[Rhodes22-list] Electrical Issue with 2017 Rhodes 22

[PBR]

Well I can add a couple of cautions.  I currently have two 89 Rhodes, one
recycled 2012.  Don't have time or space for two so I will have one for
sale soon.  I have not yet had an opportunity to check out the recycled
wiring  but I have some info on the original.

1) My running lights appear to be trailer brake wire being yellow and brown
16 gauge.  Yellow is the positive.  Yellow s/b return by marine standard.
I will leave them that way as I put led's in the running lights and it
seems to be OK now.  The wires have no issues after 35 years despite being
non-marine.

2) There were some random uses of black and white wires when I got it but I
can't point fingers at who was responsible after several previous owners.
It was wired for 2 batteries with a switch but no shore power or solar
panel to charge.  Shortly after I got the boat I plugged in a small solar
panel to the cig. lighter type plug.  After a week I found everything
dead.  Turns out the white was positive at the battery switch but black was
positive at the panel.  Not surprising really because the wire from
batteries by the water tank to the panel under the companionway hatch was
solid copper black/white about 14 gauge and looked to me to be house wire.
(by Marine DC the black should be a return and I believe there shouldn't be
a white but with AC black s/b positive)  The whole panel was backwards but
the DC seemed to work OK so I didn't question the polarity.  I never used
the boat at night except the interior lights before that so I don't know
what else I might have found.  My solar panel was destroyed (open circuit
but the small fuse in the plug end was fine curiously),  Batteries charged
back to 12 volts but needed to be replaced soon after as they wouldn't hold
a charge.       A few weeks ago, I replaced the DC power panel so I learned
a lot.  Several wires, like the running lights with 16 gauge trailer wires,
were butt-spliced onto a smaller wire for attachment to the panel. This
will lead to #3.   Continuing with #2, I recently chose to use the white
for positive and black for return but marked both ends very plainly with a
sharpie on a white electrical tape flag.  Not sure really what I "should"
do with the white and black but that is what I did for now.  Sometimes
house wiring professionals use a white wire for a positive but it is
clearly marked with red or black stripes and/or words. (e.g. in 3 or 4  way
switches).  While doing this I found that what I thought was "house wire"
was actually marked "marine" but I still assume it was intended for 110
volt AC. Note: My pop up camper uses black to battery positive and white
for the return, the opposite of what I just did on the boat.  Please advise
if there is an expected way to use black and white on a boat.

3) It has been a few years now since I cautioned the list about the use of
Harbor Freight butt joints.  I may recall this differently than I reported
then but I don't want to research my own postings.  I was thrilled when HF
came to my neighborhood and had cheap tools and parts and had no reason for
caution and bought a lot of stuff there.  Anyway, I rewired my boat trailer
and used those joints and other connectors on everything for a couple of
years.  As I reported, after a year or two, my trailer lights stopped
working.  I found the  4 pin connector I had "connected" to the trailer
wiring by butt splices had power but aft of my very carefully water sealed
(with liquid e-tape) joints there was no power.  Autopsy of the splices
found considerable galvanic corrosion, white power inside the still sealed
areas. No conductance.  easy fix but should not happen ever.  I reported to
the list that the connectors looked like aluminum but I don't know what
they actually were.  The list told me they should be tinned copper as West
Marine sells.  Years later I found my automatic bilge pump not working.
Same thing, corroded butt joints.  In my recent panel replacement I found
another circuit I had added was also dead.  OK get to the point.  I know GB
did buy at least one thing from HF for at least a minute, some of the
winches for the motor lifts.  So....maybe they bought a few electrical
connectors from HF.  So,  if you have unexplained open circuits or
intermittents look for crappy butt joints or other crimp connectors.  This
does not offer any explanation for the short circuit that started this
thread.  Sorry to be so long winded...I only buy from West Marine now but
everything seems to come from china regardless.

On Mon, Nov 4, 2024 at 3:24 AM Chris Geankoplis <chrisgeankoplis at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thank you so much for this information! It may be a single boat issue or
> several boats could be at risk. I’ll check my refurbished in 2017 to be
> safe.
> Chris Geankoplis
> Xenos
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Nov 3, 2024, at 8:35 AM, Tom Galbreath <otomtomgalbreath at outlook.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I purchased a showboat from Stan in 2019, the boat was constructed in
> 2017.  Recently when switching the power on in the boat, I experienced an
> extreme electrical short that caused my cables to meltdown between the
> batteries.  I fear I was close to having the boat catch fire, I managed to
> remove the cables from the battery while using fire extinguisher and
> battling smoke inhalation.  I hired a certified marine electrician, and he
> found many issues with the wiring including lack of adequate circuit
> breakers, use of automotive wiring and not marine rated wiring.   He also
> found GFCI line and load reversed.
> >
> > I was fortunate to meet and visit Stan and know this is not what he
> intended for his beloved Rhodes 22, I fear the quality control was absent
> in his later years.  I wanted to get this information out to owners and
> suggest you might want to have a qualified marine electrician review your
> wiring.  Hopefully, my situation was a one-off scenario.
> >
>