Electrical

After running into several concerning issues with my engine start batteries, I decided to completely rip apart the stock battery cabling on my Nav 4800. I decided to do this because I noticed several concerning issues. Old charger - No temp monitoring and aging gear without a status panel Excess cabling - too much extra cabling on the wall and under the floors just sitting in the bilge Battery terminals overloaded - the terminals had up to 4 connections Lead acid batteries used automotive connectors Stiff cables - these get very stiff with age No fuses - No protection No temp monitor - No protection Glass fuse block - ol…

I did a lot of work researching different battery types for my engine-start application. The following conditions were analyzed. Form Factor - 8D, 4D, G31, G27, and G24 Chemistry - Flooded, AGM, LiFePo - Since this is engine start, I ignored Li Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) - 1100 - This is the 0 degree value Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) - Ignored - This is the 32f degree value and not all batteries had this rating Amp Hours (Ah) - 200-300 - Basically the amount of reserve power required to start multiple engines. I went through all of the battery options I could find at Fisheries Supply. I also compared a few others from West Marine and o…

So I took on this crazy job myself. Removing old "cooked" 8D flooded lead acid batteries. What a messy job. Navigator typically provided three 8D FLA batteries in their 'typical' production line as follows: Battery 1 - Engine Start Battery - Engine 1 & 2 switch + crossover to battery 2 Battery 2 - Generator Start Battery - Generator & Engine crossover Battery 3 - House Battery - Typically fed directly to the panel All three of these batteries could also be combined in case one of them failed. Here's what a typical setup looked like (some may vary of course): Battery 1 on the left. Switches organized as I mentioned …

Here's something I discovered while connecting my Navigator 4800 to my marina. Marina: My marina has supply for 50A/125VAC. See below for the shore power port. Notice how it only has a single point where the connector angles outward. This is a 125VA supply. Boat: My boat has port and cable for 50A/250VAC. See below. Notice this has two doglegs sticking out (and of course the labeling). In order for me to get this to function, I purchased the following Marinco adapter from Fisheries. I also discovered that power will be supplied to both bus bars on the panel. However, any device requiring 250VAC will …

So today I finished my light upgrades. Anyone thinking about this, I highly recommend it. The old Navigator lights are a fire hazard in my opinion. I found many of the lights were burning the ceiling headliner (slowly) and some of the terminals were corroded and black. Some people (ie: previous owner of my boat) have replaced the halogen bulb with an LED board. I found this insufficient as it did not put out enough light as you can see in my photos. The lights I purchased are as follows: All puck style lights: Armacost Lighting PureVue 233412 Dimmable LED Puck Light - Soft Bright White, White Finish Recessed b…