Fishfinder power at bow

[wily]

I’m trying to swap fishfinder up front.  The old one was working and was wired into the wire nut

but when I try to add these two off the Lowrance it doesn’t work.  

If I hook those two wires directly to battery (green) one positive and one (white) negative it works 

i think both negative and positive wires are in the wire nut but not sure...

the light switches that are part of the wire nut work

what should I do?  Run 2 new wires back to the battery?   I hope not...I don’t know how to do that...thanks 

 

[MrGiggles]

You'll have to get a test light and figure out what is what up there before going any further.

Those wire nuts are for solid wire, and shouldn't really be on a boat. If you want a project, get a proper distribution block setup.

If both the positive and negative were in the same nut, you'd have a blown fuse at best, a fire at worst. They will be separate wires.

[wily]

My old ranger had a deal...where you just added clips to the wire and then hooked to a long circuit board....this boat doesn’t have one.  I think it’s just led lights in the wire nut

It works off the battery....it powers up 

 

[wily]

Thanks...I’ll keep  looking and see if I can find the negative one...as you can tell...it’s a jumbled mess 

[wily]

that big wire nut is the ground for the led lights...I found the two main wires and traced them

I put ground in the wire nut...and jumped the hot wire to the hot wire for the lights...and that got power to it.  

I think I must’ve blown the in line fuse earlier so will try to fix that before calling it good

thanks for the help...I don’t know the basics of fixing stuff 

[fishinwrench]

You can pick up a good ground at the bow light terminal.  But you will not have a good 12v+ source at the bow unless there is a trim switch, light switch, or livewell switch on the bow.  If there is just grab 12v+ from there and include an inline fuse for the sonar unit.  

No wire nuts !  👎

[wily]

I had the local shade tree mechanic add some led lights around the rub rail  a couple years ago 

the bow lights are led now too...have a couple blue led lights up above the deck

we look like a ufo out there...pretty cool but sure some will complain about too much light

that trim switch in the middle quit working about 10 years ago...but same power powers the lights...not sure why it doesn’t work 

[fishinwrench]

49 minutes ago, wily said:

pretty cool but sure some will complain about too much light

People that complain about "too much light" irritate me.   The object is to SEE and BE SEEN.   There's no such thing as too much light.   

If you're depending on your Night Vision then guess what you need?  

More light !

[snagged in outlet 3]

8 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

No wire nuts !  👎

Sure helped me out!   No more smoke from the prowler😁

[curtisce]

I put a Helix 9 Mega up front andran the power off of the acccessory wire at the bow. Had problems with interference from the trolling motor. Got all sorts of ideas off youtube and from shops how to deal with it. Came across a video and the guy seemed to know what he was talking about. He sais most problelms with interfence is form bad installation. My boat has a 10ga wire for the trolling motor which was inadequate for my 80# thrust. I pulled a new 8ga up fromthe trolling batteries for the trolling motor and moved the 10ga to my cranking to power my console and bow electronics. No more interference!