Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am redoing my pontoon and I have taken out all of the wiring. My brother in law is a lineman and says he can help me. The dude I got to quote the job quoted almost 3k. I have ordered all the parts and it was around 1300. Any suggestions?

Nice thing about a pontoon boat is that you can make the electrical system as simple or as complicated as you want.

My old Starcraft had a tachometer and that's all. And it was hooked directly to the engine. Only electrics were the running lights.

My Bennington has modular electrical circuits--a bunch of wires plugging into another bunch of wires. I have 2 gauges with shorts. My problem is where to start chasing down what I assume is a ground problem.

I still like to keep things simple. But there again, I like the electronic GPS speedometer too.

Pretty much what has been said....a "lineman" is used to 120/240 etc.
12v gets killed by resistance, clean and dry is your friends, look at amp/V/wire size and go for it, 12ga stranded will do 99% of your none engine start/charge. Cheaper to buy in bulk, yes you can go 14,16,18 20 gage etc....

Good luck and post pics

I personally would not ground to alum hull, I run separate power/ground for anything in a boat,bus, or trailer because of different materials

I did it the easy way!!!!!!!


https://www.pontoonstuff.com/collection ... ng-harness

curtiscapk wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 19, 2020 6:28 am

I did it the easy way!!!!!!!

https://www.pontoonstuff.com/collection ... ng-harness

I did too. It took much less time and made all the difference!

$3K to wire a pontoon? Holeey crap. Do not mess with the engine harness unless it's damaged & mark those wires and plugs on it as you unplug them. The rest of the boat is simple, usually 6 or less circuits and I am sure your friend can handle that. I replaced all wiring on my boat(except engine harness) and it took less than a day to run it all and hook it up to a new fused breaker box and new gauges.

My toon has zero wires besides the engine harness, but I’ve wired a few others.

Pacific Yacht Systems has some great info on YouTube. You’ll want marine tinned stranded wire and shrink crimp connectors per ABYC standards. That stuff adds up fast buying retail. Keeping organized and labeled will pay off long term.