Boat Stereo Wiring

I have a question about wiring a stereo into a boat. I’ve installed several in cars, but I’ve never had to wire one from scratch.

Here’s what I plan on doing, and I was hoping that someone would tell me if I’m doing it right. There are three power wires on the stereo’s harness. I’ll run the ground to the negative terminal on the battery and run both the “constant power” (the one that keeps your radio presets) and the “accessory power” (the one that actually powers the stereo) back to the positive terminal. That way, we’ll be able to have the stereo playing with the engine turned off. The “accessory power” has an inline fuse. Does it sound like I have this planned out correctly?

Also, any tips that you guys have learned while doing yours?

I dont see why it wouldnt work

CA

Heres a stupid question.. does the accessory power turn off when the ignition is off, or is it hot all the time? If its hot all the time.. your going to save a bunch of wire. If you use a tester, some of the terminals on the fuse block may be hot all the time..(lights, etc).. you can tie into one of them fuses.

For a ground.. did you look for a grounding block(cant think of proper name). If one exist, you just need to put a female type electrical connecter ont he ground and connect to the block.. If you can do this.. it will save $20 in wire and a whole bunch of time hiding it.

If you want the sterio to work, you will have to hook up both power leads (red and yellow probably) to a constant power source… you can tie them together and hook them to the same power source. Then your memory wire will be hooked up and you wont lose stations every time you turn the boat off.

If you dont have a fuse block.. you may be able to get power from a switch somewhere in the vacinity of where the sterio will be installed(light switch, etc)… the less wire you run, the less wire that has a chance to get damaged in the future.

I’m not sure if there’s a fuse block right now. I’ll check it out and heed your suggestion if it’s there. I would just be concerned about overloading it with too much power. Other than the tilt/trim, the only switch on the boat is for the lights. Also, I’m not concerned about hiding the wires. It’s a pontoon, so it’s going to be very easy to run the wires under the floor

Ralph, when I did mine, my battery was constantly draining down, because of the power the clock and led’s would take. If I didn’t use the boat for a couple days. I ended up putting an inline switch, just a simple toggle, to turn off the power to the unit. Who cares what time it is when they’re biting !!!

big g

Why would it drain more battery reserve than it would in a car? My car will sit for weeks and the battery is fine. If you shut off the power on the stereo, the memory won’t drain that much, will it?

LEDs, clocks, etc shouldnt use enough power to drain a battery, that could be a grounding issue if that becomes a problem.

Thanks, Huck, that’s what I thought. I’ll ground it to the battery to be sure.

Just finished replacing my soaked radio.

I’ve had mine connected to the fuse in/on the dash (which goes to the starter battery – trim & GPS ant) for over a year now. No problems. It did concern me that when using the CD player that it took more amps. I watch the voltage on my sonar for signs of a low battery.

Also, last year I installed a charger/maintianer for all three of the on board batteries.

Good luck…but don’t call me if your motor won’t start!

Brian, I had you on speed dial just in case! I guess I’ll switch you out of that coveted position.

best bet is to read the manual, I just installed a marine stereo and it was very specific in stating that it should NOT be wired to a constant power source, mine has its own battery for back-up (presets). I wired mine to an extra switch on my dash (ACC).

This spring I installed a fuse block on a direct lead from the battery to the main post on the block, and a direct, fused ground back to the battery. Separate fuses for everything- the marine radio, graph, flasher, stereo, and 12V outlet- in short, all the add-on stuff. Before I did this, I had a nest under the console that any bird would have been proud of, and a ton of interference to boot. All the rewiring has completely eliminated any “noise” on one unit when any or all of the others are running, as well as feedback noise from the outboard. As far as the stereo, both power leads are run together and hooked to the same post on the fuse block, and I have had no problems whatever. For me, it was a 12 pack plus 2 on a Saturday in March, and well worth the time and money invested in the 12 pack plus 2 (but when ISN’T that a good investement) and all the wire and fuse block. The only thing I should have doen differently was to spend the extra money on a spde-type block rather than the glass round fuses. But then I would have had to buy cheaper beer…..