dash switch panel

[darmandude]

OK, I'm making my switch panels and noticed that most of them have the breakers mounted next to them. I have also seen them without. I can understand the breaker near the switch; if it trips, fix problem, and reset.
But as for a cleaner looking panel, I guess locate the breaker's elsewhere, right? Where should these be mounted? Under dash near switches? Near the battery box, near main battery switch and breaker? (mines near the transom)
Any ideas here guys would help. I have the newer carling contura II switches.

[Helmar]

You know, that is a very good question.
The idea of a fuse or breaker is to open the circuit in case of a short.
If the short was clear up in the bow, the battery in the back, then it would be heating up the whole wire between the battery and fused or breaker circuit..
Of course having the circuit open as close to the source of power would make most sense I would think.

On automobiles, they fuse or breaker was always inside under the dash and for what reasons. Keeping them dry, easy access (no so when you get older and I am thinking of my older rigs, such as my 1976 dodge van)
Some of the newer automobiles have the fuse or breakers under the hook in a sealed box of sorts, closer to the power source which makes more sense to me again.

So, if your using 16ga wire on any boat under 20 feet, your not going to have enough voltage drop or loss to really make any difference in how much heat your going to get on the wires or premature blowing of any fuses or breakers. Or, at least in all the boats, hot rods and Motorcycles I have wired up from scratch.

Good discussion....So, who might have some information on this ??opcorn1:

[jaxbot]

Most boats have the fuse panel under the dash. This gives you the ability to feed switches and other appliances with short runs of wire to each of them, and only one wire running the length of the boat.Usually the run from the battery to the fuse panel is with 10/2 or 12/2 wire. Make sure you have an inline fuse no more than 6" from the positive post on the battery.(usually a 30amp). Now you can feed off the fuse panel with smaller gauge wire and the proper size fuse to each appliance. Hope this helps.

[darmandude]

setteled on this

OK, well here's what I've come up with for my switches and breakers. Here's my gauge panel also. I used aluminium (very forgiving) and covered them in grey vinyl (to match my other vinyl). I used #10 flat washers with #6 buttonhead countersunk screws for the mounting. What do you think?

[darmandude]

Installed!!! (just a mock up)

Here's my modernized dash on my 1964 Harvey. I had a hard time trying to find a good way to put the gauges, switches, and breakers on the dash. I don't have a curved windshield, I have a flat glass one with an opening center section, so I needed the center dash area clear of gauges and switches to permit easy access through the windshield opening to the bow. I also wanted a good view of all the gauges without searching around the steering wheel, or elsewhere on the dash. I came up with the bump on the dash and put all my gauges in one place. I was going to place the gauges in a large bump above the steering wheel, but it was just too large and ugly. I got this idea from a G3 170 & 176.

[darmandude]

other

Here's the G3 I got the idea from, and what my dash looked like before.

[Steve_Kiesel]

Very nice, I like it a lot. :GoodJob:

[Yardman]

Good one!

Wow! Cool update on the dash. Custom work like that takes lots of time and planning, looks like it came out real nice. Any chance of pics on how you fabbed up the bump in the dash? Thanks for sharing. - Ross

[Andy E.]

very nice!

[darmandude]

Hey yardman, I didn't get any pic of the hump fab, but I tell you what, it was not as simple as I thought it would be. I used some styrofoam to get my shape, but my first try, the fiberglass resin melted the foam. Start over. I got my shape again and painted the foam with latex enamel paint, but the resin still got through to the foam and melted it. What a mess!! Finally I got my shape again, 3rd try, and covered it with duct tape real good. This time just a little resin got through to the foam, but not enough to distort my shape. After I removed my shape from the foam, I added 6 more layers of glass to to under side. I then ground the boat surface and glassed it where I needed to put the hump.
Lesson learned: next time find urethane foam, polyester resin is kind to it.

[DMCI]

CG rules on 12 volt protected circuits.

Gentlemen;

What I am reading is that boats are required to have breaker or fused panels by USCG rules. (Just like Fire Extinguisher.)

Some verbiage in all this about date of MFG, but it's a good idea in any even as suggested by Marty.

I am planning to use heavier wire #12 for run to panel and 13 to 16 for next step to devices.

Dave

On another subject, I didn't see ground wires on marty's tank installation. What do you do for master ground (like keel plate) on outboard boats. Do you tie it in to DC panel's.