Putting in Accugages--My Experience

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Ramsay Selden

I thought I would share my experience recently putting Accugages in my '83 H34. In general, I found the kit and instructions complete, well designed, and accurate. You have to get your own, 18-guage wire to run two lines from each tank to the main module, and also to run typical red-black lines from the power supply to the main module. Everything else is included, except tools. You need screw drivers, wiring tools, and alcohol to clean the tanks for where you put sensors on. I spent about 7 hours doing the whole job, but spent a lot of that trying to figure out where to run the wires! I got a three-tank LCD model with a diesel module. They were nice enough to give me a face plate with the Hunter logo! I ended up putting the main module and face plate on the angled bulkhead below the counter to the left of the galley sink. I went down less than a foot to mount it. You cut a rectangular hole to put in the main module, which then is essentially flush with the bulkhead or whatever. This location is visible, but still protected, and centrally located for wiring. It's NOT great for running wires to your control panel or water tank, as I will get into later! Putting the sensor strips and modules on the three tanks was fairly straightforward. On the holding tank, I put them on the starboard side of the tank facing the seacocks, which was open and easy. On the fresh water, I ended up putting them on the forward side of the tank, as far toward the outer edge as I could go. I took my water pump off to do this, because it was in the way. On the diesel tank, I climbed into the aft locker and put the strips and tank module on the forward end of the starboard side of the wedge-shaped tank. It helps to get organized so you can go down there one time to put the sensors and module on the tank and then one more time to catch the wires and wire them up. With this location, you can run wires fairly easily from the main module to the holding and diesel tank, through the dinette structure and storage areas outside it, and through the galley structure into the aft lockers. I found the wire colors as described in the instructions to be different from the way mine actually were, but I was able to figure out which wires to connect to the main module from the other instructions provided. At the suggestion of someone who had done it, I ran my unit through my depth sounder switch on the 12-V panel, rather than giving it its own switch. This way, it's on whenever that switch is on, which works for me. I couldn't see much need for a separate switch. The least satisfactory wiring run is from the control panel and the fresh water tank to where the guage panel was put. I could not find a way to run the wires through the fiberglass "beam" which runs across the floor there and up toward the control panel. So, I ran the wires across the floor in the corner next to this beam and will get some kind of trim to cover them. Everything worked when I put on the power, threw the switch, and tried out the unit! I may have to calibrate as I use the guages, but there are instructions on how to do that. Hope others who are thinking about this find this useful. There may be other solutions, but this is how I did it! Ramsay Selden
 
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