a pictures worth a thousand words

[Troutkiller2006]

energized that crappy system yesterday and went to testing. everything came on and worked except the anchor light. looked at and touched all th wires as best as i could, everywhere that i could. everything actually looked good and nothing was warm, except the anchor light hot wire. it was pretty warm. pulled those two wires. they were both black and very stiff, like automotive wire. sure enough, near the light on the hot wire was a connector where the wire had been spliced. could see corrosion and evidence of arcing. replaced those two with tinned wires. took a closer look at all other wiring and it all looks correct and in good shape. heading out there soon to install my blue seas fuse box, solder and heat shrink all connections and clean up the wire routing. then just add my gps, vhf, second bilge pump and a couple other acc and this phase of the project should be done by lunch tomorrow.

[Lance Pearson]

This is a clear and simple diagram of what I'll do...if I can upload the photo correctly

[SkunkBoat]

Usually... a new fuse panel has a neg bus already attached.

search for the thread "new dash ideas" or Tag search "Dash" or "electrical"
You'll get some good info, pix, and ideas

[phatdaddy]

Also might want to wire in a float switch directly to + side of battery with an inline fuse, so bilge pump is active even with the selector switch in the off position.

[Lance Pearson]

I had decided not to put a battery switch inline as some haven't with one battery but remembered you can add a simple switch which mounts to the negative battery post and which the negative cable attaches to it. When you want it off to the boat just turn the knob on top and it breaks the connection. Cheap, simple and better than leaving something on inadvertently when you leave the boat for a while and it's not in a slip, etc.