Hanz,
You are either super lucky or live in Arizona and boat on lake Havisou (sp).
Steve

"Hanz" wrote in message
...
I used Ideal set-screw wire connector on our boat for 20 year and have had
no problems. Set : http://www.goodmart.com/products/85313.htm

Hanz

chuck wrote:

Patrick Harman wrote:

If you are considering a wire nut, then you should hire a marine
electrician. If the wire is solid and not braided, sell the boat. Both
of these no no's are fundamental to marine wiring.

Proper way is to use a terminal strip. An alternate is to use a 3-way
splice available from West marine and many others. I won't go into the
proper way to crimp terminals.

Pat Harman


"RB" wrote in message
...

Got a 12ga wire running along under a panel in a hard to get to place.
With great efforts and contortions, I can reach it to cut it and strip
insulation of the cut ends.

What I need to do is rejoin the cut ends, and come off with an
additional wire to go to a different location.

If there's slack, I can put the three ends together and use a wire
nut.

Assuming there isn't enough slack for the wire nut trick, are there any
neat little critters out there for this specific purpose? What are
they called? Who has 'em?





I agree: no wiring nuts.

But if you have room for a wiring nut, then you may have room for a crimp
connected pigtail instead, and that can be attached to a terminal strip
in an accessible place. A far better solution.

Chuck

Chuck,
Many equipment manufacturers insist that NO cable splicing be done EVER. No
method is without potential trouble and often splices, after corrosion, are
fire hazards.
Steve

"chuck" wrote in message
news
Terry K wrote:
When I got my Tyler 29, the nav lights, among others, were wired with
juke box wire and wire nuts.

The boat is / has been used in mainly fresh water.

I decided to keep an eye on it, call it an empirical study. I made
sure I had some wire and nuts available, and waited for it to sink the
boat, so to speak.

Portents abound, prophets wail, but they remain out in the wilderness,
unfulfilled, with no light save my nav lights, for 9 years that I know
of, and who knows how long before I got the boat.

Doom and gloom forcast nowithstanding, I wait, prepared for
catastrophe. I give them a wiggle every spring to see if their nuts
will fall off. Not yet. The now blackened copper visible has oxidised
as much as it will, like a copper penny, still trustworthy.

It all makes me think there is a plot to keep non-millionaires off of
the water, by any means, including terror tales, establishment
regulations inspected and enforced or not, and who knows what I do not
know.

I did rewire the bilge pump, which has never seen "active service," as
if waiting for the bombers in the tx hut isn't active enough. I can see
if the nav lights are on or off, so will know immediately if another
bulb gives out, or even if a wire disintegrates. I may install led
lamps, and keep waiting to the inevitable wire nut disaster popularily
forecasted.

I said "fresh water," remember? And, I do not route wires where their
ends are likely to get wet. If I do work for others, I work "to spec",
for price or bling standard.

Cobbler's shoes?

Terry K


Interesting post, Terry. Do you know when the boat was built and whether
the wiring is original? It would be useful to know how many years the
existing wiring has been in place.

Of course, in fresh water service, except for vibration, the environment
is not a whole lot different from that experienced by conventional AC
wiring on land.

I wonder how many boats so wired are out there. It would also be
interesting to hear experiences with wire nuts in a sal****er environment.

Chuck

Steve Lusardi wrote:

Many equipment manufacturers insist that NO cable splicing be done EVER. No
method is without potential trouble and often splices, after corrosion, are
fire hazards.
Steve


Steve I second that!

My boat was built in 1979 someplace around SF Bay, CA. Has spent its
whole life on the west coast. I flipped on a mast head light about the
second year I owned my then 25 yo boat. Nothing on the tri color.

Then the fun started. After a few days the short turned out to be a
SPLICED wire about half way between the panel and the mast step. That
problem wire was nested inside a tangle of about 9 other wires. Plus
the splice "looked" great. All shrink tubed and all. Just took a
long time to find the damn thing. So I opened the splice. Ugg! The crud
went about three inches up the strands on either side of the splice. I
found two other wires spliced in that same rat nest.

Lesson learned: Never splice wires unless you want to make somebody's
life very miserable a few years later.

Solution: I cut the splice out and put in another so I could go
sailing...................................... later gutted it all. The
wire needed to be sized up for the run anyway. The boat manufacture
sized the mast head lights for a 10% volt drop. I though, and USCG/ABYC
too, that 3% volt drop was better.

Thy shalt not splice........... please.
Bob

(major snip)
Of course, in fresh water service, except for vibration, the environment
is not a whole lot different from that experienced by conventional AC
wiring on land.

I wonder how many boats so wired are out there. It would also be
interesting to hear experiences with wire nuts in a sal****er environment.

Chuck

Around 1980 Bill Lowman decided he wanted both a radar and a VHF radio
on his 60 year old "gillnetter" the "Zig Zag". A real, wood, sal****er
workboat, used every year in the Puget Sound salmon season.
Quick look confirmed bad feelings. The boat was wired by the "knob and
tube" system, with #14 solid, rubber and cotton covered wire. Much of the
rubber and cotton had turned to crud and fallen off. Whoopee. Bill insisted
that no rewiring be done. He had done most of it himself, and was proud of
it.
I asked him if he ever had any problems with the wiring, he said "sure,
but it's easy to fix! All the splices are just twisted together, and all you
have to do is untwist them, scrape them a little and twist them back
together."
So as not to upset the historical value of the original wiring, we (I
don't like to say "I" here) used, shudder, wire nuts to connect the radar
and the VHF radio to the vessel. Bill died last year, but the boat was used
by him right up to the end. He lost use of the radar and the VHF at times,
but as he said, it was simple to fix. All the wiring, splices, screw-in type
house fuses and all were right out in plain sight.
He did say the for best reliability, it was good to scrape or file the
rust off the alligator clamps at the battery posts nearly every season.
Old Chief Lynn

It all makes me think there is a plot to keep non-millionaires off of
the water, by any means, including terror tales, establishment
regulations inspected and enforced or not, and who knows what I do not
know.

Oh please, that's just ridiculous. While the pricing of some 'marinized'
stuff is indeed outrageous but that's independent of following good
practices.

It's not that improper wiring or non-marinized stuff won't work. It's more
than it you're less likely to have unpredictable failures or ones that
require excessive maintenance.

I did rewire the bilge pump, which has never seen "active service," as
if waiting for the bombers in the tx hut isn't active enough. I can see
if the nav lights are on or off, so will know immediately if another
bulb gives out, or even if a wire disintegrates. I may install led
lamps, and keep waiting to the inevitable wire nut disaster popularily
forecasted.

And if you're always at the dock then you've got the luxury of being able to
stop and fix it. But it's another matter entirely if it dies while underway
and you don't have all the replacement parts (wire, bulbs, socket, gaskets,
etc) or the ability/desire to fix it.