Rate my electrical panel

[peaman]

In the process of replacing the refrigeration unit in my 1987 32-3, I need to replace a DC power cable with a heavier gauge (the two white cables at left in the image). I bought the boat just 6 weeks ago, so this is the first time I have looked at the back side of the DC electrical panel. Does this look normal, or is a re-configuration needed? if the latter, pics would be appreciated.

 

[Christian Williams]

That looks familiar.

E32-3 - Part 1--A Novice's Guide to Panel Reorganization

A yacht distribution panel that is a bad hair day from the 1980s is easy to ignore if the boat electronics sort of work. When I changed stereos last year I just crimped and crammed the new wires in. Then a few months later came a new GPS. Soon I...

ericsonyachts.org

E32-3 - Part 2--A Novice's Guide to Panel Reorganization

Every wire was now crudely identified. There were shiny new Blue Sea bus bars and connector strips to mount, so I cut pieces of half-inch marine plywood, painted it white to increase visibiity, and screwed it to a batten against the bare hull...

ericsonyachts.org

 

[Loren Beach]

What Christian said!
Alas, our 1988 panel backside looked a lot like that, too. I cleaned it up quite a bit, but nowhere near perfect.....

 

[bigd14]

I'd give it a 5.0. Maybe add a bonus point because there is no romex house wiring mixed in there. It probably all works, but could benefit from a tidy up.

 

[peaman]

That looks familiar.

Just what I needed. Thank you!

 

[Dave G.]

Looks a lot like mine for sure. I just checked & tightened all the connections, tidied up the wires and put the panel back in. Lot of not so tight screws on mine so that's the first thing I would check. I'll give it a 6 !

 

[nquigley]

on the bright side - you can be glad your 1-2-OFF battery selector switch isn't also mounting in that panel - mine is, and it really complicates any plans to reorganize the bowl of spaghetti that's behind that panel.
Also, since the panel is positioned at an angle of less than 90 degrees to the nav station table, it's not going to be possible to retro-fit the panel to have a nice piano hinge opening mechanism without extra effort: I built a triangular frame onto which I now mount my panel so it is 90 degrees from the nav table's lip, but I still can't do a piano hinge because of the heavy battery cables.

 

[markvone]

Some of the Ericson models just don't have the room or configuration for a neat, organized cable run. Some Ericson owners don't worry about the hidden wires as long as they go to the right places, are the correct size and have solid connections. I'm in both camps. I'll give a bonus point for labels.

Here is mine after pulling a shoe box of unused wire, checking all connections and labelling every wire. My AC panel is above, no piano hinges on either panel, the area behind both panels is a small triangle through which pass 90 percent of the cables (AC and DC) going up to the overhead and down to the bilges. Battery switch (replaced) mounted on DC panel so heavy gauge battery cables require wrestling match to access rear. I'm totally OK with this. I say if you don't like the tangled bird's nest of wires behind your panels, don't look back there!
(Chartplotter since relocated to helm.)

Mark

 

[Christian Williams]

On the current boat I hinged the panel door down, and just moved the grounds onto a new connector strip. That exposed the circuit breakers and their lamps, which were otherwise impossible to access.

Neatness isn't that big a deal, I just need to be able to get to components -- otherwise they remain mysterious and hard to understand or check up on.

E381 - Sailboat DC Electrical Panel Revision

See also "A Novice's Guide to Panel Reorganization," Parts 1 and 2 here. This project started with a sigh. The little I know about yacht distribution panels is more than I wish I knew, and a glance suggested hours of tedium ahead. The panel was...

ericsonyachts.org

 

[windblown]

View attachment 38884
In the process of replacing the refrigeration unit in my 1987 32-3, I need to replace a DC power cable with a heavier gauge (the two white cables at left in the image). I bought the boat just 6 weeks ago, so this is the first time I have looked at the back side of the DC electrical panel. Does this look normal, or is a re-configuration needed? if the latter, pics would be appreciated.

Here's what mine looked like, months ago, amid the pandemic, as I began the process of the DC Panel re-wiring, which I still believe is some strange form of viking hazing. And here's what it looked like, just before we launched this a.m.
I made an error in judgment, which was to hinge the right side if the panel (temporarily), and then put my new terminal strip in the left inside wall, and negative bus in the back.. This required wires long enough to cross the space from the "door" to the opposite side. It was fun in winter, practicing my crimping and heat shrinking skills. I even increased the wire size on several circuits to prevent voltage drop. But alas, my beautiful wiring took up so much space, I couldn't close the door. Really. Finally, I switched strategies and hinged the bottom. Moved the AC wires off to the side, and folded it all in. I don't think my re-wiring did much aesthetically, but I can attest to the strength of those new connections, and I now know so much more about my boat, in particular, and marine electrical, in general. And I am quite proficient now at crimping and heat shrinking, (I've done more than 200 new connections), but I have a long way to go with planning and organizing.

 

[nquigley]

Here's what mine looked like, months ago, amid the pandemic, as I began the process of the DC Panel re-wiring, which I still believe is some strange form of viking hazing. And here's what it looked like, just before we launched this a.m.
I made an error in judgment, which was to hinge the right side if the panel (temporarily), and then put my new terminal strip in the left inside wall, and negative bus in the back.. This required wires long enough to cross the space from the "door" to the opposite side. It was fun in winter, practicing my crimping and heat shrinking skills. I even increased the wire size on several circuits to prevent voltage drop. But alas, my beautiful wiring took up so much space, I couldn't close the door. Really. Finally, I switched strategies and hinged the bottom. Moved the AC wires off to the side, and folded it all in. I don't think my re-wiring did much aesthetically, but I can attest to the strength of those new connections, and I now know so much more about my boat, in particular, and marine electrical, in general. And I am quite proficient now at crimping and heat shrinking, (I've done more than 200 new connections), but I have a long way to go with planning and organizing.

I was rewarded the same way: I committed a tidiness back there ... created a neg bus bar, labeled everything, bundled things with cable ties, etc (second pic). Only to find that, while the previous birds nest could be coaxed back behind the panel, the neater version could not. In the pic you can (just) see the frame I built for mounting the DC panel (first pic). It stands about 1.5" off the wall on the nav table side and <0.5" off on the opposite side. This just barely provided the extra volume needed to get the wires to all go back when it was screwed back in place, and to be easier to remove/replace without scratching up the edge of the nav table.

 

[Kenneth K]

Ya'll are way ahead of me.



I'm thinking about just moving that negative bus bar to inside the compartment and tidying up a few of the positive leads. Someday....

Or, maybe I'll save it for the next pandemic.

 

[Nick J]

I tackled this project recently and am really happy with how it turned out. I fully admit I went overboard and it really doesn't offer that much greater functionality, but it's much easier to troubleshoot, I have more than enough room for expansion, and it's exponentially easier to understand what's going on. I used din rail terminal blocs with disconnect functionality, blue sea system negative buss bars, and labeled everything with heatshrink labels. To hide and organize the wiring, I used slotted cable tray with covers.

The before didn't look bad especially from the outside with the new bluesea systems panel, but half the return wires and 5-6 of the positive didn't actually go to anything anymore. There were left in various places throughout the boat.

 

[Christian Williams]

"Slotted cable tray." If only I had known. Lovely.

 

[Dave G.]

I tackled this project recently and am really happy with how it turned out.

Wow that's impressive. I would want to leave the panels off to admire the work !

 

[Nick J]

"Slotted cable tray." If only I had known. Lovely.

View attachment 38923

Yup, when you combine it with cable tie downs and velcro straps it almost seems pleasant to work behind the panel.... Almost.

I have an extra piece of it left over if anyone local would like to try it on their boat

 

[DaveE26]

I also tackled the mess, made the panel from scratch.

 

[Nick J]

I also tackled the mess, made the panel from scratch.

That looks really clean. I like the custom buss bars and the way you routed the circuits off the breakers. Did you custom make the protector on the back of the ac panel too?

 

[Loren Beach]

That plastic cover over the AC breaker section is an ABYC mandate from some time ago, and back then I had to add a cover to our panel to be compliant.
Minimal cost to have it fab'd up @ Tap Plastics. I made a paper pattern and a rough drawing, and they did the heat bending and flamed the edges.
I grew to like it quickly -- I can work more safely behind the panel and still have shore power for tools and etc.
Picture of ours here: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/ac-panel-protection.2182/#post-10002

 

[toddster]

Some wiring porn of the highest order here.
I learned the hard way that the panels and devices are the easy part - neatly laying the cables (and anticipating all the cables that there will be) is the hard part - often left out of the plan. That goes double for little NMEA black boxes and the like. I may end up re-doing my re-do at some point.