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Negative hook ups

Floridaman79

Jetboaters Lieutenant
Messages
227
Reaction score
368
Points
152
Location
Brevard County Florida
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2020
Boat Model
FSH Deluxe
Boat Length
21
Getting ready to install a gps and a vhf radio in a 210 FSH and wondering what is the best place to hook up the negative? I'll be pulling the positive from the switch panel but wondering what is the best way to hook up to negative? I couldn't find a place under the console I am going to run a grounding bus if nobody has any better ideas.
 
Getting ready to install a gps and a vhf radio in a 210 FSH and wondering what is the best place to hook up the negative? I'll be pulling the positive from the switch panel but wondering what is the best way to hook up to negative? I couldn't find a place under the console I am going to run a grounding bus if nobody has any better ideas.
I have a large ground bar/bus by my batteries. You could run a smaller one under the helm with a larger gauge from it back to the battery one. Actually, that's a great idea. Amazon shopping i am a goin
 
I installed a distribution block behind the helm with both positive (fused) connections and negative bus bar. This makes future additions easy. Details for my installs are in my signature under Yamaha 242x link (turn your phone sideways if you dont see my signature)
 
What @Julian said. In the FSH it’s less than 10’ from the batteries to the helm area, I pulled a couple 4 ga wires Hooked the black to the battery -, hooked the red to the house battery switch so it goes off when the switch does. I put a Blue Sea fuse panel with 6 fuses for accessories, it also has a negative bus for grounding. Now I have plenty of power for amps, lights, gps, VHF, whatever else right there. Don’t forget to fuse the + right off the batt switch for safety, I used a 50 amp amplifier fuse holder and glass fuse.
 
I did what everyone above described. That is ran 0 gauge from the switch to the helm and 4 guage to smaller bus bars at the helm and near the switch (fused bus bars at the helm, inline fuses in the battery compartment and a little room to spare on both).
33954EBF-992F-48F9-B90E-7260B100A969.jpegD0FBF53D-DB59-4F52-94FB-E69ABBC780AA.jpeg
 
Thanks guys you definitely answered my questions. I was going down the same route but wanted to check and make sure I wasn't missing something obvious!
 
I did what everyone above described. That is ran 0 gauge from the switch to the helm and 4 guage to smaller bus bars at the helm and near the switch (fused bus bars at the helm, inline fuses in the battery compartment and a little room to spare on both).
View attachment 116544View attachment 116545

What's the red electrical tape covering?
 
What's the red electrical tape covering?

Funny you should ask, the bus bars are from blue sea (I think) they don’t make covers that fit the bus bars so I bought four small covers and cut them to fit. The red tape is on the positive bar’s covers and the black tape is on the negative bar’s covers. One of each cover is on the floor in my pic. FYI - I also drilled holes in the bases of each bar so the I could zip tie the covers onto them.
 
Good idea!

I would do something like that, but I did my negative on a bus bar and then my positive I ran to one of their fuse boxes. I hope I can tell those two apart without the tape...
 
A gps only pulls a few watts, a vhf radio will draw about 30-35 W when transmitting. I'd pull a pair of black/red wires from the battery switch. Fuse the red near the switch. Plan for expansion, let's say 60W. 60W /12V = 5Amps
If your wires will be 15ft away from the battery (30ft circuit length), then AWG12 is plenty for 5A. AWG is barely more expensive so I'd step it up. Get marine tinned wire. As mentioned above, bus bars under the console are a good idea.


 
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