m&m

My big project for the winter was upgrading most of my battery-related systems. Though some of this had long been on the list, the whole lot got moved to the forefront when my old Newmar 25 AC charger died. At about the same time, one of my flooded LA batteries was having trouble holding...

The bases are mounted the side structure are mounted I bent the top tubes and have them mounted temporally I have to weld crossmembers on the top tubes then bolt some cross members to hold the panels. Its coming along.

It was clear when we bought the boat that it had been designed to sit at a dock with the shore power charger doing the bulk of the work. Then when offshore, I assume it was all about the 100A alternator. However, we weren't going to be having our boat at a dock, so it was imperative that we...

So the first thing to do was trace the wires and figure out what was what. Since MOST of the cable was good Ancor marine wire, my plan was to re-use it, and re-terminate it, using the FTZ power lug crimping tool as found on Marine How To. I did this by using electrical tape, then when I was...

When we bought Rhumb Ration, one of the issues that I had to fix right away was a comment from the surveyor. The main house batteries were not secured in any manner, neither was the engine battery actually. Three batteries were in the original battery box, just sitting there due to friction...

So I'm adding a solar arch on my 26-2 its something to do with a lot of time on my hands. I have a mill and a tig welder to make it less expensive. I'm using 1.5" aluminum tube and making it so I can knock it down without getting to nuts. I just got the bases back from the powder coater and have...

High Voltage I headed out for a day sail this week and was motoring about 50 yards out of my slip when my remote radio mic on my helm began beeping at me and flashing a “HIGH VOLTAGE” warning. Having blown a fuse in a Standard Horizon head unit during my electronics upgrade, this seemed like a...

"Noticee" It began one day when I arrived at the slip and found Rumour's shore power cord disconnected... Spelling errors aside, I immediately wondered who was playing a prank on me and why they would do it this way. Upon calling the marina office I discovered the maintenance staff had...

I’ve been studying adding solar for quite a few years and this summer (2020) I finally purchased two 100 watt rigid panels, two MPPT controllers and the necessary wires that connect the panels to the controllers. Along with the modifications to the lifelines to mount the panels I’ve spent about...

After my boat splashed again after two months on the hard getting a keel rebed and standing rigging replacement, I had all of three days off work where I had to complete a Herculean laundry list of tasks before we left on our fall San Juan Island's cruise. The biggest one as far as net-new work...

Time dedicated: About 7 hours - two yesterday pulling wires and five today messing with fixtures. Edit: 8/5/2020 - Costs: $165 combined on two light fixtures from marinebeam.com. $64 on new tinned wire from Amazon. $81 on the LMR240 coaxial that the boatyard. (does not include the...

On many Ericson models the helmsman can't see the temperature gauge or the tachometer without a swooning, eye-bulging contortion that alarms guests and can cause them to cry out, "Is he all right?" That's because the panel has the ignition, glow-plug and start button on the bottom, and the tach...

One of the marks of good craftsmanship is tight tolerances between materials - pieces of wood, metal ducts, pipes, etc.. It seems that Ericson boats came out of the factory with fairly snug fittings all around. To change around the electronics in my boat, I would need to pull some new wires...