Wiring advice?

Sep 29, 2022
4
Hunter 306 Seneca Lake
Hey Hunter owners! I'm a new owner of 2002 H306 and want to install new instruments. I'm looking to connect with anyone who has experience, tips or tricks running cables. Specifically, I'll be running a Seatalk cable from under the V-birth back to the breaker panel at the nav station and another cable from the breaker panel back to the binnacle.
 
Sep 25, 2008
7,098
Alden 50 Sarasota, Florida
No telling if still there but Hunter ran messenger cables when building. Assuming not still there, you can use any existing cables. If not, you are in for some fun
 
Oct 22, 2014
21,110
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Electricians faced with this issue are often using fiberglass flexible rods to push or pull wire through spaces.
Here is a kit offered at HD. You can find various packages available.

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Mar 27, 2021
139
Hunter 306 Lake Pepin
Interesting timing! I'm troubleshooting my nonfunctioning bow light on my 306. I don't have continuity on the negative wire and am having trouble figuring out how/where the negative wire terminates in the breaker panel.

Generally, the wiring runs along the inward facing lip at the bottom of the port-side hard plastic headliner wall panels. It feeds into the breaker panel at the corner by the head bulkhead. The route through the bulkhead from the v-birth to the saloon is tricky since it is hidden behind the hard headliner walls. Similarly, access to the breaker panel is also constrained by the headliner. It would seem that the only way to get access behind the hard headliner wall, is to first pull down the soft headliner ceiling, which looks to be a project unto itself. :facepalm:

No telling if still there but Hunter ran messenger cables when building. Assuming not still there, you can use any existing cables. If not, you are in for some fun
I did find a tan colored "wire" that I mostly ignored which was run alongside and bundled with the bow light wires, and which ended about halfway up the v-berth. I wonder if it wasn't the messenger that Don mentioned? But the only way to access it is to first remove the forward wall of the v-berth and then man-handle the bow light wires to pull the bundle down from the headliner wall.

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Sep 29, 2022
4
Hunter 306 Seneca Lake
Interesting timing! I'm troubleshooting my nonfunctioning bow light on my 306. I don't have continuity on the negative wire and am having trouble figuring out how/where the negative wire terminates in the breaker panel.

Generally, the wiring runs along the inward facing lip at the bottom of the port-side hard plastic headliner wall panels. It feeds into the breaker panel at the corner by the head bulkhead. The route through the bulkhead from the v-birth to the saloon is tricky since it is hidden behind the hard headliner walls. Similarly, access to the breaker panel is also constrained by the headliner. It would seem that the only way to get access behind the hard headliner wall, is to first pull down the soft headliner ceiling, which looks to be a project unto itself. :facepalm:



I did find a tan colored "wire" that I mostly ignored which was run alongside and bundled with the bow light wires, and which ended about halfway up the v-berth. I wonder if it wasn't the messenger that Don mentioned? But the only way to access it is to first remove the forward wall of the v-berth and then man-handle the bow light wires to pull the bundle down from the headliner wall.

View attachment 217593View attachment 217594View attachment 217596View attachment 217597
My bow light wires are bundled into a corrogated tube running aft from v birth (along with water lines) along outer wall of starboard settee.
 

RoyS

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Jun 3, 2012
1,742
Hunter 33 Steamboat Wharf, Hull, MA
Your negative wire probably splices in every cabin light fixture between the circuit breaker panel and your bow light. The positive wire runs direct to the bow light but the negative wire is shared with the cabin lights. You could inspect and repair the negative wire splices at every light fixture.
 
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Likes: jdrutten
Mar 27, 2021
139
Hunter 306 Lake Pepin
My bow light wires are bundled into a corrogated tube running aft from v birth (along with water lines) along outer wall of starboard settee.
Ack! I mispoke -- my cabling also runs along the starboard (not port!) side of the boat. But unlike yours, mine are not in a tube, and are not with the water lines/settee. I'm curious, do the bow light wires continue in the tube, past the water tank under the v-berth support structure, up into the forward wall before being fed through the deck and into the bow pulpit?

Your negative wire probably splices in every cabin light fixture between the circuit breaker panel and your bow light. The positive wire runs direct to the bow light but the negative wire is shared with the cabin lights. You could inspect and repair the negative wire splices at every light fixture.
Thank you for mentioning this! It will be much easier testing continuity at the light fixture than pulling the whole headliner down.
 
Sep 29, 2022
4
Hunter 306 Seneca Lake
Ack! I mispoke -- my cabling also runs along the starboard (not port!) side of the boat. But unlike yours, mine are not in a tube, and are not with the water lines/settee. I'm curious, do the bow light wires continue in the tube, past the water tank under the v-berth support structure, up into the forward wall before being fed through the deck and into the bow pulpit?


Thank you for mentioning this! It will be much easier testing continuity at the light fixture than pulling the whole headliner down.
No, on my boat, the wires enter the tube just forward of the aft edge of the water tank.