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Jeff Cote here with boatingtechtalk.com thanks for joining me we've got a question from a fellow boater named Wade Wade leads in and says thanks so much for your videos you're welcome and by the way for some of you that are doing this YouTube with me today there's a lot more content on our website and on YouTube about all things related Marine electrical so if you feel like geeking out and learning more about all things Marine Electrical uh check out all our videos and we've tried to make playlists and different groupings and try to make it as useful as possible to all of you so that we can all have a better understanding of our electrical system so um Wade goes on and says uh I'm heading out uh for a few months in a remote location on his 50 42 foot trawler There Are Places to stop along the way right which would happen but you know sometimes it could be hard for uh about a boater to find the parts that they need especially when they go to remote locations and a way to ask well do you want to tell me what's spare parts or what should I bring aboard my boat for voyages or you know destinations that don't offer the conveniences of having service technicians or parts readily available great question Wade as a boater I worry about that too I derive a lot of pleasure actually out of being able to go far and to be able to feel safe because I know that in the event that something happens I'm going to be able to resolve simple issues by myself and a lot of those simple issues come down to having spare parts so I'll give you an example of the things that I worry about as a boater and suggestions for things that other voters might want to consider and this is not a hard list this is not a absolute must but it's certainly my suggestion and something that I do Follow by all right so first thing when it comes to electrical the first thing you need to have is a multimeter a digital multimeter is going to allow you to measure voltages and also with the clamp on feature allow you to measure AC amps and DC amps with a clamp on feature this is really essential the reality is if you're in the middle of nowhere and you're stuck you might be able to call someone to have help them troubleshoot or troubleshoot yourself and without that it's going to be real challenging so a good multimeter is an essential tool now in terms of spare parts one thing that I've encouraged a lot of boaters to do is to have basically a spare fuse for all the fuses they use on board now I'm not saying you need to have if you have a hundred class T I don't know 100 blade or 10 blade 10 amp fuses you don't need 10 of them because they're not all going to blow but you won't blame you want to have an assortment of the different types of fuses that you have on your boat as spares a classic one that often is forgotten is for example the fuses for your inverter charger that's a classy fuse it's not that readily available outside of service areas and if you lose that not only you're going to lose your inverter but you're also going to lose the charger so that's a pretty big one so inverter charger blade fuses uh if you've got a l fuses for your winless any type of big circuit fuse you should have as a spare either located you know sometimes what we do we have either one container that has all the fuses or will actually install the spare fuses near the existing fuse holder so that you don't even forget oh my god do I have one where is it it's right there just waiting to be used in a packaging or it's zip tied to the wire right beside the fuse holder so having spare fuses makes a lot of sense the other thing you want to maybe start looking at is having spare wiring you know on my boat I have gauge 10 wire duplex so 10 2 for DC um and I also have 14. gauge two wire and I also have gauge 18 2 gauge so that covers me to do you know simple installs a wire gets shorted something happens a bad connection I need to extend a wire I've got 10 2 14 2 and 18 2. the other thing too that I have and I recommend is spare connectors have spare ring connectors spare uh four connectors spare butt connectors you know of different gauge sizes 10 gauge 10 12 14 16 18 22. you want to have a full set so that if you know what to do it's frustrating to not have the tools in place or the little bits and pieces that you could have you could have and this is a pre-warning someone has told you at one point it would be a good idea to have those parts on board and so spare connectors are going to enable you to solve bad connections that could happen when you are going in a remote location um the other thing too that I recommend is um some of us for sure having a spare alternator alternators do die they have they have a hardest existence on boats so you might want to consider having a spare alternator I certainly do um the other thing too electrically speaking um I have spare bilge pump is for every bilge pump so every bilge pump I have a spare already on board and it's surprising sometimes when a bilge pump or shower drain pump fails so I have spare pumps on my boat the other thing too electrically that I recommend is having a spare water pump for all pumps on board so that could be salt water flush down pump raw water like just drinking water pump and whatever it is it could be even a pump to run the salt water to your head so I literally have three pumps on board and I have three spares on board and I can tell you how much I felt like a hero on multiple occasions where my water pump fails or my wash down pump fails and here I am come out from the locker with a spare pump ready to replace feels great those would be the sort of types of things that I think about electrically you know obviously spare V belts for your your a lot of spare parts for your engine I'm not going to go there I'm not a mechanic I've got a long list but I don't want to take away the Thunder from other mechanics out there that might have a much better advice to give on everything related to spare mechanical um and then the question would be you know what about larger larger gauge stuff well larger gave electrical wiring is not something that most of us would have large crimpers and the tools required and the rolls of water to be able to fix so anything above gauge 10 in size is not something that I even worry about on my boat because at that point you'd really almost need a little tool shed or uh an area in your boat where you would have quite a lot of spare parts the other thing too that you might want to consider is spare fuse holders I actually have spare fuse holders in case fuse holders fail so not only do I have the fuse replacement but I have the replacement holders as well and I'm talking about all gauges class t a and now ATO ATC uh glass themselves all of that I have aspares the other thing I do as well as you can tell I'm geeking out here uh is I have spare terminal strips terminal strips are really useful for Doom Junctions between different wires especially if you have to splice a wire and you can buy them in different amperage 20 amp 30 amp 65 amps and then you can also buy them two four six terminals eight terminals 10 terminals so I have sort of like a little container little Tupperware container and I have all these different terminal strips in there so if ever I have to splice a wire and I don't want to use but connectors or I want to maybe daisy chain some lights or whatever I can do that and one last advice Wade is that it's amazing how many of us and myself included when we don't have the right part on our boat and I've done this by the way so this is me learning from me I sometimes don't have the part I want and yet I'm in a remote location and I have to do work and I can tell you it's frustrating to have to do something and know that later on you're going to have to undo it because you didn't have the rights parts so over time I encourage all of us and this is myself too right I'm self-talking to myself to constantly look at things that we need while on the water so that when they arise not only do we do break fix but we have the option of solving a problem and solving it once not having to tell ourselves oh right I solve these problems while I was cruising for two three months but now that I'm back to a location I'm going to get the right parts and do it right that means you have to do it twice and that's frustrating as a motor because as we all know there's so much to do on our boats so why not do it once and do it right so that would be my advice if any of you have any other suggestions or ideas of what spare electrical parts you bring on your boat please put them in the comments down below and all of us can learn from each one of us so thanks for listening and safe boating so if you're curious again go on our website and find out more answers and solutions with this sort of setup and thanks for asking and thanks for all of you for listening and tuning in