I didn’t want to be the first to say it...but I agree.

I think the OP bought the wrong boat.

The V20 is a great/versatile hull.We love ours. But it sound like you should be in a 23 Formula or similar. I think you are trying to make this boat something it is not.

Good luck, be careful

typo should have been 2 not 3.

So looking at putting a standard 18-26 in bracket on.

Seadrive model is a great candidate for a bracket. Go to the gallery to page three look at Vicsv20. Same deck layout as twisted has. Also macojoes is on there also. His was an I/O hull.

Main drawback to moving batteries is size of cable required to get starting volts/amps back to engine

There’s plenty of guys on this very sight that have done this conversion.

The OP was proposing a 36" bracket with a 200 hp engine hanging off it.

Who else has done that?

The Steplifts that came with an OE bracket had a small 4 cyl (135 hp?) and I am pretty sure it wasn't a 3' lg extension.

I would not do what the OP proposed...but that's me.

Be safe, Bill

lot of that equation is motor choice.

It was a typo, like I stated it should have been 26 not 36.

I like your boat Twisted, good friend of mine has the same in pretty much barn find condition. If set up and done right it will be sweet.

Hey Jvitiel, Sorry I haven't been working on the boat the last few days. I did and few things today. and looked at what you asked. You could cut the side of the step-down to access that void. Maybe if you put some drew hardware in you could make a battery drew there. you have a good amount of room there, I have about 4-5 extra inches on top of the battery to work with.


Bradford, Thanks!! yeah I'm hoping to do a 100% refit on this one, stringers, transom, the whole deal. I'm going to wait until the seadrive dies and then its game on!!

Awesome. For me, side access is the way to go and four inches is plenty of clearance for brackets, shelves etc. Thanks Twist! I appreciate your detailed due diligence on this. Now I have to start looking over how to lay out the trolling motor so that it doesn't interfere with my pulpit...

I look forward to hearing about the progress on your project. Good luck and please keep us updated.

Well I***8217;ve some time to work on the boat. Finished all the removal, just need to clean the boat up and start installing all the new wiring. There where soooooo many wires rusted off their connections no wonder why things didn***8217;t work! I also pulled the gas tank cover to one replace the ground wire and two inspect the tank. Looks good from what I can tell dry foam and no gas in the bottom.

I ran the main starting wires from the bow to the stern to make sure they were long enough, and I was able to use the 2 AWG I had already,,:sun: next will be the battery switch and the new fuse box when I have some time.


I was thinking about putting a new set of gauges in, but dont want to spend the money if I cant use them for multiple engines. Is it possible to do that? Buy a set now use them for the seadrive then use again for when I repower?

Looking good.

I don't know that you will find any gauges that would work with your old school 2 smoke and a modern motor...I guess it depends on if you are planning to go modern with your next motor.

hey guys quick question.

I'm putting in 6 LED deck lights what terminal wiring is better? All wire will be individual run pairs to each light. From the switch to one of the following terminals.

something like this

https://forum.ih8mud.com/attachments...ng-jpg.237958/

or using one like this

https://www.ebay.com/i/291855967186?rt=nc


I like the second one for WAY less connectors used.

thanks

assuming they are all going to be switched on/off together...

You could $ave money on wire and terminals if you run one set of + & - wires and tap your leds in parallel. LEDs don't draw much, probably #14 wire is more than enough for 6 leds.
unless your talking big LED floodlights then go #12 wire

This way you are only pulling one pair of wires and you don't have a mess of wires to deal with

A lot of new motors,even without digital controls, have a single all-in-one gauge Tach with leds for temp/ pressure/engine alarms...no need for extra gauges

Skunk,

If I did run a single pair what splice would you recommend?

thanks

I would spend the extra and get Anchor duplex marine wire 14/2. That keeps the red and black together ... easier and cleaner to run.

Depending on gauge of wire from LEDs (usually 18 or 22)...
if possible twist the LED to one end and insert in blue butt splice and crimp to other end. Continue down the line.

If LED leads are heavy, the twisted wires might not fit in a blue. They do make yellow/blue combos.

You could also twist all three together and just crimp them in a yellow splice.

Key is to seal out salt water.

I would n't use the T-Tap connectors that they use on trailers. TRAILER LIGHTS SUCK.

hey skunk...happy new year...

This all sounds great...can you provide links or pics so the electrically challenged can understand?
I have similar project in mind.

Thx, Bill

pix of 14/2 marine wire (DO NOT USE 14/2 NM-B "ROMEX" solid home electrical wire. In fact NEVER USE SOLID WIRE ON A BOAT)
butt splices are color coded for wire gauge that fits.
There are special splices that allow one end to fit a large wire than the other, they have color coded stripes on one end.(One might need this if you are twisting two wires together and inserting in one end of a splice that is joining to a single wire.)

Always crimp with proper color coded crimper NOT pliers.

You COULD get away with a single + and single - 14 awg stranded wire and you COULD use T-taps (Iwouldn't do it on a salt water boat)

This would be the fastest, easiest method to do it.

Never, ever use those if you want your wiring to last.

ANY time you are doing wiring on a salt water boat remember the simple rule "S&S".. Solder and seal. Solder your connections and then seal them with the kind of heat shrink tubing that has a sealant inside of it so that it shrinks and seals at the same time. :head:

It’s been to damn cold to work on the boat
 

Well the cold up here has really slowed down the work.
I’ve been inside soldering wiring harnesses for the new deck lights.
This week was the first time I’ve been able to get outside.

So I went a little over kill on the wiring. The lights and bilge are soldered, two coats of liquid electrical tape, heat shrink tubing, then electrical tape over top. I pretested every connection to make sure I only ran the wires once.
Today I soldered the new led lights on. Four white deck lights, two on each side. And four blue lights hidden in the rod boxes. I’ll get photos of the blue ones when I put in the rod boxes.

Finished the new control panel, the large wooden space will get a flush mount 7 inch fish finder once I order one.


Stay warm

Hey guys quick question.

I just finished rewiring the dash and had one question The purple wire that is the "accessory" wire. Is that the wire you connect to the gauges to have them light up?

I think that gives u power downstream of the key switch for whatever you want to be energized when the key is in the on position. The gauges themselves will have different inputs for illumination. Usually you only want them lit up at night, so i run mine with my running lights, others put a seperate toggle for that, not dependent on the key switch.

I seem to remember that the original gauges had purple wire daisy chaining the illumination power from one to another.
That diagram would indicate that it was powered by the key switch and so the gauges were illuminated whenever the key was on. I remember that my old Merc tach was only lit if the motor was running.

Phat is right that it doesn't necessarily need to be on the key. You could power the gauge light from the Nav/Anchor switch.
However, that would mean your gauges are lit even if you are anchored with the motor off or drifting with the motor off. So you would be drawing power for no good reason while your motor is off.

I would say that its up to you as to which gauges you want lit and when.

Update
 

So it’s been a long time since I’ve had a min to take pictures and write an update. Thangs have taken way longer then I would have liked but I’m still meeting the time line to get the boat out in two weeks.so the wiring is all done except for the new bow lights need to be mounted and sealed. Tons of new teak cup holders and phone, key, junk boxes. The doors to the batteries are on I just need to clean them up and make them look better.

Few more. I***8217;m working on a anchor pulpit, will mount a kicker engine bracket, and clean her up there is fiberglass dust EVERYWHERE!


The last thing I did was go way out of my comfort zone and removed and replaced all the zippers for the encloser. I found out I***8217;m not good at sewing! But I should work I just have to test them on the boat.

Looks awesome. Lots of well thought storage and love the battery boxes. Will be interested to hear how you feel about the new weight distribution when running..

What are the batteries sitting on?

I made a mold of closed cell foam then topped it with a 2x12. Drilled a few holes and poured some two part foam in. Once is was dry and stabilized I used some stainless steel L channel and screwed the 2x12 to the bulkhead and stringer. On top of the 2x12 I used some shop flooring pad under the battery box. The pourable foam underneath will conform to the hull so there is no way it could damage the outter hull, but it will also hold up the side near the step down. I didn’t screw in that side.

Good plan. Thanks for the insight..