Installing courtesylights in a 19ft bowrider with 150 hp outboard-gctid356375

[Guest]

I am planning to install 3-4 courtesylights in my bowrider 1950 (maxum). There is a "dummySwitch" for this but I would need some info on how to do the wiring. I have one battery and under the dash there seems to be a "ground plate" o something where a lot of wires connects already. Some help/ideas are wellcome.

Thanks

Mag

[Guest]

This shouldn't be very difficult. You should run a power wire from the battery to the dummy switch. Use a relay (SPDT type) to provide power to the lights and the switch controls turning on and off the relay. Make sure you put a fuse on the power line (near the battery) running to the battery. This is how you would wire up the relay and switch. The dummy switch should have two contacts or connections points. Run one of them to the ground plate and the other to the relay as shown.#85 & and #30 go to your power wire from the battery#86 goes to your dummy switch#87 goes to the +12v (positive) side of your courtesy lights#87a is not used

[img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/659320=25044-oj3rsh.jpg[/img]Now connect your courtesy lights positive to #87 and the negative to the ground plate. It's best to also put a fuse on the positive side of the courtesy lights close to where the wires enter the lights.Hope this helps, if your confused I can provide more details.

[Guest]

You might want to consider low power consumption LED lights, these are longer life and will be better sealed for use in a marine environment. Another advantage is the low current rerquirement is better for battery life and would negate the need for a relay, you could send all current through the dashboard switch.

As with any power load that will be on without the engine running, give careful consideration to having a dual battery system or having some other way of starting the engine if the main battery becomes depleted (or just be vary careful with power usage with no engine running)

The simplest wiring is to locate the +12v from the fuse box (preferably with its own fuse) or from a +12v bus point and add an inline fuse, run a wire from that to to the switch, connect the lights between the other contact on the switch and ground and you're good to go. Note that polarity will be important for LED lights though.

[Guest]

Hello

thanks for the info. As I wil have 4 lights (led) I wonder can I connect the lights in a serial or two separate wires to each light? Mag

[Guest]

Hi Mag, the lights will almost certainly designed for 12v use so each light will need two wires to it, one to the ground (or -'ve) and the other to the switched +12v supply. To use 4 operating from the same switch the wiring is technically known as connecting in parallel.

You can use the same two wires and pick up the ground and power feed at the dashboard and run them together so that they pass all of the locations where you will be having lights and then connect the two wires from each light. You could even do this without cutting the two main wires, just peel back some of the insulation and connect in the wires from the LED lights, then preferably solder the joint and insulate it well to prevent shorting later.

Perhaps it would be of benefit if you post a diagram of the wiring that you are planning to put in

[Guest]

Ok. Thanks.

Mag