Is rigging really that difficult???
 

I wired my fist car front to back when I was 17, not exactly a professional job but neat, thought out and functional none the less. The last 2 boats I have had, the wiring looks like speghetti in a blender. Im trying to troubleshoot things right now and I am half tempted to rip everything out and start fresh. Seriously your a boat company, you have put in how many merc 9 pin harnesses and trim wiring in how many of the same boats?? So why does it look like you hired a junior high shop student to wire it?????

start the project and you will answer your own question takes time to do it right, ive changed mine 3 diff times on my boat, not fun theres so many wires going to lights, pumps, etc. a lot more than the 9pin you mentioned.

To do anything 'right' takes not only time, but experience. Most enter the project with the time and vigor, it's the latter concept that's lacking.

If your boat was built on an assembly line that would explain a lot as to why it looks like that. Most compnies are just trying toget the boat built and out the door. The other thing you have to realize is that wiring is only a small part of rigging a boat.

Almost takes 2 people to do it. One handing tools and supplies to the guy who is in the engine bay or on his back under the dash. I have did it under the dash of my hydrostream HST...talk about tight.

Only thing wired worse than most boats is most RV's.

I think it just boils down to time.

So the boat builder needs to sell a boat for X dollars. To do that, rigging is given X amount of time.

Vs.

Cigarette's rigging is the way it is for the simple reason the boat builder can charge for better rigging in the selling price.
So the rigging is given more time.

A lesser dollar boat buyer isn't thinking about the bow light not working someday and the time to track down the wire mess.

I used to do central office telecom install so I had a little practice making things look decent. Re-wired the entire boat, only re-used the 9-pin harness, it took a long time and was expensive. All the different color wires to keep things straight. Or if you are really good you can do everything in black and white as long as you label everything. Rough everything in that you will need, then pretty up the helm and work out.

One other suggestion is to use the drill trick to twist the +12/GND together for say your blowers, bilge pumpts, etc and run all your grounds back to the helm to a bus bar. Makes it easier and keeps it tidier. And lots of ty-wraps and cushion clamps.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]501550[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]501551[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]501555[/ATTACH]the other issue is how many "other" hands have been under there to "fix" something or add another acc that wasn't stock from the factory?? you get a local stereo shop to install a head unit that doesn't know their way around boats and you get "interesting" results! That or if you happen to have a friend that wants to "help" and decides to start the project before you arrive and takes the entire dash apart without labeling anything to "save you time" :eek:

I'm with c_deezy! Using a drill is awesome and I have OCD when it comes to matching, even, color coded and overall appearance. I can't leave anything halfa$$ed or I have to over engineer it. Take your time and learn the rigging process. It's definitely not a jump in and go process.

Same here! I used to do PBXs and 5ESSs. I also did a lot of cryptography and government communications where we had to do all of that INSIDE of conduit; which we bent and installed first. I've gone through more bags of zip-ties/tie-wraps in my life than I have individual beers. The guy who was my mentor had a pair of yard pruning shears that were razor sharp. If he didn't like what you did; he sliced out all of your wiring, and ripped out all of the conduit with a portable bandsaw. For inspection, he'd kick you out of the room/building; and you would re-enter to him either nodding or walking away from a pile of $hit on the floor. One only had to see that pile of copper and steel one time to know you were not going to make that mistake again.

Consequently, I go a little overboard when installing anything in my house, barn, boat, truck; etc. etc. In my experience, you can't troubleshoot something down the road if you can't tell what you are looking at.

I started doing Nortel DMS-100 then moved into wireless. Wireless standards were pretty lax at the time so they brought a bunch of the landline guys over to clean up the wireless offices, spent a few years doing that. There was a guy similar to that in our area, same thing if it didn't pass his quality he just cut it out and you started over. If you failed an audit, you got fired. One thing it did was teach attention to detail and pride in work, and like you said it carries over into every other cabling, wiring, plumbing project you do from that point on. I still have bins of ty-wraps, lacing cord and flag-tags that I saved over the years.

wow this talk of PBX'z and Nortell realy takes me back to my Motorola days working on EMX2500's in R&D :D I still have bags of zip-ties in the garage! I haven't bought any in a good 15yrs now! LOL