# Marine Wire



## CarpWild (Jun 19, 2011)

I was going to parallel two 12v 7ah batteries together for longer lasting batteries but lighter weight than a lawn and garden battery. Does anyone know if I can get away using regular wire without using marine grade wire? I don't really wanna fry a fish finder.


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## fishincontrol (Jul 9, 2009)

Marine wire is fully tinned and has a higher strand count making it more flexible/less prone to breaking due to movement and vibration. The use of either wire will not fry electronics. Lack of proper fusing fries things. If automotive wire is used it will possibly corrode faster causing loss of power to electronics most likely intermittent when hitting waves and such. You can use regular automotive wire and not harm anything, it may create headaches down the road.


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## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

I use solid copper core wire rather than stranded for my electronics on the boat. It lasts much longer without corrosion issues.



> If automotive wire is used it will possibly corrode faster causing loss of power to electronics most likely intermittent when hitting waves and such. You can use regular automotive wire and not harm anything, it may create headaches down the road.


This is why I changed. I had to pull all the electronics wiring in my boat after problems developed after about 5 years. Put solid copper in and no problems since (about 8 years).


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## CarpWild (Jun 19, 2011)

If I were to just run one battery and included one 3 amp inline fuze, would I need to run two inline fuzes if I paralleled the two batteries? one fuze on each in the circuit?


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## fishincontrol (Jul 9, 2009)

You only put the fuse in the + line going to the device. You want to keep the device protection fuse as close to the device as possible. Now if you are running multiple devices and intend to protect the wiring from short circuit damage then a fuse/breaker sized for the maximum capacity of the wire needs to be installed as close to the source (battery) as possible.


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## fishincontrol (Jul 9, 2009)

Here is a crude image of how to connect a single device to batteries in parrallel. If you do not run 2 batteries then remove the left battery and wires between the batteries.


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## KaGee (Sep 8, 2006)

fishincontrol said:


> You only put the fuse in the + line going to the device. You want to keep the device protection fuse as close to the device as possible. Now if you are running multiple devices and intend to protect the wiring from short circuit damage then a fuse/breaker sized for the maximum capacity of the wire needs to be installed as close to the source (battery) as possible.


What he said!

As for the wire, "marine grade" wire is as described above. Try running a bare copper in any area of salt or brackish waters and your electrical systems will be a mess in a short period of time. The wire insulation on marine grade also meets higher standards than most automotive types. 

As for the solid/stranded argument, I respectfully disagree with the member above. Stranded should be used in all marine application because of the excessive vibration in that environment. Boat manufacturers only use stranded. Stranded will endure the flexing much longer that solid. Can solid wire be purchased with an insulation that meet oil/gas spec? I don't know. I didn't usually use marine grade wire on my boat, but I did use a good automotive rated stranded wire.


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## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

I'll second that - Had electricians rewire some giant exhaust fans in my warehouse.
They re-wired the lines feeding them with stranded, said the regular solid was going to go bad from vibrations.


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## James F (Jul 2, 2005)

I agree with the stranded wiring, also battery to battery wiring should be at least 6,or 8 ga . Vibrations are much higher on any moving object especially a boat.


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