Id do full to helm twin ram hydraulic steering before I did anything else, fwiw. I initially did twin ram external on my Baja 272, my gimbal was still "tight" with no slop and it still chine walked over 65/70 once you were no longer accelerating . When I added the char lynn helm valve and made it full, boat was night and day different. Another consideration is twin ram hyd supports the drive/gimbal ALOT, I did NOT have a hp gimbal on that boat ever and even doing a partial spin at over 95 mph sideways did NOT break gimbal, I attribute that to the twin rams supporting drive in each direction.

Guys,

I’ve been keeping myself busy working on cleaning up the electrical and planning for the fuel and oil plumbing. I’ve got all the plumbing fittings and hose ordered, and they should start arriving momentarily. I’ve got a fused distribution block and am planning on making a ground strap. I plan on having two 3/8 tapped holes for battery negative connection and connection to the block, and several 10-32 holes for other connections. Is it OK to make it out of aluminum?



Thanks. Brad.

All I would say and I am sure you know aluminum and SS don’t play well with each other.

Wildman,

I’m well aware. The only potential contact between stainless and aluminum in this case would be the heads of the wood screws that would hold the strap in place. If I should worry about this, I could easily use nylon washers.

My question is in regard to conductivity. Obviously, we all know aluminum is conductive, but not nearly as much as copper. I would never even consider using aluminum for a 12v hot strap, but a ground might be a completely different thing. I’m better with DC than AC, but electrical in general is not my wheelhouse. I have this piece laying at the shop and it suits my purpose, even if it’s probably bigger than it needs to be. I could easily buy a piece of copper, machine it as intended, and have it nickel plated as a corrosion barrier. I just don’t know if the difference in conductivity is significant enough to go to the trouble and expense, and was asking if anybody had any experience with aluminum to verify or advise otherwise.

Thanks. Brad.

Aluminum and copper don't play well either.

There's better options. Tin plated copper. Something like that. If you use a grease on the terminal connections, it isolates the moisture and salt as well as isolates the oxygen etc. Regular EP2 grease, is the most tacky. Yes it works. No it doesn't stop conductivity.

Although it doesn't 'look' pretty, it's reliable. Make a cover or something. Or tin the copper. Use a high tin electronics solder and torch to heat up the copper buss. Knock off the excess when molten.

BlueSea’s ‘Power Bar’ Bus Bars say they are tin plated copper.
https://www.bluesea.com/products/cat.../PowerBar_1000

On my boat I used a couple similar to those, why make what is easy to buy.

EDIT:

BTW I blame you for me doing buss bars Brad, its when you were making battery covers and I have to many wires going to the battery so I installed the buss bars. My engine compartment even with twins has more room but it still was a PITA during Florida summer installing them.

So,,,,,, I don't like you,,,LOL.

Yeah... I'm (not so) slowly talking myself out of the aluminum. I'll be calling one of my regular material supply houses today and see what they've got on hand in the way of flat bar copper.

Thanks. Brad.

Wildman,

Typically, I am 100% in agreement with this mentality. Buying is almost always cheaper and easier than making. But, quite often, I can't buy what I actually want. Be it quality or design, what's market available just doesn't suit my needs. In this case, I am very particular about how I want to set it up, mostly due to space constraints. If I were doing a full resto-mod, where I were going to strip everything out and start from scratch, I would likely just buy something, and plan accordingly. But I'm not doing that. I'm working with what is already there, and just correcting what we see as sub-par wiring.

Plus.... I like making stuff. There's just something very satisfying about looking at a completed project and reflecting on the fact that "I made that". It's particularly rewarding to see it on other people's boats.

Ultimately, I am going to have the whole ship running off the battery switch; nothing coming straight off a battery except the MerCathode.. I don't want to ever by drawing on both batteries at once, except in those rare occasions when fate and poor decisions make it necessary, or drawing on a battery that isn't actively being charged while running. I'm going to have a 4ga wire running from the switch to a fused distribution block (I bought that.), then running to the fuel pump, trim pump, main breaker box and ECM as isolated circuits. Don't worry, it's fairly well protected from the elements. If water is getting to this, I have bigger problems than a short in the system.

Shockingly, I found a 12v HOT strap, completely exposed, under the dash, during the oil temp gage project. I covered it with several layers of 3" wide duct tape.

Thanks. Brad.

Wildman,

You're welcome.

Clean installs are always good. When I'm done, there will be exactly ZERO connections to my batteries that aren't the 1/0ga battery connections to the switch. I'm going to connect to one of the two battery connection studs on the switch for the MerCathode, and run it alongside the 4ga going to the distribution block.

FWIW, I can still make you those battery terminal covers. They work great.

Thanks. Brad.