Basic DIY 12V Wiring | Fuses, Wire Sizing

Doing your own 12V wiring can be rewarding, if you do it right!

I show how I choose the gauge of wire, fuse size, how to run cables and do everything to make a basic 12 Volt circuit.

For this video I install a marine radio, echosounder, bilge pump and accessory power in the boat. A fairly simple project to get your head around how to do your own basic 12V wiring.

[paullee]

Hi Michael. I just came across this video (Jan 2024) and like all of your videos you have produced a good quality video with great information. Since you produced this video 4 years ago, you may have refined your wiring of boats, but can I suggest a couple of things for electrical wiring in marine environments.
1. ALWAYS use tinned wire
2. ALWAYS solder joints
3. ALWAYS apply "liquid insulation tape" to the joints prior to applying shrink tube
4. ALWAYS use glue filled shrink tube
5. Buy a tube of Duralac and ALWAYS apply it to any fixing or fitting you put into or onto the hull. This is of the utmost importance in an aluminium boat and most boat yards have never heard of it! It is VITAL to eliminate galvanic action of similar or dis-similar metals. IT IS VITAL!
6. Apply a thin coating of lanolin based grease to all terminals as well to protect them from marine corrosion. I use Lanotec and a small brush.

Salt water will find and decimate all copper, brass and electro coatings such as the plating on electrical terminals with ease. An aluminium rivet in an aluminium boat will corrode!

Hope this helps everybody.

[southerncrosswd]

I knew you would get a few ‘this is how you should do it’ comments. Have to say for someone with no formal training it wasn’t that bad. Should help a few people who wanted to do it but just weren’t sure they could. Nice vid.

[hughbart]

Friendly tip. When soldering cables or heat shrink you can do it all with a little jet lighter. They are at Bunnings for like $20+ in the tool shop or you can find them for like $5 at some servo’s.
This way you don’t have a hot soldering iron sitting in the vehicle ready to fall and melt things.
It’s a lot quicker to get the heat into cables for a successful solder.
Love the channel keep it up!!

[robertclymer]

FINALLY!! Someone actually describes fuse amp Thank you! Cheers from Motown USA!

[donfinch]

You've got it! A fuse is to protect the wiring, not the thing hanging off the end. Don't forget the bag of heaps of spare fuses when you go out.

[TheStan]

Miss this guy. Hope he is well and still adventuring.

[psheperd]

I wish most of you generation had the skills you possess, well done

[flyonthewall]

Dude....THAT WAS FANTASTIC 💪👍
I'm in my 40's and elec-TRICKS have always puzzled me 🤯
I'm converting a van so I'm trying to learn this stuff....
But it's ALL ABOUT THE TEACHER...
Nice1 🙏👍

[kalterwronkite]

Been searching for sometime now, and finally found a blog I can finally follow, and learn from. Also great close up camera work.
I can now proceed with my small wiring project, with confidence.
Cheers my friend.
From NZ.

[rooster]

About time I can understand someone's 12v wiring vid...👌...That's rad...😎

[martinlanza]

Good stuff. In wet environments I like to drill the junction entry holes on the bottom to aid resisting water ingress. With those junction boxes I also try to put all components and wires on the same side (not always possible) - makes it so much easier to work on later (two halves can be fully separated).

[bkbroiler]

Im late to this video but this is amazing! I have to rewire my camper and was getting overwhelmed by what supplies I needed and what I needed to do!

[marksomerville]

Nice work, keep going with these vids..couple of tips, do use a step drill bit, also in harsh environs most troubles are caused by crook earth connections; solution is to run connections via cable back to negative post. You've done it right removing crap terminal insulation, then crimp...

[asdlkj]

Thanks...another great tip about keeping the spare fuses in the fuse blocks (and also the heat shrink on the bolts).... New arrangement for my camper trailer. I always seem to leave my container of fuses at

[shanevonharten]

Nice job bloke, probably the only thing I'd add would be a battery isolation switch.
I also have an Anderson plug to the car to charge whilst driving. Safe boating

[adamjones]

Tad more solder on your switch mate, apart from that i would also recommend using glue lined heat shrink. Iv'e been doing Electronics for over 20 yrs and your video was BLOODY GOOD!!

[chickenonachain]

Just want to say, keep doing what you’re doing. 👍

[thatonegayfurry]

as a machinist and boilermaker I can confirm
I am also not a sparkly
but I still wire everything by making it up
nice vid mate

[WesternAustraliaNowAndThen]

Good info and an informative video. The best advice I can give when doing your own wiring is to test your connections the same way you test knots you have tried in your fishing line. Try hard to pull them apart and if they fail re-do them until they will not budge. If you do have an electric bilge pump, always remember to carry a manual means of removing water from the boat. Electric gear isn't fool-proof and thanks to my good mate Murphy, will usually fail when you need it most.

[joshbuie]

just learning wiring and other basics I applaud you for making it very easy to follow thank you