Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

New guy here.

I recently "inherited" a '97 Premier 20ft Sunsation with a Johnson 90hp outboard. I have already had the outboard gone through and overhauled. I have since removed all the furniture, fences, carpet and decking. I have the plywood to put down. My question is when is the easiest time to run wiring. I am reusing the same helm and it is still hooked up to the boat. It seems a lot of folks here do deck and carpet and then run wiring. I won't know the exact locations of speakers and such until the furniture arrives. Any suggestions. Thanks.

ive not experienced the *joys* of stripping boat down to logs... yet...

but, I'm thinking...

wiring goes in after floor and floor covering - as much of final install as possible. for electronics that are dependent upon power source - lights, depth finder, anchor winch, speaker wires, etc.... you know *about* where the item(s) are going. run the wires to that area, leaving lots of additional wiring to fit the install. label each wire as to it's intended destination. roll it up, and hang it underneath, close to where you anticipate drilling holes, until ready for finish install.

sitting in my comfy computer desk chair... i think that's how i'd do it....

I always final wire everything when the boat is pretty much finished. I have in the past "pre run" wires and such before decking, because you can always get under and rearrange them as needed.

With that being said, I see some potential issues here. You're boat is under skinned, and if you don't want to remove it that removes the chance of running wire underneath. Where I'm confused is the outer tube risers. In some of your pictures it appears you have a one piece solid outer riser, but in others it appears you have separate M brackets? Is there some sort of cover that goes on the outside? If so, you can easily get in from the outsides and finish up your wire after the decking & seating is installed and you know where every thing will go. If not I'd say you're either going to have to take off the under skin or do ALOT of measuring, cutting and praying if you wire it first...

Thanks Playndoc and Toonguy. The boat is under skinned which is what had be questioning the best route. After a couple of hours standing in the hot sun and engineering I did what Playndoc spoke to. The two batteries and the oil injection module were all in the central portion of the rear seat. I liked that set up and will try to duplicate it. I had thought of drilling a modest hole that would line up with the back of the same (new) seat, carpet over the deck and hole, and then cut access through the carpet. There is a lower flashing that goes below the deck's flashing...Is that what you were referring to Toonguy. New fences should be here in one week. I was going to finish putting down the deck and then hold off until the fence is here. Then I can dry fit it together and see where everything lands.

The under skin will certainly make things interesting. Try to get as much in as you can before flooring, ONLY if you are certain where it goes. Anything along your midline (fore to aft) should get special consideration early on.
Once your decking is on, you are pretty much limited to working from the sides, so don't put your rub rails on until very last.
My favorite tool for 'fishing' wire is a ten foot piece of 1/2" pvc water pipe. Stiff enough to ram through wire bundles and other such obstacles but still flexible enough to fine tune your routing.
Good luck and have fun on your build. And beers.

Thanks Todd. I think with a little more planning (read adult beverage break) I will be able to use a variation of your method to get the cables and wires where they need to be. I enjoyed you "morph" project although I was worried that your maiden voyage might have looked a little like this with all that fine mechanical stuff in the stern:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... q8j86OenqM

Got the deck finished today and started sanding the lower end of the outboard for painting. Carpet and fence will be here in 4 days so have time to work on the motor and the scale line on the pontoons that even the industrial strength aluminum cleaner for semi trucks wouldn't touch.

Great work! I ran mine after deck and carpet was on. With you underskin you might have some issues!

Good Day Gentlemen,

Hello from the 'Worlds Largest Sand Box'.

When I re-wired my toon, I removed the bottom skin, found all kinds of burnt wires.

That said, I would recommend you remove the skin and run all of you wiring inside clear plastic tubing thru the stringers, I found holes just for this purpose. Taking the skin off was easy, putting it back will require some assistance so buy lots of 'libations' , make sure the 'Under-aged' are not in the general area when you do this.

DO not run the wires with out protection for the wire. You will create more issues.

I would also wait until you get your furniture in place so you know where to cut the wood and carpet.

Thanks you Marineengineer and Craig. I am using the old helm. I have looked over the wiring and will use most that is still in place which also happens to be in conduit. I will rewire for the navigation and docking lights as there was a bit of a wire rats nest there. The biggest wiring will be reconnecting the wiring for the batteries and the oil feed for the motor. The cleaning of the scale line on the pontoons is going slow but with gentle sanding it is slowly giving up its tenacious grip. Don't want to get the pontoons too clean because then I will be tempted to polish them...a slippery slope indeed. I wish that the pontoonstuff folks could locate a source for ski pole setups for pontoon boats. I have found a few scattered on E Bay and such. There is also one on the Premier site but no measurements.

Well, the FedEx folks dropped off the fencing today. Took some time to make sure my measurements were right. Everything seems to fit the way I thought it would. Big relief. Also had carpet reshipped. Seems that when they sent the order to the carpet mill the item number was entered wrong and I got blue carpet. They were very nice about sending me a label and had FedEx pick up the wrong carpet and deliver the right one to the house. Nice folks to work with. Now need to cut out the engine well, get the carpet down, and then attach the fences. The panel at the right stern area is a 28 inch gate that will swing inward. I am going to put a fold up step off the stern.

Love watching this stuff! Get some great ideas for when the wife's toon needs a refurb. Keep us posted on your progress.

Wijames has a tow bracket for sale in the buy and sell area. He is from Fla.

I like the new Play Pen. Where did you get it?
I will need to re-due mine when I get home.
I have to TIG Weld up a whole bunch of holes in the toons first.
I see that you have carpet on the rails that your toon sits on. You might want to consider replacing the carpet with plastic covers. Makes it easier to get the boat on and off as well as prevents dirty water sitting against the aluminum which is how I got holes.