Hooking up electronics in an aluminum boat?

Question

I am considering hooking up a VHF radio in the my aluminum boat. It already has a GPS, Radio and 12 volt receptacle on it. When I hook up the VHF how exactly do I need to wire it. Do i need to ground it or can I just use an inline fuse and go straight to the battery?

Answer 1

Just go straight to the battery but make sure you run a inline fuse

Answer 2

never ground anything to the hull of an aluminum boat..the answer is electrolysis.....where stray electrical currents in salt.and to lesser extent fresh....eat the aluminum away. If you were to tie up next to  a steel boat for a few months and there weren't any sacrificial zincs on your boat it would become paper thin.....same thing if you tie to a dock with stray 110v current flowing into the water near your slip.

Terrible thing electrolysis

Answer 3

You need to run a fused hot wire to it and a ground wire. Do not use the boat as the ground. Run the ground wire back to the negative battery terminal, or connect it to a wire that does.

Answer 4

I recommend a switch box for this many electronics, they come with built in fuses and instructions on how to ground all electronics to the battery. This also saves power by allowing you to turn any electronics off by flipping a switch from the conveniently located switch board.