scottgjerdingen

The AT does not have a cigarette lighter power source for external accessories (phone charger, spotlight, tv, fans, etc). What is the best way to to supply accessory power in these boats (1996 32'). TV, fans and stuff like that I am going to hard wire in because they will be mounted in the cabin, but I really don't want to mount a cig lighter in the glass to use with things like a hand held spot or phone chargers. If there are no better/creative solutions, I may wire into the electric panel behind the dash using an extended cord with a cig lighter at the end, and I would let this hang loose vs mounting a lighter in/on the glass.

Griff

Mine has an accessory plug under the steering wheel/ on the angle part of dash bottom.

SHORTFUSE

Carling has a dual USB charger that is the same dimensions as their contura switches. I put that in place of the switch for the mufflers that the boat doesn't have anymore. It's awesome for cell phones. As for spotlights, air pumps. etc, I'm in the middle of making a USB to female cigarette lighter harness. Not sure yet how it's gonna be... I'll post when I get around to finishing it.

scottgjerdingen

Thanks Griff, i'll look closer for that, quickly glancing around I saw nothing in the cockpit area. This would be good because I sometimes use a spotlight powered via cig.

I did go into the space above the sink where there are some switches for cabin lights and I tapped into this providing me with an "always on" power supply and I hard wired a tv and fan into this. I am also going to tie in an adapter box which has 3 cigarette receptacles and 4 usb ports, but first I need to figure the load on this.

What would be really useful is a wiring diagram so I knew what was powering what, how it is fused, and which of many ways to wire something was chosen here. Worst case, i'll wait for a cool day to start tracing wires, flipping switches and pulling fuses to see if I can figure this out

ShortFuse - 2 good ideas. I always wondered what the muffler switch was for...it is a placeholder for a USB port I would be very interested in your usb to female cig harness. If I had to guess, I would not have thought USB pushes enough juice to power something like an airpump or spotlight. That will be a nice rig when you get it finished and I would love to see it (and I can think of applications outside of boating where this would be handy).

ICDEDPPL

iTrader: (1)

GLENAMY 242SS

iTrader: (1)

Scott, If you are planning on adding several accessories many with high amp draws and used mostly simultaneously and for extended periods, the RIGHT way IMHO is to run adequate sized dedicated positive and ground wires to a new fuse/breaker panel and wire from there. This would mean that you are not cutting/patching factory wires or causing wiring problems with the existing setup. If you start over drawing excessive current from existing wiring you WILL cause problems. They will occur most likely at night when you are watching TV with fans running on high and god knows else drawing current. If isolated you can wire accordingly and keep the circuits independent.ie your add on toys cannot effect the operations of your boat.
Extra work/extra safety. Have you ever smelled burning wires on a boat?

scottgjerdingen

Hi Gary - I am running 2 new power/ground lines into the cabin and have no intent on touching anything existing (2 gauge for heavy stereo/amp draws and 8 guage for TV, fans and misc.). Everything will be heavily fused - i've been in a scary as $h!t house fire, don't want to be in a boat fire!

However I think i may have because I created a new problem for myself, port side starter acts like it is in gear - I'll post that later tonight

GLENAMY 242SS

iTrader: (1)

Scott, Good to hear from you. I'm glad you are being cautious with the power upgrades. Sorry to hear about the port motor, not sure what you mean "in gear" I figured you were using boat , you haven't been asking questions. If your starter is not releasing, that is one issue, if the motor doesn't turn over different animal.

scottgjerdingen

I put the details or my latest obstacle here.

My reference to not "in gear" is probably better stated as "in neutral", when I attempt to now start the port engine I get a similar response as I would if I tried to start the boat when not in neutral...or if a kill switch had not been reset.

scottgjerdingen

I picked up what looks to be a 2 cig lighter unit with a digital volt guage in between them. One of the cig lighter looking things is actually a cig lighter, the other has 2 usb connectors. So now I have a place to plug my hand held spot into and a place near the driver to plug my phone in so it doesn't run out of juice running the gopro or stereo via bluetooth.