Wiring ... upgrading Contura 3 switch panel....

[Aquarich]

...to a 8 position Weatherdeck panel.  Can anybody tell me which gauge wire I should use to connect the pos, neg to the panel itself?

I would imagine I will need a larger gague than what is on the 3 positon now...right?

I do not intend to use all of the switches all of the time. For now I'll be running 5 positions.  Main Bilge, deck bilge, running lights, mp3 amp, underwater light.

Down the river, I plan to add courtesy lights, a spot/flood and since i'll have room a horn.

Yes, I am new at this.

 Rich  

http://www.bluesea.com/products/4308/WeatherDeck_12V_DC_Waterproof_Fuse_Panel_-_Gray_8_Positions

[Georgie]

Hi Rich,

Can I presume you mean the wires that supply your primary hot lead from the battery and your ground back to battery for all of your accessories?  Many of the other guys are MUCH better with electrical than I am but I'm pretty sure you need to know how far your fuse panel is from your batteries.  Resistance increases over distance so I think you need to know maximum draw (amps?) and wire length in order to properly determine gauge.  That said, I believe have 8 or 10 gauge wires supplying my fuse block so that's probably the neighborhood.  Curious what some of the others will say though.

[wingtime]

That is a matter if how many combined amps all the accessories on the panel will draw.  If everything is LED lights than not so much.... but a bunch of pumps etc.... then more!   And as already mentioned the total distance (round trip) from the battery comes into play too.  6 ga or 8 ga maybe

[gran398]

You'll never regret bigger, 6 or 8, 8 will work fine. Then you're covered for pump amp draw too.

[GoneFission]

8 gauge feed will handle up to about 40 amps, so that will be plenty.  The only high current items on your list might be underwater lights.  What wattage are the UW lights?  If the total amps are 20 or less, go with 10 gauge.  Load runs from the bus bar to the units should be 14 or 16 gauge, depending on load.  16 gauge is fine for 10 amps or less - 14 gauge will take you to 15 amps.  

Good luck!

[Aquarich]

Thanks guys... UW lights are LEDs ... Running lights are incands, bilge pump for the deck is a rule 360,  bigger attwood bilge bellow deck, 10 amp fuse there.  MP3 player has a 10 amp fuse, not sure what the draw is...  Another ? If there is a fuse on the lead to the device...does a fuse of the same amperage need to be installed in the switch panel?  It came with all 15 amp fuses.

Rich

[Capt. Bob]

If you understand the purpose of the fuse then the answer is yes. That stated, the fuse at the switch negates the need for the inline fuse. That of course assumes the device is wired through the protected switch.

Good luck.

[John Jones]

You'll never regret bigger, 6 or 8, 8 will work fine. Then you're covered for pump amp draw too.

8 gauge feed will handle up to about 40 amps, so that will be plenty.

Yep.  If you don't have some big halogen lights or something like that you will be fine with 8 AWG.