Rewiring boat - where to buy the parts?

[scottishguy]

I am going to rewire my boat as the electrics are a mess. So I think starting again with tinned, colour-coded wire, heatshrunk terminations and quality bus bars.

What conduit would you recommend for the wire runs? I was thinking of using two sizes of loom tube and using those plastic clips to keep the cable runs tight against the gunwales/bulkhead

Any recommendations about where to buy the bits I need in Brisbane.

cheers
Jock

[Noelm]

must be a thousand places to buy the gear, start at a good boat dealer first off, and they will steer you in the right direction if they don't have it all.

[scottishguy]

I was hoping that there would be an electrical wholesaler or something that would sell this stuff in bulk i.e rolls of tinned 6mm wire and small rolls of colour coded small guage wire as well as the connectors etc.

[rooboy98]

G'day Jock,

I have just about finished rewiring my boat.

I got most of my stuff from Bias Boating. Pretty sure they have stores in Brisbane. At any rate I found their catologue handy for pricing stuff and seeing whats available out there.

I also went to a Haymans electrical outlet and purchased some gear there as well, including a decent set of wire strippers and a good crimping tool.

I used 2 sizes of the split loom tube as well. I ended up using Sikaflex to hold it in place up under the gunnels, as in the past I have found that the plastic clips seem to keep coming off (especially on corrugated roads). Obviously, check that everything works properly first before applying the Sikaflex, if you go down this road.

Good luck with it all.

Cheers,
Roo.

[dreemon]

Whittworths Has a decent seletion, I got my tinned wire fr them and you can get it by the metre

[ratbag's]

I used Middy's when I rewired my boat. http://www.middys.com.au/qld_map.htm
Had all the gear & very helpful in Vic.

[Lbudgie]

Give these blokes a go, dont think you will find much better. and they have all the stuff you need at an extreamly competative price.

http://www.ashdowningram.com.au/

[lethal098]

in the process of doing mine at the moment and i got all my gear from Whitworths, i am using solid flex for all my wiring to run under the gunnels as at least once i sikaflex it in i can still pull wires through if needed. Cheers Lee

[cormorant]

Think about crimping and also just buying 2 colours and labeling them properly by using some clear shrink wrap or coloured shring wrap.

If you are using bus bars all runs from there can be made pretty short and easy to follow. A set of good quality switches with circuit breakers and decent fuse and battery isolation is a great start.

This is not local but a good site and the bloke has mailed me quality stuff

www.electricboatparts.com.au

Good stuff isn't cheap and do a search on here about wire size as there is a multitude of ways teh shops quote stuff on actual insulation size not condctor size of teh wire. Bloody stupid.

[scottishguy]

I like the look of the Blue Sea electrical components on the Whitworths site. The bus bars and switches look the goods.

What do you recommend to get the best results with the wiring and termination, I was thinking of the following...

1. crimp the eye terminals to the wire
2. then solder wire to eye terminal
3. then cover with heatshrink
4. attach eye terminal to buss bar
5. seal the buss bar termination with liquid tape
6. cable-tie all wires together
7. wrap in spiral wrap or similar
8. use plastic clips to retain wrap/conduit

Is this reasonable?

[lethal098]

Jock,

yeah that sounds pretty well spot on.

prob dont need to spiral wrap under dash, only when down gunnels or exposed areas, under the dash cable ties will be sufficient.

cheers Lee

[cormorant]

Not a fan of liquid electrical tape as you can't see connections. Try CRC battery terminal grease in a spray can. Can be messy so mask it up but can be retouched whenever .

I have used pads epxoied on to under gunnel and elsewhere that have a hole in them that you can run UV protected thick zip clips through. Cables then wrapped with cable protector.Conduit is not good as it stops access and you can't inspect anything.

Really good quality crimps and a proper crimper give a great result and shrink wrap but you must make sure wires are supported as they fatigue if left to hang. Soldering after crimping ? have done it and have had varying results depending on situations and have seen corrosion run up wires from left over flux once saltwater get in. I have used bus bars with wire holes on smaller boats and that saves a lot of crimping and so on. Gives a very positive connection and less failure points. Really depends on what loads you are running through stuff.

Draw it all up first and see how you can simply it and position bus bars in accessable areas . There is some with gromets and splash proof covers to keep everything nead and allow a lable on teh coner to help if there is later issues.


Just stepping back to the start- are you actually having issues at the minute with heavily corroded wire becuase if you aren't then a rewire is a lot of work when a tidy up may be more ecconomical and a hell of a lot quicler??? It is a lot of work and cost but depends on your boat.

[scottishguy]

It's more of a preventative maintainance task than to resolve any specific problems. The wiring in the cuddy cabin is currently terminated using those cheap plastic terminal strips. There is no cover so the wiring is exposed to the salt air and the cable management is non-existent.

I thought I might get one of those poly boxes with screw on cover (thumb-screws) and use this as a box to terminate all the wiring. The box would house the bus bars and fuse panel.

Is this ok or do I need to consider something else?

Can you recommend a good brand of crimp tool and wire stripper?

[rooboy98]

Can you recommend a good brand of crimp tool and wire stripper?

I bought a pair of Cabac crimpers and Utilux strippers/cutters from Haymans to do my rewire. Not cheap but they made the whole job pretty easy and I'm certainly no electrician!

Cheers,
Roo.

[wind rider]

why dont you try kt cables at yatala they have crimping tools and every thing eles you need. heat shrink, conectors, tinned wire, loom tube. ectat trade prices.

regards mark