Electrical projects can be intimidating for many boaters. We get it! This section is to help guide you through adding and replacing electrical components on your boat. Learn from our pros and be able to tackle any electrical project.
Battery technology has progressed by leaps and bounds over the past 15 years. Still, there are some general guidelines to help you understand how long your batteries should last and to extend that lifespan as much as possible.
With the advent of powerful LED lights, many boaters have upgraded their boats with additional lighting systems to improve both aesthetics and functionality. These lights are relatively inexpensive, easy to install, and simple to wire, making them increasingly popular, but there are a few things to know if you are considering adding these to your boat.
Sorting out wire gauge, fuse/circuit breaker rating, and switch function and rating for marine electrical accessories can be downright daunting, often involving more math than you’ve done since high school. That being said, the fact is that you don’t have to work out all the specifics for every single installation.
If there’s one thing you can count on when refitting a boat with updated electronics, it’s that the new units won’t fit in the same cutouts as the old ones. That means marine electronics shops like NautiNav, often have to figure out how to cover old cutouts before installing new units.
When most of us think of upgrading our boats, we tend to think of the big-ticket stuff. The small upgrades often have the biggest impact, since they tend to address the minor issues that inconvenience or annoy you every day. Here are 8 of our favorite easy, low-cost, high-impact quality-of-life upgrades.
Wiring a boat can be a daunting task. Even the simplest skiffs seem to have miles of wires that all run in different directions and only converge into the console to create a rat’s nest of confusion. Whether you’re fixing old faulty wiring, reorganizing a switch panel or running a new accessory, it’s important to know a few basics.
Download an app, connect your phone to your trolling motor, and now your phone is a $1,000 trolling motor remote that’s not clipped to a belt loop and can slide off the gunnel in 200 feet of water with your digital wallet and every picture ever of your kids growing up, all at the same time. Your trolling motor remote backs up to the cloud every night, of course — right? Progress. What a time to be alive.
The capacity to charge portable electronics is a convenience bordering on a practical necessity on a boat these days. Everyone who comes aboard your boat will have a phone along. The gizmos will need juice!
Over the past eight years, Luke Taylor had replaced the lights on his bass boat trailer twice, with the same inexpensive incandescent lights it was originally equipped with. This spring, he decided to take a different approach dropping a bit more money on a set of LED lights in higher-quality housings.
The only real downside to lithium batteries for marine use is their much higher initial cost. Still, there are a few things you should know about lithium batteries before you jump in with both feet — not disadvantages, necessarily, just considerations.
Tune in to learn about the different cell phone accessories available for your boat. We discuss the benefits of upgrading your boat with phone holders and chargers!
LED lighting for boating applications has advanced rapidly and LEDs are now the superior choice for just about every lighting need you have on your boat and boat trailer.
There aren’t many absolutes when it comes to boat rigging. But here’s one thing that’s certain: if your electrical system doesn’t include a battery disconnect or selector switch, you need to add one. And yes, it is worth the modest cost!
Thinking about adding new electronics or repowering? Make the transition seamless with a perfectly matched custom dash panel. Here we go over the three considerations to make when upgrading or replacing the dash panel on your boat.
