electrical system

[balthazor]

Recently I overloaded my electrical system with a bigger than
stock alternator--enough said about my ignorance. Anyway, when
I had the electrician down to bail me out of my difficulties, he
expressed surprise that there was such a small hot wire from the
batteries to the main panel and, similarly, such a small ground
wire from the panel to the engine. (The boat uses what appears
to be 10 gauge for this.) Up until my mishap, I had no problems,
and this issue was not the cause nor the exacerbation of my
problem, but I too had previously been surprised at the lack of
a big main ground and big power cable. Maybe it doesn't matter,
as long as I have low loads. But, has anyone else notice the
same thing--and if so, have you retrofitted? This could be a
time consuming, or very expensive, job to rearrange things.
Thanks.

 

[aistqm]

Terry. When I moved my battery box I replaced my primary cables and I will replace the cable from the alternator to the starter when I replace my alternator. I now have a AWG#10 from the alternator (65 amp) to the starter (3 ft run). A AWG#00 from the starter to the batteries (9 ft run) and a AWG#8 from the batteries to the fuse panel and a AWG#8 ground from the panel to the engine. I also replaced the fuse with a 50 amp circut breaker.