that that is happens

too often you need when you're working

on your boat to protect not only

of course the appliance but the wire

connecting

the appliance to your electrical system

so the fuse there has to be

protection circuit protection at the

start of the circuit

and you can have a fuse down further

downstream for

that's specific to the appliance but

make sure that every single circuit on

your boat

and the only one that could be an

exception is the starter circuit and

that's the only one and some of us

are fusing starter circuits but you

don't have to everything else should be

fused

so robert that's a great question cool

project and honestly

it's extremely rewarding and anybody who

understates

doing wiring on your boat you're going

to build up confidence that when

something goes wrong

you've got this and that is definitely

part of the boating experience so so

good on you robert for tackling this

project

and thanks for all you for watching and

if you've got comments or feedback on

how

you would do it on your boat or how

you've done it on your boat

please add those comments down below it

adds a whole wealth or breadth

of sort of perspectives and there's no

right or wrong answer here

we're all chart chasing perfection and

that

path to perfection is you know sometimes

ups and down

but as we share we all learn and as we

learn we all get better boats

so thank you robert for asking thank you

for watching this pys video

if you've got further questions please

ask them below or send us an email

via the contact forms on our website

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thanks again for watching