wiring a jon boat

ja88red

Senior Member
I have a 1436 tracker it has a 4 switch panel mounted in the rear seat. What guage wire is needed to run trolling motor and a depth finder to the front I have nevwr done anything like this before so I am new to it all
 

serving1Lord

Senior Member
I have a 1542LW Tracker. I wired my bow mounted trolling motor with 10 gauge wire. Works like a champ. Hope this helps.
 

Todd71673

Senior Member
I'd say like a 6awg or bigger for the TM depending on how far away it is from the battery you might not need any. As far as electronics go I'd use 12-16awg because not much juice is flowing but you want it to be sturdy.
 

Maggie Dog

Senior Member
you need to know a few things.
how many amps on the trolling motor?
and the length from battery to the motor and back again to the battery. you figure DC voltage like a round trip.
Give me this info and I can tell you the size wire, or you can go with some 8 wire and you should be good to go. run a dedicated line for your electronics, sometimes you can pick up interference from other things. a 12 wire would be ideal. kinda overkill, but you would not have to worry about undersizing wire.
Boats should use tinned wire with the proper tinned connectors. do a study of boat wiring on the web, it's easy , it's also another excuse to buy more tools, if you like collecting tools.
If you don't feel like tackling the job, I could wire it up.
 

ja88red

Senior Member
well it is wired but I want to make sure it is wired correct before I get out on the water with it
 

Todd71673

Senior Member
How bout some details; Battery in the back or front or both? TM on front or back or both? Is the Livewell wired in to the boat or independent?
My thinking when I built mine was that I wanted two independent systems of propulsion; 2 batteries and 2 TM. Because I really never want to use my paddle!
 

ja88red

Senior Member
I have two batteries, motorguide 45lb, lowrance mark 5 pro, and a mark 4, bildge pump and bow and stern lights
 

ja88red

Senior Member
both battries in back foot tm up front a toho livewell in the middle ont depth finder up front and other in the back might get another battery just in case
 

Todd71673

Senior Member
3 Batteries would let you fish all day for sure! I would suggest a rear TM too, it makes it a world easier to load and unload from the trailer, and the "turbo" to change locations is nice. Not to mention the piece of mind knowing that if one TM goes out you still have another to get you home. I had the brushes go out on my foot control the first year I had it, without a rear TM I would have been SOL!
 

FARMS100

Senior Member
USE AS BIG WIREAS YOU CAN. I USE 10 ft OF #6 THAT WAY YOU LOSE NOTHING IN THE WIRE , 50 AMPS IS A LOT OF AMPS. IT WON'T BE MUCH 12-15 DOLLARS.
 

ja88red

Senior Member
3 Batteries would let you fish all day for sure! I would suggest a rear TM too, it makes it a world easier to load and unload from the trailer, and the "turbo" to change locations is nice. Not to mention the piece of mind knowing that if one TM goes out you still have another to get you home. I had the brushes go out on my foot control the first year I had it, without a rear TM I would have been SOL!

I plan to get a tm for the back prob. a 50lb or so
 

cjlake88

Senior Member
For the lights I used 14 gauge, the bilge i used 12, once i get a fish finder i will use 12, and go as big as you can for the battery! On my battery hookup I think i have 8
 

robert0035

Member
I would run 4-6 awg to the trolling motor with a 50amp breaker and 12-14 awg to the lights and depth finders make sure everything has the correct size fuse...
 

EClass

Senior Member
1652 Lowe

Here are pics and a Diagram with Gauge wire I used. I actually used 14 to Bilge once I got into it. PM me with any questions.
 

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Consider running your common/ground wire to a bus in the front of the boat, and hooking everything up to that. Will save you a lot of wire.
 

Toffy

Moderator
I rebuilt mine 4 times

I had a 16 48 Grumman that I finally got right, and then it was stolen.
The thing that amazed me was how the number of switches and fuses grew. Plan ahead.
I did find that 6 gauge wire for trolling motor duty was a good thing.
I did find that trolling motor batteries were best left to ONLY that job.
I did use two motors; the fishing trolling motor on the front of course, and would use a gas motor in some waters and a trolling motor on the back in other waters.
I only had one depth finder but I did have two transducers and could attach the depth finder to read front the back transducer when I was running the gas motor when I was driving from the back with the gas motor, or locate it up front and read from the trolling motor transducer when using that motor.
(When using the trolling motor on the back, it always only pushed forward and was activated by a simply on/off switch on the front deck.)
I had either a livewell or an ice chest in the center, in some cases both but the boat was really full in those cases and I didn't do it often.
BTW, I had a lot of fun building it every time and I caught a BUNCH of fish!
If ya wanna get real smart, built it to weather salt water and go chase some of those fun shallow water fish, like reds and specks and flounder.....
Best of luck.
 
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