Starting Stereo/Electronics Upgrade Project

[jwill323]

Good advice, JWill.

I ended up installing a new breaker (by the power switch under the rear seat in my boat) and 4ga power lines to the amplifier to drive a JL 600W amplifier in part because I wanted the ability to add a second amp and a sub without running new power from the back of the boat to the center console. It wasn't really all that difficult, and seemed like the right thing to do. My boat originally had a head unit but no external amp, so using the existing wiring wasn't really a feasible option.

I think pulling 4ga is the right idea! I was done wiring by May last summer and wanted to get on the water so it stayed as is! Did you unscrew and pull the whole battery switch panel when you ran your wires? Im planning on doing this in a few weeks to clean up and try and understand how my switches and batteries are wired and see if i can get this cleaned up and upgrading to some group 27 Odyssey Extreme batteries. What model do you have and how confusing was the battery switch wiring?

[jhnmdahl]

I did pull the switch pane, and replace the switch and added an ACR and a breaker for the audio stuff. I added a new battery switch through the Add-A-Battery kit that comes with a charging relay, and I have one battery as a starter battery and the second as a "house" electronics battery. This thread has a pretty good summary of the add-a-battery cit and ACR - viewtopic.php?t=4345

I wired mine so that the ACR is disconnected when the switch is off, so there's no parasitic drain, also discussed here - viewtopic.php?t=4345

Not rocket science, but mounting and routing stuff with 4ga wire is a bit more effort sometimes than wiring with 18ga or something I'm used to. But it was a good excuse to buy a new crimper, wire cutter, etc.

[Mathis.323]

Hey, unfortunately I didn’t find the time to reply during the last ten days. Busy days at work currently…
Anyways, thank you so much for the elaborated answers, especially to JWill! You really helped me and I feel much more confident now.
Once we are done with all of our work on the boat, I might open a summarizing topic.

All the best from the very cold Germany!