What amp fuse to use???????

[Georgia Boy]

OK guys I am gonna have to completely rewire my boat after the paint and interior are finished, this thing has never had a fuse in it to my knowledge. What amp fuse should I run on...

1. Bilge Pump
2. Lights (bow,stearn, and gauges)
3. (possibly) Cig lighter outlet for phone power, etc...
4. I know my stereo has an inline, in its harness.




so thanks in advance for the help guys. ~GB

[Burke Kilgour]

The wire can be fused up to the current carrying capabilities of the wire. Most people think the fuse protects whatever component it supplies, when in actuallity it's primary job is to protect the wire from burning up in the case of a short.

[Rickracer]

Bilge pump, 5 amp
Lights, 15 amp
Cig. lighter socket, 15 amp (14 gauge wire) if it's only for phone power etc., 25 or 30 (12 gauge wire) for use as a cig. lighter. There are stainless power outlet sockets, and I'd use one of them instead of parts store sockets. Much less chance of rust shorting them out.

[Techno]

Having owned many old cars I can say rust don't short out a cigarette lighter. What it does do is make it a useless hole with contacts in it. The spring stops moving the contact plate and the rust keeps contact from happening. Eventually the spring breaks and the plate stays out of reach of the item plugged in.

[Rickracer]

Blown fuse

[Techno]

The center insulated contact slider don't slide anymore and stays bottomed out. The spring pushes it up - against the ligher or aux jack.

[lokinutz]

But I run a fuse on everything but my bilge pump. It has an externally mounted automatic switch. If you splice into the wire between the auto switch and the pump, you can also run a power wire from a manual switch(which I did fuse).This way you have a fused manual switch, but the auto is unfused.You can also turn your batts off if you tie your boat to a dock for any period of time if you wire the auto to the hot (in) side of the main power switch(or batt).