Boat rewiring and Components

Is Marine Grade Wire & Components required or a waste of money?

I am rewiring my boat switching to a 24 Volt Trolling motor from a 36.
I have found numerous articles of which some suggest using Marine Grade (Tinned Copper) Wire and Components.

Where do you find these components?
Connectors to connect 8ga (Battery) to 8ga (Trolling Motor) & 10ga (Charger 3-Bank)

I found some from a company “Connectease” out of Eden Prairie with premade connector assemblies and quick connectors to easily disconnect and remove a battery.

https://connect-ease.com/

IMO a bit higher priced, but then simplifies the whole process and my work/time required with connectors with the correct size wires.

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I can tell you with confidence that non marine grade in a constantly damp environment has caused me some serious issues. It can corrode in a very short period of time.

Marine grade or not, it’s very important to seal your connections as good as possible.

You can find tin coated 8ga wire on McMaster Carr but your local boat dealer service department should carry everything you need at a better price.

I’m thinking Gander should as well. They have an insane amount of marine components.

Thx, I rarely go to Gander as I usually don’t find what I need/want. I’ll check them out.

Fleet Farm was out of stock on most everything I was looking for.

Tip: don’t ask at Home Depot. the guy there had never heard of Marine Grade Wire, thought I was joking.

amazon has recently had marine grade wire on sale.

Since Gander was bought by Overtons, their marine supply section looks like the entire Overtons catalog and then some. Pretty impressive.

I used those connectors and they were broken in less then 2 years. biggill described it exactly!

Please let us know what you find and how satisfied you are.

As stated in the first reply, environment is almost everything. For fresh water, primarily summer fishing, my accessories that are wired with standard auto wire has lasted 15 years. If it is in a salt water environment, tinned wire and marine shrink tube on every connection.

Those connectors are designed for indoor use I believe. I see them on scissor lifts where I work.

I’m positive they make marine grade ones though.

Correction. Those that you have picked out appear to be intended for marine use. However, I would make sure they use tinned wire and plated connections.

biggill wrote:

Since Gander was bought by Overtons, their marine supply section looks like the entire Overtons catalog and then some. Pretty impressive.

X3