Marlin 300 wiring questions

[dgreen1069]

I am having an issue with low voltage from my house batteries and I believe I may be suffering from corrosion issues. I went through all my battery cables and cleaned them with a dremel, but I think some of the corrosion I saw may be in the actual wiring. Can someone tell me what gauge wiring is on the batteries? My boat is a 2000.....was Grady White using tinned wiring back then or straight copper?

My second question is about the windlass wiring. The windlass has a dedicated 70 amp breaker on the helm. Unfortunately, the windlass must be wired up stream of the 40 amp main breaker that is mounted near the batteries. When I was operating my windlass recently, it kept popping the 40 amp breaker. Is there a wire chase that runs from the rear battery compartment to the helm? I'd like to upgrade the wiring to run directly from the batteries to the windlass breaker on the helm.....without going through the main breaker. I'm thinking about mounting the windlass wiring to my starting batteries instead of my house batteries. All of my electronics are connected to my house batteries and the draw from the windlass makes my electronics cycle off when the windlass is operated. My thinking is that engines will almost always be running when the windlass is used, so it won't really affect the starting batteries. Any thoughts?

 

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

I am almost positive that your windlass is connected to the starting battery, i know mine is.

 

[Tuna Man]

I have only examined the wiring in and around the helm area of my 2006 Marlin, all of the wiring is tinned. I am not sure about the battery cables.

As far as the windlass goes, on my boat if I accidentally hit the 'up' switch and the anchor is already up, the only thing that trips is the helm mounted breaker. I am ashamed to admit this has happened several times, but was easily fixed by simply re-setting the dash mounted breaker. I have never tripped the main breaker and I have used the windlass a few times without the engines running (testing things while tied to the dock).

 

[dgreen1069]

I spoke to Grady and determined that my battery wires are 4 gauge. I was told that the wiring in 2000 was straight copper. I may replace all of my battery wires with 2 gauge tinned wired.

My windlass is definitely wired to my house batteries because when it was bogging down it was tripping the main breaker. The breaker may be weak, so I am also replacing it. I plan on running a new dedicated 4 gauge wire from the starting batteries to the helm for the windlass. I'll add a 100 amp breaker by the batteries to protect the wiring. Hopefully, if the windlass needs to trip a breaker it will be the 70 amp on the helm.