Am considering adding LCD/DVD to my 2000 38' on the outside of the front wall of the bathroom (facing the V-berth). Anyone know how to get behind the mirror to do the wiring? Also, how are you guys getting wiring from one side of the cabin to the other? Under the step at the cabin entry?

Finally, anyone ever asked Fountain how much to retrofit factory shorepower, A/C and gen?

You can run the wiring behind the light panels along the top corners, and thru the nose by removing the forward mirror. Some unused storage space up front in the beak.

I am not sure what Fountain would charge, but I purchased all OEM products for the shore power, AC, charger, stainless plumbing, offshore sea strainers with an extra ports for the AC pump and flush systems and I am up to $3,400 in parts alone. The Westerbeke 3.0 gas generator is $6500 for the unit, plus shore/gen switch, plumbing, wiring, exhaust/muffler, water dumps and installation. My guess would be ~$12-15K to do everything. I have the entire parts list for my project if anyone is interested.

BTW, does anyone know how the countertop comes off?

I know this isn't as good as real shore power but since I rarely sleep on the boat, I used one of the Guest Sportsman 2622 battery chargers that can deliver 20 amps 12V continuously to run all the accessories as well as charge the batteries. I also added a Xantrex 1750 AC inverter to run the TV/PS2. Those two don't make the inverter work hard enough to cause the cooling fan to run. The vacuum on the other hand ...

FC,

I'd like to see some pics of where you mounted the charger/inverter...also, do you just use a standard 15A extension cord and adapter to tie into the shorepower?

Gary

Gary,

The 38 is in storage and I don't seem to have any pix. I mounted the inverter under the port side rear seat and took the power right off the battery selector switch. The charger is in the engine compartment in about the same place on the bulkhead.

The inverter says use as short a 12V line as possible so I have a 1 ft line to inverter and a ran a 10-3 outdoor rated power cord to the plexiglas column in the cabin and a outlet. I also added an extra 12 volt outlet in the column at the same time for the big front Endless Breeze hatch fan.

I can plug the charger or the extension cord into the dock power with an economical Charles 30 amp twist lock (dock side) to a standard 15 amp plug and 25' power cable on the boat side. This was the cheapest and most versitle set up for my limited power needs.

FC

US1, Thanks for the heads up on the Paneltronics panel.
I liked it so much that I'm ordering it to up grade the stock/factory cheapo unit in there now.
I also like your power point for a phone charger cord.
It's perfect....I have 3 accesories and that panel has 3 place switching.
Here is a pic of what came in the old 42.

Good deal.
I did have to mill the top and bottom of the panel down just a bit (to the white painted line) to get it to fit in the plexy panel. You being a brother machinist, would be no problem if you need to also.
We use the cig outlet all the time. Got tired of having a cord run to the dash outlet. Beats me why Fountain didn't install one in the cabin.... Works out great because all the 12v and 110V wires circuts are right in that U-shaped plexy panel. made for an easy job.