Thread: New Boat Project

I found something that didn't make much sense to me. This boat had a 12 volt power point at the bow. It was explained that you could plug in something like a spotlight. My thought was... "why would I be up front with a spotlight". It needed to move to the helm. I removed it, traced the wire back to the helm and positioned it there. I then used the old opening to route my bow mounted electronics. 1 inch wire gromet worked perfectly to make it look finished.



I have spent the last couple of nights finishing electrical and running my transducers. One thing I forgot to cover that might be a good note for people. When you purchase Lowrance products (like an HDS unit and an LSS structure scan unit) the power plugs all have red, black, and yellow wires (LSS also has an unused blue wire). The instructions for the LSS say to splice the yellow wire one of two ways: 1. into the main ignition bus, or 2. putting an inline switch into the yellow wire. This would be to eliminate power to the unit at all times. The issue would be that you would have to have the key on in order to use structure scan.

The HDS instructions however are alot better as it tells you to tie all of your yellow wires together. This allows your units to "wake" other units. In other words, power is in standby or off mode until you turn on your fish finder (HDS unit) then power will be supplied to the LSS. I have this exact setup on two other boats. I tie all of my fishfinders and LSS together. This way I can power them from one unit without bleeding power when not in use.

I only have a VHF radio to install and my wiring is complete. I do have the transducers to mount and trolling motor and I will cover that as I go as there are a couple of products I always use on both setups that others might not use.

The reason you don't see a transducer plug at the bow is I Use my universal sonar from my trolling motor (not yet installed). With this setup (and the gray network cable) I can utilize the transducer from the front of the boat or back of the boat along with structure scan on both of my units. Sitting at the helm I can look at the front or the back. Same with the bow.