I think I screwed up - need your help

[Jan Van Bennekum]

First, let me say thanks again to all. I have had my tv-18 out two times now, the last time solo. Other than getting my feet wet, all went well. Thanks to MOFISH's checklist and all your advice I'm still grinnin'. Now I need to get fishin'.



I got me a fishfinder to mount on the bow. I was using the Grab Bag item by Trepper to wire it up. I don't know how Tracker managed to get the boat together. There is only a few inches of slack in any of the wires at the bow, not enough to work with. I couldn't see how with so little slack they got the floor board down. In trying to get some slack I managed to pull the ground on the Nav light off its connector and I cnan't get to it to fix it.



I think I have two choices now.

Remove the TM and pull up the floor boards on the bow to get to the installed wiring (UGH) or

Splice into the cable in the right side rod locked and snake a Power and Ground wire forward for the new fishfinder and the nav light repair.(maybe doable).



Whats you opinion?



I don't have, but apparently need to get a wiring diagram for the boat.



The cable in the right rod locker has seven wires,

Orange - TM I think

Black - Ground

Red/White - power

Blue/White - Tilt switch

gray - nav light

Green/White - Tilt Switch

A second Blue/White ???????



I was planning on splicing in on the black and the Red/White.



Any help would be appreciated.



Have any TV-18 owners installed a fishfinder on the bow? Did you mount it on the raised platform?



Thanks and have a safe and enjoyable 4th.



Jan

 

[Russ Charles]

Jan,



I am not familiar with the TV-18 but in my opinion you should not use the trim source of power for the fishfinder. Of all the sources of power it is the worst in terms of noise, and because the trim is a motor driven hydraulic pump, it provides a source of inductive spikes on that power line.

The proper way would be to run both power and ground (18-20 gage) for the fishfinder back to the fuse panel. Your fuse panel should have extra circuit capability by simply adding the wire to a spare terminal and installing a fuse of the same amperage required of the fishfinder (now you don't need the fuse that came with the fishfinder). The fuse panel should also have a ground buss with extra terminals.

The second best source of power for the bow fishfinder would be accessory power, but I'm not sure if there is accessory power available at the bow on the TV-18. If your bow light has a courtesy light on it, that would be a source of accessory power and would be preferable over the trim power. If that is used, then the inline fuse that is supplied with the fishfinder would also be used.



Russ

 

[Brian Feist]

It's been four years since I put my fish finder on my PT175 but you may want to check. I found an additional hot and ground pair under the mini console that holds the TM plug and the tilt/trim switch. This pair was not part of the regular harness. I had two other people look at it and made sure that they didn't go to the t/t switch, the troling motor, or the navication lights. There was nothing else there to power up so I figured that either they were supposed to be there or they were put there by mistake. So, take a look nd see if you may be lucky enough to have the same problem.

 

[Richard Lane]

Janvan,



Bryan is right. Look a little closer at the bow wiring. On my 2002 PT185, Tracker had already run a seperate hot and ground wire (red & black) to the bow and had fitted the ends with butt connectors. These wires were laying in the floor on the right side and not hard to find but you will have to look for them.



All I did to install my Garmin 240 was check to see if indeed the red was hot and then stick the wires in the connectors and crimp it. Simple as pie and thoughtful of Tracker. I don't see why your boat, which is a nicer model than mine, wouldn't have the same accessory hook up pre wired.



Good luck and hope this helps.



LT

 

[Jan Van Bennekum]

Thanks Russ, Brian and LT4247.



I took a second look and found an unconnected pair laying at the end of the rod locker.



After some thought, I got the extra working length of the cable I needed by unscrewing the clamps holding the cable against the gunwall. That extra 6-12 inches was all I needed to fish the cable up through the Nav light hole.



I reconnected the nav light ground and verified that the extra pair were off the accessory switch.



Like you said the pair is terminated with crimp terminals.



I think Iwere cooking with gas now......



Thanks again.



Jan