Powering Helix 9 to battery for first time. Need help please!

I just bought a new helix 9 chirp mega si and di gn3. I have a blue optima battery to hook it up to. I am just setting it up on 14ft Jon boat. All electric. I am trying to keep it as simple as possible. The helix manual says to put a inline 4 amp slow blow fuse in the wire. I have no clue what I am doing when it comes to electric. Should I run wires from the battery to the inline fuse then to the power wire? I don’t know the gauge of the power wire for the helix but it suggests to use any where from 18 awg to 12 awg depending on the length. Can I use 8 or 10 guage? Can I put a 4amp slow blow fuse in a inline fuse holder that goes up to 20 or 30 amps??? Any information and advice will be helpful. Thanks

Stop at an auto parts or Farm/Fleet store and get yourself a water-resistant ATC inline fuse holder like this, with #10awg leads. On one end, add a ring terminal to go to the positive post of your battery, on the other end add #10 wire to reach the Helix harness. The fuse should be placed within 12″ of the battery.

For the negative-side, black #10 with a ring terminal at the battery end, spliced to your Helix leads at the other. Try to solder or use waterproof crimp connectors, to keep moisture out of the connections.

HRG

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You can use larger wire than required. That isn’t an issue. As long as you are using the 4amp fuse the holder is pretty much universal up to 30amp. I would solder the fuse holder on and then solder round ends on to attach directly to the battery.

Ok thank you guys so much. So does the inline fuse only run on the positive wire? The power cable for the helix has a red and black ( negative/ positive) coming out and the other end plugs into the unit. Do I just run the black/ negative wire straight to the negative battery post or does the inline fuse have positive and negative wires coming out? I’m sorry just trying to understand. If I were to solder can you use just regular solder? I watch you tube videos to try and learn all this and I just get more confused and this is my first boat and first fish finder. Thanks guys I really appreciate it.

Solder is a good idea although maybe a little over kill . Fuse is on the red wire only (positive ) . Black wire is just straight to battery. Keep it simple. Try it first if your unsure before soldering. Keep fuse on red wire close to the battery.I’ve wired a lot of electronics over the years with just crimp connectors and rub dielectric greese into them, without a problem.

Ok thanks to all you guys and nice quote. I just made a profile on this website and it is awesome. People that know what they are talking about and friendly and love fishing like I do.

I have always been of the view if you don’t know what you are doing, particularly w something like electricity, pay somebody who does know what he is doing, to do it. You will not regret it. Good luck.

You mention all electric boat if so if using your trolling motor battery for power you may get a ton of interference.

Use electrical solder.