Melandre wrote:
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


It's much easier to use a buss bar than to try and slam a bunch of
fittings behind a single screw. You can run heavy gauge wire (big
benefits) from the + and - battery terminals to a location near your
electronics bay. Connect one wire to a buss for positive connections,
and the other wire to a buss for negative. Wire in an "inline" fuse
between the positive buss and each electronic gizmo. Ground each gizmo
to the negative buss.

You don't need to wire through the "accessory" switch if it is of
inadequate capacity.
You can add a switch to the heavy wires running to the electronics buss
bars.