Adding 12v Plug on Edson Pedastal

[JoeP]

We have a "new to us" 2008 Hunter 33 that we bought last December and have been sailing all summer. I am an engineer/serial tinkerer, and have designed and/or built small boats, electrical bicycles, etc. for years. However, I am very, VERY nervous about opening up my steering pedastal to try to tap a 12v plug off one of the existing circuits. I love my boat and am seriously afraid I will mess something up. Can somebody who has already pulled theirs apart put my mind at ease???

Signed,
Paranoid at Sea

 

[Mulf]

you might consider...

...running a separate wire from the electric panel instead of tapping into electronic wiring at the helm. Perhaps using a spare circuit breaker. I did that and even added a few 12 volt sockets at the nav table for phone chargers and the like.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Fear is the first enemy!
All you are going to find inside are the steering and possibly the engine control cables and 12 volt wiring for instruments. If the engine panel is integral then all those electronics will come out with the panel.
The engineering question is where are you going to find the power and ground circuits to handle the outlet? If you are going to be the final owner of the boat then you may be able to down rate the circuit based on how you know you will use it. The next owner may be a smoker and put a cigarette lighter in it which will draw 15+ amps!!
I'm also thinking that most of the non instrument (don't know what you have on your panel) circuits will be only on when the ignition is on. That may not be a limitation you can live with.
I'd really need to know what is on the binical to go further.

 

[Scott B]

If its anything like mine, it can be done, but I would not tap into the instrument power. I would run a new dedicated circuit back to the main panel. I've had mine apart a couple of times, not hard just time consuming to run the wire.

 

[med2463]

We have a "new to us" 2008 Hunter 33 that we bought last December and have been sailing all summer. I am an engineer/serial tinkerer, and have designed and/or built small boats, electrical bicycles, etc. for years. However, I am very, VERY nervous about opening up my steering pedastal to try to tap a 12v plug off one of the existing circuits. I love my boat and am seriously afraid I will mess something up. Can somebody who has already pulled theirs apart put my mind at ease???

Signed,
Paranoid at Sea

My husband has put 12v plugs all over the boat. He'll let you know how he wired them. Here is pic of one on pedestal. We use it primarily for charging the Ipad.

 

[Jake N Eggs]

The wires all go into the port side steel tube and run aft under the floor plate. The wire are sealed where they enter the boat into the area behind the bulkhead in the aft cabin. Depending on how many instruments you have, fishing a new line into the tube could be a pain. I agree with Scott, it is better to run a new dedicated line.

 

[Bill1565]

My husband has put 12v plugs all over the boat. He'll let you know how he wired them. Here is pic of one on pedestal. We use it primarily for charging the Ipad.

I use 10 or12 gauge 2 strand tinned boat cable for cigarette lighter plugs. As mentioned, there are 15 amp uses for cigarette lighter plugs. In the one Mary pictured, I used 10 gauge wire from the "instruments" breaker on our panel to a fuse block in the Nav pod, then a 15 amp fuse, 12 ga wire to the lighter plug. Other smaller fuses to power the chart plotter, wind speed, Depth finder, and compass light. only use so far is 2 amps to power our IPad, but it will support a spotlight or something else.

 

[Bill1565]

I use 10 or12 gauge 2 strand tinned boat cable for cigarette lighter plugs. As mentioned, there are 15 amp uses for cigarette lighter plugs. In the one Mary pictured, I used 10 gauge wire from the "instruments" breaker on our panel to a fuse block in the Nav pod, then a 15 amp fuse, 12 ga wire to the lighter plug. Other smaller fuses to power the chart plotter, wind speed, Depth finder, and compass light. only use so far is 2 amps to power our IPad, but it will support a spotlight or something else.

I ran the wire up the port tube, throttle and shift in starboard. You can see the nuts holding the fuse bloc lower left on the Nav pod. If Santa buys me a new cover plate, I would re arrange stuff. The cig lighter is too close to the wheel, the chart plotter too low, and I could put the fuse block on the fixed half of the nav pod to make room for AIS OR other goodie

 

[Bedouin]

For what it's worth...

When I bought our 2002 Hunter 306, the pedestal (massive bugger - no idea who makes it) featured a lighted compass, 12v outlet, GPS mounting bracket with power connector, and a foot-level courtesy light.

Apparently the GPS bracket and cable as well as the 12v outlet were installed by the previous owner as they only work when the cabin light breaker is on since that's what the courtesy light runs off of.

The GPS power and 12v outlet were spliced into the cabin light circuit using tap splices like what I attached. You can get them at home depot. Is it the most professional job? No. Should you be using something other than the cabin light circuit? Sure. But I like doing things the easy way, and I have yet to find a drawback to this arrangement. (Now if I could only remove the whole pedestal head...stupid throttle cabling....)

Hope this helps!

Nico

 

[wufibugs]

My 31 had a Merriman pedestal and I hope that in the 20 years between our boats Hunter has come up with a more elegant way to cover the wheel to rudder cables. For my 12v cockpit sockets I removed that cover and ran a dedicated circuit from the cabin panel to the cockpit gauge panel [so passengers can charge their phones without having wires running to the pedestal] and another one up the pedestal [to recharge portables and for the helmsman's phone]. To keep the compass, autopilot and charger wires out of the wheel chain, I glued a half-circle conduit to the pedestal wall and ran the wires through that.