TomZ

iTrader: (2)

I'm working on upgrading the tunes in the boat and need some advice on wiring up the amplifier (and the head unit as well, I guess).

I have a 400W Hoffman amp and a Alpine CDE-7821. I had the HU wired directly to my battery selector last season as it was really simple. I plan on adding a junction block to handle the amp and the HU (amp will get 8 AWG, the HU will get 16 AWG) with a 80 amp fuse/block at the power source. My real question is how to wire it up in terms of the batteries. I have two batteries on the boat; a 1000 CCA marine starting battery (not deep-cycle) and a marine deep-cycle "house" battery. I also have a 4-position battery selector switch which has settings for off, 1, all, and 2. It does not have an isolator built into it. Should I wire the system to work exclusively off of the engine side (which at achor could drain the battery causing an engine start problem... with the cylinder pressure that I have that would be really bad, but it is constantly being handled by the alternator while cruising) or should I wire it to the "house" battery which will only power my anchor lights, interior lights, and VHF (I would imagine that I could charge this battery while cruising as well once the other battery has replenished itself).

I'm going to start getting this together today so if anyone has any insight into this that would be great.

One other thing. I was looking through my BOAT/US catalog and in the "tips" section they mentioned something about ajusting the voltage regulator to work with the load on the electrical system of a given boat. Can a Mercruiser regulator be ajusted? I believe that I have either the Motorola alternator or the Mondo. Any ideas?

Thanks!

28Eliminator

TomZ, I just went through the same thing. I hooked mine upto the house battery, just because I hate dead starting batteries. I'm thinking about an isolator because I think it is the way to go. Changing the switch to all so you can charge the batteries is a pain in the azz. Maybe Audiofn or Forrest will give us some insite.

TomZ

iTrader: (2)

I got it all hooked up and had it playing for about three hours this evening. Looks like the house battery will do just fine for handling the stereo and lights. I'll switch over to charging the battery when under way, though the battery seemed to last quite a while in the driveway. I don't really boat at night so lights aren't that big of a concern anyway (except for the 4th of July).

It was nice to actually listen to my CDs while sitting in the cockpit... amazing what a 400W amp can do for a simple system.

Audiofn

Good call on doing it the way you did

Jon

28Eliminator

Good job Tomz. Now you can jam on your favorite tunes while cruising on the water. Have a good boating season.

TomZ

iTrader: (2)

I had another amp in there before... another Hoffman that I had. It went belly up though, and I had kinda hacked it in there anyway so I wanted to do it right.

My biggest "want" in installing the amp was to be able to hear my tunes over the exhaust. The switch to thru-hulls the season before really made it hard to listen to anything with the engine running. Now I don't think I'll have too much of a problem.

Tom

28Eliminator

Yea turn it up. 400 watts should do a great job. I just put in 600watt Rockford Fosgate 5 channel. Then the speakers sounded terrible, so I bought 4 new 6.5 in speakers and 2 10" subs. Now I will be able to hear over the motor also. It'll be great!