I just got my new switch panel in from cabelas but the wiring diagram sucks. I see the positives from the switches all go to a connector to the hot from the battery. What I don't get is where the negative wire goes or how to hook ip anything to it. Any advice?

The negative may not run through the switch plate unless its a lighted panel. You will run one line straight to the negative of your device to the battery, then run the positive from the batt through the switch plate and to the device.

If its lighted, and you can't figure it out, post a pic of the terminal side. I can walk you through it no problem.

Ok I think I see now. It's a buss bar I think that's they running it to. Which is pretty much I'm guessing like what ur saying about hooking directly to the battery. It's not a lighted one. I never hooked one up before I had always imagined that the panel had a place for +/- to hook up for power and then everything else just ran to their switches. Ok but another question. I have a 5 switch panel with a 12v plug on it. They have 1 fuse for two switches (3 fuses all together). I want to have switches for my running lights, spotlights, bilge, accessories plugs and mabye some lights to light up inside of my boat if I decide to get them. The fuses are 15a paper says u can put up to 20a fuse. What things can I run on the same fuse? For example can I run spot lights and my running lights on a 15a fuse together? Thanks again in advance

Look at what the amp draw is for the items your powering. I'm doing the same installation right now for my GD build. I only got a 4 gang switch panel though. Max draw for my 1000 gph Johnson bilge pump is 4 amps and ~2 amps for the Perko navigation lights. I plan on using a 7.5 amp fuse for those two circuits. My other two switches will go to interior lights and one open for expansion. I'll probably just run a 5 amp fuse for the interior lights for now. If I add something to the fourth switch I can up the fuse size. I have two 12v accessory plugs I'm wiring into my electrical panel. I'm not putting them on a switch on my panel. I'm running two batteries with a battery switch so I'll run the accessory switches straight to the common on the battery switch. A 100 watt hardhat light pulls about 8.5 amps. So I'll run 10 amp fuses in my accessory plugs. Here's a online conversion site that will give you amp draw if you know the wattage of a light.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/ohms_law.htm

Nathan

Nathan got you pointed in the right direction. Use that calculator to figure out your current draw, and go from there.

Make sure you use a heavy enough wire too. If you only have to run one run from the battery to the panel, I would probably run 8ga. That can carry up to 40a on a pretty long run safely. Then you can run a smaller gauge to your devices. On the headlights, I'd probably run 10. Most smaller devices I would run 12, but could probably get away with a 14.

cool thanks for all the advice!

Ground your boat out from the Negative side your battery.. Then only use your positive leg off of switch panel. When mounting the lights to boat, simply attache negative to screw and positive to panel.

Didnt read everyone elses comments, so if i repeated something, I am sorry..


Uncle J

I agree with cb5331. You will never see me ground anything to the hull on any boat. Boats have way too many issues with electrolysis. If you keep your boat in the water for any amount of time you could be frying the boats around yours also. I'll post some pictures when I get my rig finished wiring in a couple days.

Nathan

X3 on the electrolysis. Some people may never back a problem with grounding to the hull, but I've seen hulls that did have problems and it aint pretty.