View Transcript

Hide Transcript

Transcript is auto-generated.

properly especially with a crimp do it  once and not have to revisit again and  that way to do that and we're gonna show  is using heat-shrink connectors right  that are insulated so that the wire is  not exposed so it doesn't corrode and  the connections are gonna last a really  long time so what's your formula for  success you know first of all you want  to have proper marine wire right so  that's tin wire not a solid strand wire  and unfortunately some of you that have  older boats from the 17 years 80s that  didn't have an AC system that were  retrofitted were retrofitted by a friend  of the owner who charged him a amazing  deal and use household wiring on the  boat because you know that was the thing  they had in their truck and so now the  whole boat is wired with solid strand a  sea wiring which is a big no-no because  a boat vibrates a house does not vibrate  the house the boat vibrates because of  the engine and eventually you know  you're gonna maybe have shear on a  vibration and the wire is on and off  I've seen that on some boats drives  people crazy so you want marine wire you  want to have proper terminals we'll talk  about that some terminals come with heat  shrink you want to have the right tool  and then the right technique and the  technique honestly can be learned over  time like anything else like golf your  first swing probably sucks but  eventually it gets better  so this is a an example of a grounding  wire where the owner did a mid-air  splice for the bolt that's a no-no  another owner took a bunch of  heat-shrink did a Octopussy in the  middle there are six connectors but  bought Heatran connectors but believe  that the Heatran connectors did not need  to be shrunk down to create a sin I mean  it's in the name I mean it's not and you  know it's not it doesn't it doesn't call  it a waterproof connector now I could  get it's waterproof  you put it on swatter proof no it's  called a heat shrink I mean it was too  short it needed to be connector that  needs to be applied heat to shrink so  that it becomes watertight connector and  believe it or not probably this is crazy  over 60 70 percent of you that have  boats that have that work done on it the  technicians that do the work can be  bothered and will charge you for an  expensive connector that is useless  unless it's applied heat to be  watertight so this is actually all too  common you're gonna do that then you  should definitely go on a Lord Coe and  buy the cheapest connector because then  that makes sense all right you're not  you're not gonna follow through then go  dirt cheap and then you'll be happy so  one thing I want to emphasize with  marine wiring when you choose the cable  I've seen a lot of people say Jeff you  know what I really value money and so  for me what I do is I buy everything  random you know I don't believe in  standards I think it's a waste of time I  have a great memory and I will remember  what red is everywhere so for me I'm  always context driven and red here is  positive red here is black and I will  remember and I'm that's that's yeah this  is type of guy I am  and that's what I bring to the table I  just remember everything and I don't  need to be told what a wire is because I  put it in and I buy one spool of wire  for the whole boat and I'm not joking by  the way this is actually a common  occurrence  with do-it-yourselfers comment you got  to be very careful right and so then  they wire the whole boat with red what  happens is eventually people actually  believe it or not do forget things not  everyone remembers everything about  everything at all times  and the very opposite of happiness is a  negative wire going on a positive  terminal so they're literally playing  with fire and it's simply just a switch  right and if you have two red wires  going to a device and sometimes they're  gonna say oh I heat shrink them both  black but I put a red electrical tape on  one end to show that that's a real red  and the other one's a black red but you  know that because there's no red  electrical tape on it  see I figured it out I mean I got this  like this is I can't believe that they  invented different color wires I mean  what are they thinking this is a stupid  waste of money  electrical tape electrical tape falls  believe it or not it's actually I tell  it all the time in electricians where  the great electrical tape should not be  called electrical tape it should never  be used as a temporary measure it's it's  for maybe marking but I hate electrical  tape it's something you put on and you  take off you're not expecting the whole  so when you're gonna be doing wiring  your boat please  follow a standard yellow for DC negative  red for positive don't use AC wiring for  DC whine I've seen that one of my  technicians almost died they wired the  charger with AC wiring both on the in  and the outs so the DC out was AC wiring  the DC or the ACN was obviously and he  changed the charger this owner so he  wired the whole charger both the DC side  and the AC side with AC wire change the  charger and forgot which one was which  so he connected AC to the DC output the  charger blue did it again charger blue  did it again charger blue now at this  point this individual realized that what  are the chances that three charges are  defective he was probably really upset  at this point right first charger crap  second what the hell  third one hmm wonder one of the odds 649  here I'm feeling lucky calls us in and  this is a thank God my top guy thank God  honestly if it would have happened to me  I think I would have died  this guy's mr. safety if you touch a  charger and you look at DC connections I  can touch a battery 12 volts benign  there's not enough voltage area to  electrocute you nothing's gonna happen  so if you touch a charger you look at  the DC Circuit you're like DC Circuit  you know you know protection you don't  worry about anything you're just gonna  simply put a multimeter on the output of  the charger there's never gonna be 120  volts on the output of a charger who  would think why would they be 120 volts  on the output of a charger well I'm a  charger there was because the owner had  inverted the leads had forgotten his  trick and so luckily my technician took  the time to actually measure the voltage  of the leads before touching them  because if he would have touched those  leads like I probably would have done  you touch it and you'd actually would  have electrocuted yourself with 120 volt  AC which is pretty serious and by the  way on that boat there was no breakers  because why bother right I mean seat  belts are not really useful until you  need one no breakers and it was a 30 amp  breaker on the shore that would have  tripled so yeah there's 30 amps on that  circuit and so that's the reason why  when you're gonna be doing wiring your  boat you need to follow the code because  your 1d gonna forget your tricks or  you're gonna have someone else is gonna  come on board that's not gonna know your  tricks and that's why we all drive on  one side of the road because my Road I  can go in Reverse in the opposite side  of the road if I wanted to all roads  lead back to home you could drive it in  Reverse  but everyone expects you to drive  forward and on one side of the road and  so that's the reason why there's a  standard so everyone just comes on the  boat they know where they're seeing  they're like okay hit the ground running  if everyone had to figure out what's on  a boat it gets really time-consuming and  that's where the technician spends a lot  of time a reverse designing everything  and then that's costing you the clock  right because that person has to think  as opposed to just hit the ground  running the other features are really  important there - is that a marine grade  wiring is actually I've got a jacket  that's insulated so that when orel  touches the jacket it's not gonna melt  welding cable does not do that so you  can actually have diesel fuel leaked  onto a welding cable and believe it or  not the welding cable jacket will  actually disintegrate and completely  disappear  it will melt away I've seen a boat where  two welding wires were about this close  underneath a fuel filter diesel fuel  filters and a drip the there was no more  jacket no more insulation on - positive  and a negative wire that we're running  parallel to one another directly  connected to a battery going to a  starter those two wires would touch  there's bobbya there is a switch but  there's no fuse the boat would have been  gone there's no amount of fire  extinguisher that can put a dead short  between an ad I don't care how big the  fire department's fire hoses that is a  volcano on your boat there's no amount  of extinguishing you can't do anything  this is like it's it's happening and  that was because of a simple diesel leak  under a fuel filter that was not  properly tied and dripping on two wires  that were properly and thank God the  wires some older boats remember they  used to wire them with clamps and they  run them not in bundles but one on top  of another really neatly so that was  that boat you know they perfect that at  least the technician took the time to  run it one at a time and so there was a  little bit of sag but that sag did not  allow the two cables to touch in today's  boat most cable bundles are run together  you know you'll have a bunch of cables  running together so imagine you have a  drip or you have an oral leak in your  engine room the cable disintegrates the  two cables short and then you lose your  boat  this is an example of someone who that  believes that yes they can this is a  gauge 8 wire 6 I think in a gauge 10 lug  you see the wire it's yellow it goes  1012 that cable is much bigger what they  did and this is intentional they cut all  the strands off the wires you can see  them all cut off off the side solid  strand wire that's not marine water by  the way every single strand is cut and  they got three strands into their lug so  that would be the opposite of a good  connection and so also make sure that  when you choose a connector on your boat  and I do this for some owners I had a  boat owner that's took off for France  like bought a catamaran got it there and  he was like okay I'm gonna do work on my  boat what should I do  I said well you should have a little  connector kit you know a little bit of  everything so that when you do a crimp  on your boat you have the right crimp  for the right job right and we've done  that for a lot of boaters and you have  you know a ring connector for the right  hole size you have Spade butt connectors  you know right cable site everything is  there so that when you open you a little  kit you got the right connector and so  you don't do what this fellow did which  was probably you know this by the way  look at the breaker this is 20 amp  breaker right 20 amp going on three  strands of metal wire that person had no  connectors on board probably had one at  the bottom of some drawer and he's like  well I gotta make this work so I'm gonna  find a way and the owner that was in the  owner that I met this was on the boat  like that after had been sold luckily  it's not a circuit that had to be used  often this is an example of some AC  circuits that melted this is a neutral  jumper that was a bad crimp on a boat  this is another example of and this is  what's so scary is that both of those  are bad crimps on AC breakers sometimes  the heat is so intense and I've seen  this and I had an owner on a 65-foot er  he says he was a physician he says I  can't smell it but my wife's pretty  certain that there's a fire on the boat  wintertime which is the worst time for  fires on the boat that's why fires catch  on fire and the wintertime as this AC  loads right we have heaters running on  the boat it was around the Boat Show  actually the owner cause he's like yeah  I can't smell it but she can smell it  and it's it's kind of in the main cabin  am i near the electrical panel yeah I  like oh my god I'm like it's January so  you know big boat a lot of shore power  coming in the running heaters to warm up  the boat right tell him that  disconnecting the boat from shore power  and sure enough the breaker that the  line was connected on it was a bad brand  new boat bad crimp my new bonus I mean  two million dollar boat it happens right  it not only had completely melted the  wire the wire was like it looked like it  went through like hailing back but it  actually melted the breaker that was  connected to melted the other two  breakers there was connected to like  when I mean melted I mean like like a  molten like state so wait actually and  these were double pole breakers like it  was actually you know pretty good boat  so both the hot and the neutral were on  circuit breakers so this is like one  breaker bad connection when three  breakers on each side and that's the  amount of heat that was generated by a  bad crimp on an AC shore power  connection coming in and feeding a panel  and it was for the AC side so that is  actually believe it or not that not that  uncommon  look at that cable I mean it almost  looks like some sort of fuse so when  you're going to be wine and doing  connections on your boat there's  different tools we've got here some too  that I like some tools that's a personal  preference everyone you know all the  pros are gonna have like a different one  I like our wire stripper versus the  anchor thing I think Eric would you like  the why stripper or the little gun yeah  that's what I believe  this is in my opinion this is a gadget  on the right it looks cool it looks  fancy but a wire stripper is a wire  stripper and you need a way to cut a  wire - so it's wire cutter for smaller  cable size or wire size really useful  and then we brought both of those tools  and you'll see it up front because after  this we're gonna show you  Eric is going to show you how to do  proper crimps there's double crimp  ratchet tools for nylon insulators right  like a standard non heat shrink  connector so both the barrel and the  night on is actually a good crimp on the  jacket and on the wire itself with thin  or a single crimp ratchet tool which is  really good for insulated connectors and  that's what we're gonna be demonstrating  today because that's the ones we use in  our shop for all connections on a boat  we always use Heatran connections on  every single thing that we do takes  longer but once we do it once you'll  never do it again well never maybe  fifteen hundred years but not in our  real life times so those two things and  before eric gets started see you've got  a choice are you gonna do nylon or heat  shrink the next big thing is and this is  where you need to be critical right  about oneself and especially you it's  the right amount of jacket that you need  to remove you never want to remove too  little that's that and that's probably  worse than too much but too little means  that when you put the wire inside the  terminal you never want to ever have  that insulation jacket of that wire to  go under the barrel of the crimp you  always want to see the seam you want to  see some metal and the reason you do  that is so you want to know for sure  that you're crimping your connector or  your terminal onto the wire and not onto  the jacket of the wire  right so you always want to see a little  bit of this seam so you don't want to go  through and push your wire all the way  in and say oh it must be good then do  your crimp you might be actually  crimping your terminal on the outside on  the jacket and the jacket is an  insulator it's not going to be a good  connection he'll show that you also want  to make sure that strands you give a  little bit of a twist so you don't want  to have strands popping out on some  connectors what's happening now is the  jacket is ever so much smaller and you  don't want to have strands actually  coming out of the terminal because then  the next term will be cited is maybe not  a negative or positive which would just  create like weirdness like a breakers  off but the other ones on and you're  like why am i having when one breakers  on the other one comes on automatically  but sometimes you have positive and  negative wires that are right side in  one another and if you have a metal  strand that touches a positive you're  gonna have a dead short choosing the  right tool for the right terminal and  then really what's really important and  you'll see that there's a lot of videos  online as well and you've got this pool  test right don't be scared of actually  testing your connection and if you  literally can yank it apart you simply  have to cut that well redo the CREM that  connector is done it's been modified you  can't make it open again and put it  again that one you just throw away and  you start over and just before we let  Eric go I just want to emphasize one  last point I have never in 11 years that  I've done my business I have never ever  ever seen someone who's done good  workmanship like that where the work  itself was shoddy someone who's a  perfectionist who takes time to do neat  work generally knows what they're doing  someone who's rough and just makes a  rat's nest might do good work it's  possible there are messy people in  electrical that do good work it is  possible although untroubled  possible but I'm probable and now the  opposite which thank God and this is a  good way for any layman  to look at workmanship Electrical  workmanship on your boat and be able to  tell that if it looks neat it looks good  it probably is good and if it looks bad  unfortunately there's a high likelihood  that it is bad so it's simply with  visual you can at a glance you know when  I come in a boat within five minutes I  know if this is gonna be a really sad  conversation for an order  I don't even test the connections I  didn't assess I just know just simply  and a good electrician cares about the  details and the details matter through  and through  they don't just make a good crimp they  care about everything their fists Aegis  about every single detail and that's why  it looks like that so on your own boat  if you're wondering where should I start  there's gonna be a lot of stuff that  your builder did that you probably don't  have to worry about there's no bad  builder really people say bad things  about builders but builders have  liabilities they care about electrical  they do they have to is it would go out  of business what you need to worry about  is a layers of work that happened after  your boat was sold by do-it-yourself  owners that are MacGyver's because  there's good work do-it-yourself work  out there there's great do-it-yourself  work or so-called professional shops  that just get it done and they give you  the bill you want to have and what they  do is they don't tell you what corners  they have to cut to give you what the  bill you want to have and that's how you  look you just open your DC panel you're  like yeah it looks good  you look you open your electronics  family like oh my god that's generally  something to happen later you're like  you know if I'm gonna start somewhere  this is probably the place where I'm  gonna start understanding it redoing my  connections because maybe you love your  boat and you're gonna keep it for a long  horizon and you just want to have a  reliable safe boat so that's how you  tell about gauging or assessing where  connections you're gonna do on your boat  because you can't read you in them all  you've got to do with the ones that are  the most potentially problematic  connections so with that what I'm gonna  do is I'm gonna pass on to Eric and if  you guys want to gather around Eric and  we're gonna give him the mic and he's  to show you guys how to do a proper real  connection we always use the heat-shrink  connectors just to help against  corrosion and yeah sort of extend the  life of your connections stripping I can  do it fairly well and no I'm not  damaging the cables by going like this  but someone that hasn't done it before  if I push them too tight pull out you'll  get some of the calls coming off see the  little strands and that's obviously  affecting the cable and you're degrading  the rating of it that it's meant to  carry yes so there's many different  types of strippers but this is the one  we have here today so it's 14 gauge  cable so just put it in the 14 gauge  then crimp down and there won't damage  any of the cores inside and you can get  at the correct distance that you need to  put inside the crimp gun and them with  the connectors yellow is 10 and 12 gauge  blue is 14 and 16 gauge and readers 18  to 22 gauge so you don't want to be  putting 14 gauge cable into a 12 10  connector because the connections not  going to be as it's designed for so I  stripped out a little bit long there  that I'll just cut it down so just a  butt splice connector here wrap the  strands around just so there's no strays  so when you're pushing it in they don't  sort of flare up and not get inside the  actual tunnel of the connector there and  these crimpers are color coded so Red's  for that the small 18 to 22 blue is 14  and they correspond with with the crimps  and yellow is 10 to 12 so do the 14 to  16 crimp it down this phone here is a  single crimp you can also get another  version of these crimpers that has  double crimp which is ideal because then  you have two points of connection give  it a tug to make sure it's all connected  quickly and then there's no point buying  a heat shrink connector if you don't  knock it down I've gone on to numerous  boats where people have them but they  don't have a gas torch or maybe too  scared not knowing if there's vapors or  something around do this evenly because  otherwise you can scorch the cable and  damage the actual sheathing and it would  it'll go black and that's deteriorated  the the cable surface goes into oil or  get some kind of grease on it over time  that may possibly affect the cable so  now that's gonna pass that around might  still be a little bit hot just  yes no no no it's just you know it's  like anything there's no end you know  III know I wouldn't say it's an overkill  but you're certainly gonna buy that at  multiples what you charge for a nylon  connector sideman one point you gotta  ask yourself it's diminishing returns  alright I think this is probably a good  start that's too short of a wire it  should be much longer that's because  it's been cut and cut I mean the bilge  pump wiring is generally about at least  this long and you got to get it that's  high as humanly possible and you're  right it's essential with a bilge pump  essential to use an absolute heat shrink  connection and perfectly because having  12 volts going into your bilge with some  metals are going to be underwater you  can have 12 volts going to ground is  pretty much your whole boat is grounded  and so you can have then a circuit in  your boat and your bilge so yeah a bilge  pump wire absolutely has to be sealed  and cannot be laying in the bilge with  open connectors  Nigel Calder has stories of that bilge  pump float switch failing and causing a  keel to drop the boat's got all chewed  up so you cannot have a circuit in your  boat in the bills in the water because I  mean a lot of those water is gonna be  underwater metals or they're pretty much  all grounded so it's very very serious  to have bilge wiring that is not sealed  not properly heat shrunk so that there's  no more moisture or water they could get  into that to complete the circuit  so if with the hatred connectors it also  matters exactly what crimpy using these  ones here basically a universal so I  could use it on the 12 10 I can use it  on the 16 18 I can use it on the red 18  to 22 but when I crimp down with this it  actually penetrates through the heat  shrink so the middle is exposed there so  if it does get in that situation if it's  for a bilge pump you've used a heat  shrink connector but because it's the  middle has actually basically made it  null and void having heat shrink on it  you may as well just have a straight  middle criminal yeah so yeah make sure  you don't use the wrong tool for the  heat shrink insulation yes it will never  break some of the crimpers there's such  rough edges that he actually pierced and  actually caused the heat shrink to  actually be sliced open  so this ratchet crimper is designed by  FTZ we'll also make a lot of heat shrink  connectors and it actually is kind of  like they'll notice the edges are you  know they're kind of round and smooth  right they're not jagged straight edges  and so it allows the crimp to be done  without actually severing the heat  shrink insulation yeah which those crimp  is that type of crimpers do because here  normally these are cheaper as well the  the type obviously because it's not  designed specifically for it people  think I don't want to spend $30 on a  crimper I'll get a $10 here so yeah  these crimp is here it's got the color  gauges they're again for the different  size so this is the 1012 crimp it down  it off yeah I clearly haven't used these  sites yes  yeah the problem is that we have to do a  double crimp some of the barrels are  shorter and it varies from manufacturer  to manufacturer it's hard to do a double  crank on those because sometimes the  barrel slopes and it slides so it's  really it's it's even true yeah so even  though the price of some of these  crimpers can be up to a hundred dollars  depending how many crimps you need to do  on your boat that would pay to get a bit  of a good pair because if you you want  to spend $20 and get a pair like this  you're not really doing yourself any  favors by trying to crimp heat-shrink  connectors with something that's going  to damage them as such over time this is  one I have a my own boat and it is  tricky to use but over time you get used  to it  and then it never never breaks the seal  on your each ring so these this ankle  one is designed for the specific angkor  lugs as well these are if T's it but  yeah you can get pretty much identical  lugs of ease of ankle and they're  designed for exactly that purpose coming  now the lugs on those but thank you yeah  thanks all right enjoy the rest of the  show thanks Garrett that's right