Thanks for the comments it's just what I was hoping for.
Stu and Maine
I guess you are right the wire from the alternator is a little small. My alt is the 55 amp Hitachi. The alt feed currently has a 10AWG jumper about 6" long from the alt to the starter wire. Should I run a new Ground wire as well? I will upsize to 6AWG.
On the wire size for the alternator, 6 AWG would only be good for a 10 foot "round trip" run. How far is the alternator from the batteries?
JK
The shore power batt charger has the 8AWG wires now and no fuse. I was not sure if it should be fused. Fuse according to wire size??
You size wires based on the current and distance the wire will go. When you consider the distance, it is round trip. So if you have a positive run of 5 feet and the negative run back to your negative bus is 5 feet also, you size for a 10 foot wire run.
You then size the fuse based on the wire size, if it is located in the engine room or not and if it is a single wire or in a bundle.
I like to use this
chart from Blue Sea System (warning, large pdf document). This chart lets you see the wire sizing, fuse sizing and fuse options all in one place and it is from a reputable company.
I was planning to get the wires made up at bestboatwire.com. You are right about that inbetween size and a crimper. A friend has offered to loan me a hydraulic crimper for the larger stuff.
Have your read the threads from Maine Sail's website about wire termination? He has one that is applicable to
smaller wires, 10 AWG to 22 AWG, and one on
larger cables for batteries. I would bet with the number of wires you are planning to run that you could get some decent quality tools, like the ones Maine Sail suggests, for close to the same cost as having someone do the terminals for you. And what type of terminals are you going to get if you have someone else do it? Will they be done correctly? If you are planning to remain a boater for a while it might just be better to buy the tools and do the work yourself.
FastOlsen
Only the charging circuits are not run thru the switch. The solar panels need to be connected that way to charge while the boat sits at the mooring. Shore power charger I'm not so sure of. On one of the threads I was reading they said the alt wire should be run right to the battery. Not really sure about that either. I agree about the switch disconnecting everything except the bilge pump. Good point.
Read Maine Sail's post on the
1/2/both/off switch. You don't want this switch to select charging, just load.
Thanks for the reminder about using the pos terminal from one battery and neg terminal from the other.
Some of the wire sizes are my doing and some are existing wires and some were poorly labeled on the drawing. The 2/0 wires are all existing. I have made revisions to the diagram and attached the new one.
Still not sure about the charger fuses? Solar panel fuses.
Maine Sail, again, has
already given this answer. Although it is a little different in your setup. You aren't connecting directly to the battery post but a positive bus that is connected to the battery post. Your connection to the battery post is sized for 2/0 AWG wire but your solar charge controller is running something smaller. Any time you go down in size you are no longer fused appropriately for that size. So you should add a fuse to protect the wire that runs from your positive bus to the solar controller, battery charger and alternator since you show these as different then the 2/0 AWG going to the battery. The 2/0 AWG going from the positive pus to the battery switch is properly fused at the other end of the bus, so you don't need a fuse there.
On the charge controller, some people also add a switch to disconnect the panels from the batteries for service. I didn't do this in mine but plan to just pull the fuse when I need to make that disconnect.
Good luck and fair winds,
Jesse
