Kyle's 24V Ballast Thread

[chpthril]

Guys,

I wanted to also ask a few questions on the drain pumps and wiring...

Drains:

1) do I need to "mount" the drain pumps to the floor or side wall of the boat in any way or are the pumps secure enough with the hoses on each end?
2) With my dual aerator bow sac drains - do most people place the pumps in the bow compartment and then run the hose up the side and down into the midship area (same as fill and vent)? Or do I drill small holes in the divider between the bow and mid ship and then run the drain line from bow to the midship locker and then up to the drain hole? Would drilling holes in that barrier between the midship and bow cause any structural issues or is this not recommended at all?

Electrical:

1) What sort of connectors should I use to connect the pumps to my wire?
2) Where do the fuses go?
3) Do I need any special connectors to hook into the actual switches?
4) I am assuming I should solder everything?

Thanks guys,
Kyle

Heading out this AM and will be doing some on-site jobs today. Back in the shop this afternoon and will add some thoughts.

[dukesofhazzard]

my aerator pumps for the drain on my front sac just sit on the floor attached to the bag, Ie- lowest point. and then they just go out the sides of the boat at the front. Mine is factory setup.

[Wakeman22]

So to answer a few based on what I did. I used an automotive type 2 pin plug at each pump and soldered all the connections along with with heat shrink. Your switches will have knife like connecters so use the correct size automotive style. Main fuses before everything. I used a blank area in the fuse box under the helm.

Your pumps have to lay flat to prime and are placed on the floor at the lowest point you can empty from. I ran all my hoses, vent and dump, to the amidships area so I could see them as they emptied and filled.

As you work on this post some pics.

[Jetdriver]

I'd drill holes through the bow into midship lockers, run hose through and connect to pumps then drains in there. I'm picky so I'd anchor the line just prior or after the pump to the floor. No structural issues drilling a small 1-2" through the wall between bow sack and midship. Solder and heat shrink is best for connections. I used 12 gauge car style fuses hooked up as close to the power source as possible for the pumps. You can get a bunch of them cheap on eBay. Looking good man!
IMG_4194.jpg

[chpthril]

2) I prefer to locate the drain pumps in the mid-ship locker, opposite side of the wall form the bow sac. No structural issue as you might find that tige has already put a hole there, its just covered by carpet.

1) anchoring the pump body and outlet hose is not a bad idea since that locker will likely be used for storage.

1) you can use a simple butt crimp, or better, a butt crimp thats heat shrink with gel. You can twist and solder and cover with heat shrink with gel.

3) I like insulated female spade .25" for 14ga wire. Very common.

4) no

2) You will want each fuse between the helm B+ BUS supply and each switch. Come right off the B+ BUS with the fuse holder and then on to the switch. This gives each switch and pump its own circuit protection without effecting the others. if a fuse blows only that pump goes down and you will also see that the switch does not light up.

[kjohnson709]

Productive weekend! Major confidence builder with wiring up each pump, moving the batteries, and finishing up my drains. Then I got under the dash and it is like looking at the face of a mountain (with regards to where to tap in for power, ground, and where the grounds go on the switches! See below - I am hoping for some guidance.

I wrapped all of my wiring with the plastic wrap and ran it along the same path of existing wiring.

IMG_5815.jpg

I color coded my fill wires so I can keep track of them up at the helm.

IMG_5816.jpg

I used butt connectors, applied silicone on each end and then shrink wrapped each connection. Do you think doing my connections like this is acceptable?

IMG_5823.jpg
IMG_5824.jpg

My bow connection is a bit jimmy rigged. Since I have two drain pumps and the one wire running to the helm I had three ground and three power wires. Combined they were to large to fit into a butt connector. So I ended up using wire nuts, putting silicone on the under side of the wire nuts and then I heat wrapped the whole thing with more silicone on each end. I know it does't look the greatest but do you think this is an acceptable connection? Safe?

IMG_5825.jpg


I was also able to move one of the battery trays over to make room for the port drain pump. Success!

IMG_5829.jpg

So now I have all of my pumps wired up and all of the wires converging to the location where my switches are going to go (in front of the throttle). I then got under the helm and I have no idea where to tap in for my B+ sources and I also don't know where my grounds would go. It looks like this is a "buss board?" Do I need to run a power cable from the nut where the red wire is to the other nut in order to get power to all of those empty spade connectors? If so, how/where do my ground wires go? Does each switch need its own ground or can I loop them together and then have one ground wire? (this is the last thing I need to do I think before I can test everything!!! Any help is greatly appreciated!

IMG_5826.jpgIMG_5827.jpgIMG_5828.jpg

[Jetdriver]

Looks to me that the red power line is 10 gauge and already powering 4 items that have fuses totaling 50 amps. (That doesn't necessarily mean those items are using that much power) I'm not sure what the amp draw is on those pumps so I'm not positive if it'd be too much load for that single 10 gauge power wire combined with those other items. It appears to me that you can join the two post to get power to the spades though. Personally I'd run new B+ lines to bring power to the switches with a fuse as close to the battery as practical.
You should have a bus bar under the helm somewhere for all the grounds. Should be black in color and have a bunch of black wires hooked to it. IMG_4199.jpg

[dukesofhazzard]

it looks to me that you would need a jumper wire on your bus panel to power those other row of connections, however then that whole row of connections would be live with no cover on them, I ran a power wire to another fuse box chptrhl sent me and fused all the new pumps in that took power from the wire feeding the fused box you already have, it looks like where you have 2 red wires going and one blk wire is your ground bus, not sure why there are red wires in there, starts to make things really confusing. just run a test light across the two and if lights up you have your ground and power.

[kjohnson709]

Thanks guys. So if I run a jumper to that row of connections all would be live to the touch? If so that's no good.

I could run a hot and ground to a new box and then plug in from there.

Does anyone know how much power the Atwood tsunami pumps draw? I guess that will be the determining factor in whether I need to run a new positive line from the battery.

Also, my existing buss board has things that I either don't have (options such as the shower) and I hardly run the heater (I don't think I'd be running it at the same time as my ballast pumps.)

Do you think it's okay to tap into this existing power and not run a brand new positive cable from the battery?

Lastly, I'm worried about my bow connection (pic 5). Do y'all think that's okay?


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[chpthril]

What am I missing I don't understand what is being talked about jumping wires?.

Pumps draw about 3-5 amps each.

I think your bow pump splice is fine.

[kjohnson709]

Hi Mike, the existing bus board (with red wire coming in) powers connections that are already in use. I am thinking I need to run a positive red wire from
That connection to the other nut directly across from it to power up all of the blank spade connectors. The question is whether or not this is safe given all of those spades would be active and I'm only going to use 3 of them or if I should install a 2nd fused buss board. Also, given a max 15 amps on at once (3 pumps on) is the red power wire already coming into the existing board acceptable or do I need to run a new B+ line up from the battery?


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[UNSTUCK]

You should be okay to leave the unused spades alone. If it really bothers you, put a piece of heat shrink over each unused spade, or just push on an unused female spade connector to cover them.

[Jetdriver]

RE grounding switches- you can ground them onto the ground bus individually or as a unit, makes no difference to the switch. You do have one pic with a black double busbar in it. It looks like one side is being used for positive and the other for ground. You can confirm this by tracing wires or using a voltmeter.

[chpthril]

Heres a B+ and B- BUS bar. What size cables are they supplied with? These should do.

That open stud and spades are technically the ground BUS side of that combo fused/NEG. Could they be converted? Sure, just not my first choice.

[kjohnson709]

Okay thanks guys. So I can tap into the areas highlighted by Mike above for my positive and ground. The support wire is 14ga I think. I will try to hook all of my grounds together and then hook into the negotiable side. I will run 3 positive wires with fuses in line (one per pump). Does that sound about right? Thanks all for your help!


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