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hi everyone jeff cote here with

boatingtechtalk.com we've got a question

from a fellow voter

all right this motor is jonathan reaches

out and asks jeff i was wondering if you

could do a talk on the correct way of

securing and shielding

cables as you run them through a boat

do you use braided cover or pvc split

conduit do you use zip ties or other

fasteners

great question from jonathan right i

mean the one thing is where the wires

are going to be running on your boat

that's one thing and that's not an easy

thing because if you've got basically an

open boat how are you going to run wires

is definitely one of the questions that

we all ask ourselves

and the designer of your boat certainly

asks that question to himself as well

but then the other question is one does

one thing or decide what the routes are

going to be but how do you secure those

cables right

and that's a really good question so

what we're trying to avoid ultimately

why do we secure them we secure them a

because

we want to avoid any sort of shave right

as cables pass through bulkheads

they're actually there are points where

they're going to be loaded and those

bulkheads are not like really soft wood

right they're actually most likely

fiberglass and if it's fiberglass you

hope for wood but fiberglass is pretty

sharp so as we go through bulkheads

we're actually encountering different

type of materials and those materials

cause shape on the wire so that's one

thing and if it's loose over time

because some of us are in areas where

our boats are actually

feeling the swell and are constantly

feeling a sort of

motion right

well that motion over time can really

cause a lot of shave on a wiring

i've seen it it's a real issue

it's not a joke

and our goal as boaters is to look for

wiring and for shape like when i'm on a

boat every time i walk on i'm looking

all the time for places where there's

potential shafe

and of course it's not going to happen

in a year it's not going to happen in a

month but depends on how often you use

your boat and what type of sort of

weather you're in

and i've seen boats where the wire

shaved right through the insulation

right so the insulation of the jacket is

a varying thickness depending of course

on the cable size

but you're trying to prevent chain so

okay so now you've got the idea why

we're doing it so how do you do it well

you know what i've seen every way so

i would say

one is first of all try to avoid

something that's going to trap any sort

of condensation right

so the reality is some of us sometimes

are in certain climates where there can

be condensation or you might have a leak

and you definitely don't want to have

any water pooling

on your cabling so whatever your system

is

want to make sure that there will never

be your wiring will never be in a

standing ring because you would think

you know oh it's going to be straight

how well sometimes the wires sag right

they're not perfectly so there could be

a place if it was let's say for example

piping you could have a place where

water got in one end and it actually sag

down so you don't want that so you want

to basically have any sort of protective

that's not going to pull water

and that's the problem sometimes with

split loom split loom is cool but it

also causes shape

so

we like split loom but i'd rather have a

mesh i'd rather have something that

protects shafe but at the same time

doesn't actually have standing water in

it so that'd be one um so we'll use

often the mesh but a lot of times on

boats actually the from a to b what

they'll do is they may be using they'll

protect they'll maybe put a pipe

around the cutout i've seen that

or they'll put something protective

around the bundle as it goes through a

bulkhead and as soon as it leaves the

bulkhead then again the wiring is

actually not even in a protective sleeve

again probably for heat dissipation and

again some of you that are designers you

can share in and why you actually don't

do that because rarely do we see wiring

in bundles throughout boats they're

together and then what we'll do is we'll

actually

use zip ties

and not so tight but tight enough so

that they stay in place and they don't

move but not so tight that the bundle is

really condensed again you don't want to

have as possible you don't want to have

a super super tight bundle a lot of

builders do that way but there's

drawbacks so given a choice my

suggestion is to not go too crazy on

having that bundle too tight

big fan of zip ties now of course

make sure that when you cut the zip type

do it properly so that you don't end up

cutting your arm my arms are full of

scars from my hands going

behind panels where people have cut zip

ties in ways that are just cruel and

mean anybody of you that worked on boats

will know that zip ties

can

can certainly make us cry at times i've

had some gashes that were pretty deep uh

left a lot of blood so make sure that

when you cut your zip ties um other

people actually are putting even zip

ties that are undoable like i've seen

that on boats where you can actually

undo the zip tie and the other thing too

and we've seen this all the time

and this is definitely i actually

advocate i'm a huge fan as you're

actually adding more and more uh wiring

and ie cabling to a bundle

take the opportunity to remove the old

zip ties you know like people add the

bundles obviously over time just keep on

growing but as you keep growing the zip

ties just keep being added on top of

added on top so i'm a big fan of

cleanliness make it look like it's

intentional and you know what you're

doing so and that's part of making a

clean install so use the zip ties room

the ones that don't work and make sure

that you've got at least every 18 inches

of support on some boats we go down even

as 12 inches

and make sure that the bundle is really

nice and taut everywhere right so it

doesn't sway and it doesn't shave as it

goes through the bulkheads

great question by the way jonathan

thanks for asking if you're curious

we've written whole articles about this

go on our website search it out

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talks about this very topic if you

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