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Home > How to > Wiring A Boat

How To Wire (or re-wire) a boat

I know what you’re thinking. “How is this lunatic going to cover such a complex
topic as – how to wire a boat – in one post?”

Well – you’re right – We won’t be able to cover every situation, or every possible
setup on every boat. And if all this info is new to you, you’re probably best hiring a
professional marine electrician to do it for you (local install support directory). But,
we’ll try anyway to explain some of the general theory and best practices in hopes
it will help.

In this guide we’ll stick with the 12Vdc power distributions systems, as opposed to
engine or gauge wiring.

A few notes before we start:

Positive wires are red (in our guide, your boat

I’m in a hurry…
may have other colors)
 Negative wires are black (or may be yellow on
JUMP TO
your boat)
COMPLETE
Current is measured in Amps (A) DIAGRAM
Potential difference is measured in Volts (V)
Current !ows through the wires (like water
through a pipe). Too much current can heat up
the wiring to the point of starting a fire
Voltage does not “!ow” it is a measurement of
potential to do work. Like water pressure in a
pipe

1. The Electrical Source: a

Battery

In a boat, electricity is stored in one or more

batteries. The batteries are charged by your engine’s
alternator, or auxiliary battery charger. They can
hold an enormous amount of energy, capable of A normal battery might be
pushing hundreds, or even a thousand amps (more able to push 800A or more
than your entire house uses)… so care must be taken, current
and proper circuit protection should not be ignored.
A normal battery might
Greatly generalizing the topic here, but you usually have 70-80AH (amp hours)
run into two types of batteries in the size of boat we of capacity. Meaning it
deal with: can run a 1A load for 70 to
80 hours, or a 10A load for
1. Starting Battery – Has high 7 to 8 hours before it is
current rush capacity discharged.
2. Deep Cycle Battery – Capable of deep discharge
without harm

The two setups we most often run into is:

1. Single Engine – 1 starting, and 1 house battery

 2. Twin Engine – 2 starting, and 1 house battery

Every non-engine wire (EVERY ONE)

should be circuit protected with a
fuse or circuit breaker

Batteries have a positive and negative. For current to

!ow (which does the work) a complete circuit must
be made from positive back to the negative. Any
break in the circuit, anywhere will stop the load from
operating (which you probably already know or you
wouldn’t be reading this to try and fix your marine
wiring issue).

So let’s get our boat wiring diagram started with our batteries!

TIP: (use the tabs to view and hide notes)

Diagram

! View Notes
 Testimonial:

“I have used New Wire Marine

around 7 years ago when you
were first starting out. I’m
impressed with your website
and using your diagrams to
wire my completely stripped
Lund fishing boat. I’ll be using
you for all my future needs.
Thanks!”

-Rick N. Angels Camp, CA

START DESGINING YOUR OWN PANEL

NOW!

2. Main Battery Switch

In nearly all cases your boat wiring system should

have a marine grade main battery disconnect
switch. This allows you to open the switch turning
everything off at once. In this case, We’ve shown an
1-2-BOTH type battery switch.
Used to shutoff everything
Both battery positives are ran through this switch,
and prevent trickle
and you can use it to select which battery you want
charges from draining
to output, similar to an A-B switch. But a 1-2-BOTH
your battery
marine battery switch also allows you to parallel
both batteries. The both setting might be used when
you are running your engine and want to charge both
batteries from the alternator, or if you need to parallel
the batteries in an emergency to help start your
engine if your start battery becomes too depleted.

Remember to turn your battery switch to the “house

circuit” when your engine is not running, so you are
only drawing down your deep cycle house battery
meant for that purpose. VIEW OUR
BATTERY
SWITCHES
We’ve changed the diagram a bit now
to show the start battery running
through our new marine battery
switch

A Double Pole ON/OFF/COMBINE battery switch (like

this one) is a great choice for a single engine, two
battery boat wiring system. I allows your house and
start battery to remain isolated except for emergency
conditions.

Diagram

! View Notes
3. Battery Switch Bypass
Loads (Bilge Pump, etc)

It’s pretty standard in boat wiring to bypass the main

battery switch for one thing: The boat’s bilge pump
!oat switch. This way, even if your battery switch is
off, if your boat starts filling with water the pump will
You’ll probably want to
still kick on. I’d rather have a dead battery than a
bypass your battery
swamped boat.
switch for this important
load
Notice the fuse shown – this needs to be circuit
protected with an inline fuse like this one. I’m also
showing the negative return wiring for the bilge
pump in this step.
 A stereo memory line might be
another “bypassed” load

We have an in depth article here on how to wire a

bilge pump… check that out as well for more details.

Diagram

! View Notes

Testimonial:

“I have been thrilled with my

new panel with a 3 foot
harness. It looks great and
 using your tutorials I have
been able to rewire my 10
year old center console. The
support I received from New
Wire Marine went above and
beyond. Thank You!”

-Robert B. Bethesda, MD.

LEARN ABOUT OUR SWITCH PANEL

BUILD PROCESS!

4. Get the Source to the

Boat’s Helm

The next step is to get the power from the house

battery up to the switch panel where we can use it to Example of one of
do some good. Two conductors – a positive from the our Switch Panels with
battery switch (with a fuse) and a negative from the Built in Circuit Breakers
ganged together battery negatives should be ran to
where the central switch panel is. You should use
SEE MORE
marine grade primary wire for this. EXAMPLE SWITCH
PANELS
This is sometimes a long wiring run on a boat. Plus
these two conductors will carry the current of all
your electrical loads combined, so they are typically
fairly beefy cables. Even a small boat (3-5 loads) we’d
recommend at least 12AWG wire for this. 10AWG for
larger boats (5-10 loads) is normal. 8AWG is getting
Example negative bus bar.
toward over-kill in most cases for boats under 30ft.
Note, this is different
than a terminal block – all
the screws are “bused”
Remember these are all generalities,
 there are many valid reasons to together.
make exceptions

Keep in mind that the longer your wiring run from

the battery to switch panel is, the more voltage drop
you’ll have (more about voltage drop). Prevent
voltage drop by using larger cable.

The power cables will be run to your New Wire

Marine custom marine switch panel and your tinned
marine negative bus bar. Most of our switch panels
include waterproof resettable circuit breakers with
all the connections pre-made to make them work,
that’s how it is shown here.

Note, if you do not order circuit breakers in your boat

switch panel you’d need to insert a fuse block before
the panel, then individual conductors from each fuse
to each panel (we really recommend including circuit
breakers in your panel if you have space, it will really
make your life easier installing and maintaining your
new custom switch panel).

The main house battery positive conductor will feed

directly into the new switch panel. The main battery
negative should go to a negative buss bar (like this
one), where all your boat’s load negatives will
eventually be attached.

Diagram

! View Notes
Testimonial:

“Excellent company and

personnel! They asked the
right questions and provided
great solutions!”

-Tre McC. Houston, TX

SEE OUR BEFORE AND AFTER

PICTURES
5. Install Terminal Block as
Breakout Point

If you get your boat’s switch panel fully wired (more

(click to enlarge)
on that here), then you’ll have an easy to install
wiring harness coming off pre-installed with heat
This is how one of our
shrink labels, and ring terminals. This is meant to
fully wired switch panels
land on a terminal block like this one.
would interface with a
terminal block. With our
Each switch output gets its on gang on the terminal
heat shrink labels it’s easy
block, and with the labels right there it makes a
to hook up your load
handy breakout point for troubleshooting or adding
wiring and troubleshoot.
items down the road. These are the positives of
coarse – the “switch legs” – and all that’s needed is
to crimp a #8 ring terminal on the positive load
wiring that runs out around your boat to the various
loads.

We’re showing one output from the terminal block

here for the manual bilge pump switch. It’s shown in
parallel with the !oat switch, so either switch can
turn the pump on (read more about bilge pump
wiring here).

Diagram

! View Notes
Testimonial:

“I have enjoyed working with

the entire team, they have
been super, just a great
company to do business
with.”

-Jim R. Vero Beach, FL

SEE EXAMPLES OF OUR PANELS!

6. Run Load Wiring to the
Terminal Block and Buss
Bar

From here the rest of the wiring is straightforward.

Just hookup your existing boat wiring infrastructure From here on our it’s just a
to the terminal block and buss bar. Positives to the + and – wire run to each
terminal block, and negative to the bus bar. load

Most are terminated with standard #8 ring terminals.

The positives of coarse must be installed on the
correct gang associated with the respective switch
for that load. The negatives can go on any screw on
the buss bar, they are just trying to get back to the
negative post on the battery.

Diagram

! View Notes
Here is a tabbed step-by-step diagram for
how to wire a boat

Batteries

Battery Switch

Bilge Float Switch

Main Feeders

Terminal Block

Load Wiring
 Dig our Boat Wiring Content?

We’ve got lots more cool boat wiring stuff to share!

Signup below for the occasional interesting – not spammy – Boat Wiring tip email,
and we’ll email you our complete
13-Page PDF with a bunch of schematics, tips, tricks and checklists to help with
your re-wire project, and beyond!
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