How to wire to charge battery from solar and engine and shore

Jul 26, 2017
16
MacGregor Venture of Newport 23 Aldie, Virginia. Chesapeake Ba
How do I wire my battery to receive charging from 3 sources? I am adding outboard alternator charging.
Venture of Newport 23 trailer sailer. Boat has built-in smart AC110 to DC12 for infrequent shore power.
Boat has 12"x12" solar panel 15 volt that runs through a controller in the electrical panel.
Shore AC and solar charging work fine together.
I just bought a new outboard engine, Tohatsu 6hp with 5 Amp alternator to charge battery.
How do I wire engine alternator into present system? Do I just run wire pair 20 feet direct to battery in bow? Or must engine wires go thru electrical panel?
Do I need to shut off solar panel before starting engine?
 
Jan 11, 2014
11,323
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
There are many ways to skin this cat.

It could be wired directly to the battery, however, that depends on how many connections are on the battery terminals. The fewer connections to the battery terminal the better.

In general my preference is to have all charging sources feed to a common positive busbar which has a cable to the battery and one to the DC panel. This makes for a nice neat centrally located DC source.

All negatives go to a negative busbar.

There should be a fuse at the battery and at each lead off the busbar.

Something like this from Blue Sea could work.