Windlass wiring
 

There is hardly a worse place on a boat to place electrical wiring than
on and around a bow-mounted windlass. It's just not possible to make
things completely watertight and salt water will get at the windlass and
the wiring. Lewmar ought to know that. Then why is it that all the wiring
that comes with the windlass and its accessories, i.e., deck switches and
overheat cutout to fuse, is small guage and non-tinned? Even tinned
marine grade wiring has a problem in this environment. But the non-tinned
stuff rapidly turns to a red powder and nothing works. The corrosion is
so bad that cutting the wires all the way back to the switches revealed
no bright copper at all. I replaced the wires with larger gauge tinned
wire as best I could but I am still stuck with the stub of the original
wire as it comes out of the switches and motor.

Really dumb design.

Amen!!!


"Gogarty" wrote in message
...
There is hardly a worse place on a boat to place electrical wiring than
on and around a bow-mounted windlass. It's just not possible to make
things completely watertight and salt water will get at the windlass and
the wiring. Lewmar ought to know that. Then why is it that all the wiring
that comes with the windlass and its accessories, i.e., deck switches and
overheat cutout to fuse, is small guage and non-tinned? Even tinned
marine grade wiring has a problem in this environment. But the non-tinned
stuff rapidly turns to a red powder and nothing works. The corrosion is
so bad that cutting the wires all the way back to the switches revealed
no bright copper at all. I replaced the wires with larger gauge tinned
wire as best I could but I am still stuck with the stub of the original
wire as it comes out of the switches and motor.

Really dumb design.

Gogarty wrote:
There is hardly a worse place on a boat to place electrical wiring than
on and around a bow-mounted windlass. It's just not possible to make
things completely watertight and salt water will get at the windlass and
the wiring. Lewmar ought to know that. Then why is it that all the wiring
that comes with the windlass and its accessories, i.e., deck switches and
overheat cutout to fuse, is small guage and non-tinned?

Hmm, that sounds pretty bad. Undersized wire not only leads to low
performance but is hard on the motor and overheats all components
including the wiring... "don't mind the burning smell, that happens
every time we use the windlass"

One problem I had installing out windlass is that the glands into the
motor enclosure could not accept larger than #2AWG wire, which is far
too light for any battery more than about 2' away.

.... Even tinned
marine grade wiring has a problem in this environment. But the non-tinned
stuff rapidly turns to a red powder and nothing works. The corrosion is
so bad that cutting the wires all the way back to the switches revealed
no bright copper at all. I replaced the wires with larger gauge tinned
wire as best I could but I am still stuck with the stub of the original
wire as it comes out of the switches and motor.


What kind of terminals? Can you replace them? Maybe it would be more
satisfying to replace the whole f#&#in thing? I sure get that way some
times...

Really dumb design.


It's an assumption on the part of Lewmar (common thru many businesses)
that their customers are idiots. Better to avoid those. It's not like
they're the cheapest or anything!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

In article ,
says...


Hmm, that sounds pretty bad. Undersized wire not only leads to low
performance but is hard on the motor and overheats all components
including the wiring... "don't mind the burning smell, that happens
every time we use the windlass"

You misunderstand. The wiring I am talking about is not the 1/0 cabling that
does the work but the little biddy wires that activate the solenoids and
contain the fuse from the overheat bypass. This stuff is 20 guage and not
tinned.

The deck switches, which cost about $35, consist of a tiny potted push switch
inside this huge housing. One cannot totally replace the original wire but I
bet I can come up with something better for much less next time it quits.

One problem I had installing out windlass is that the glands into the
motor enclosure could not accept larger than #2AWG wire, which is far
too light for any battery more than about 2' away.

The motor on the Lewmar has hefty posts that accept battery cable size cables
with crinmped terminals. The total cable run is about sixty feet from the
batteries to the windlass and back again.

.... Even tinned
marine grade wiring has a problem in this environment. But the non-tinned
stuff rapidly turns to a red powder and nothing works. The corrosion is
so bad that cutting the wires all the way back to the switches revealed
no bright copper at all. I replaced the wires with larger gauge tinned
wire as best I could but I am still stuck with the stub of the original
wire as it comes out of the switches and motor.


What kind of terminals? Can you replace them? Maybe it would be more
satisfying to replace the whole f#&#in thing? I sure get that way some
times...

Really dumb design.


It's an assumption on the part of Lewmar (common thru many businesses)
that their customers are idiots. Better to avoid those. It's not like
they're the cheapest or anything!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Gogarty wrote:

You misunderstand. The wiring I am talking about is not the 1/0 cabling that
does the work but the little biddy wires that activate the solenoids and
contain the fuse from the overheat bypass. This stuff is 20 guage and not
tinned.

The deck switches, which cost about $35, consist of a tiny potted push switch
inside this huge housing. One cannot totally replace the original wire but I
bet I can come up with something better for much less next time it quits.


Take a look at Cole-Hersee.

They do a lot of low voltage, high current stuff.

May have something for this application.


Lew