My Sea Ray had a factory cassette wired to the accessory switch. I replaced
the cassette with an indash MP3 player. I added the fishfinder to the same
switch & fuse. I think it's important to switch the cd player because it
continues to draw from the battery if left live. I've forgotten my
accessory switch on (fishfinder off) and the turned-off cd player could kill
the battery in 2 or 3 days. There will be a memory wire on the cd player
which goes separately to the the battery to retain settings. I ran that
wire right back to the battery and put my own fuse on it. I put it on its
own crimp-on connector and screw it to the battery post along with the main
wire. My MP3 player, btw, went in the glove box on the passenger side of
the boat. Luckily there was an existing unit there and the wires were
already in place because it would have been impossible to run wires from the
dash to the passenger side without going all the way to the stern first.

--
Denis Roy
D. Roy Woodcraft
www.ideasinwood.com
"Melandre" wrote in message
oups.com...
I just got a new boat which came as plain as you can get. Just a
smaller 18' bowrider. I have now purchased a basic Garmin fishfinder
and a Alpine marine CD player/stereo and a couple of speakers.

Now the hard part: installing and wiring these gadgets. So here are
some of the questions that come to mind:

1) as far as I can tell, I have only one, unused, "Accessory" switch on
the console. Should I plan to connect the fishfinder to that switch?
Am I right to think that the stereo does not really have to be on a
switch?

2) How do I connect the stereo to the battery? Should it be done at
the battery terminals or is it OK to splice the red battery wire (or
connect it to the fuse box?)?

3) there is no metal near the casing around the CD player/stereo. What
should I ground the stereo's black wire to? Am I correct to assume
that wiring to the stereo's own harness is not a good idea?

Andre