Youll need a multimeter for both techniques. All boats will have a primary battery for ignitiion and critical electronics and a second battery for everything else that needs power.
Grounding A Fuel Tank
How to ground a boat. On a boat things are considerably more complicated. Any boat requires a completely isolated power system at no time can any part of the boat be used as a ground or earth. Well to the secondary battery that is. The ground wire goes to the battery luckily the solution is simple. Everything on your boat should be referenced to your engines running battery neg terminal unless you have a yacht and have an apu if you have a metal boat run a dedicated wire from the hull somewhere to the batt term. My boat came with a solenoid to disconnect the ground which i now can do via a normal battery mains switch.
When a direct. Make sure that the ground wire is connected properly or even run in. Connect a wire from the lights other terminal to the boats 12 volt dc positive bus shown clipped to the output of an unused 10 amp circuit breaker. Pervasive problems aboard boats are ground faults and short circuits. The ii ac ground or neutral is a current carrying conductor and could be the source of many troubles because its not actually the grounding. Both can slowly but surely drain the batteries even with every switch turned off.
You run both wires directly to the battery. The boat the ac ground and grounding systems are free floating meaning that they do not ground on the vessel but only to shore. Heres how to smoke them out and enjoy better service from the batteries. If it lights youve got a ground good enough to carry several amps and also a proper connection between the boats dc negative and ac ground. Perhaps more important these snafus can cause stray current corrosion which can sink your boat by eroding away through hull fittings fasteners rudders shafts and drives. However even with both terminals disconnected i ended up with the charging system providing an electrical path.
You run a heavy power cable both from the positive of the battery red. If there is any path it seems better to fully ground the engine to the hull and when not running the engine close the plastic in our case seacock. This is a static ground not a current carrying ground. Where is the ground on a boat. The ground connection is usually made by clamping to a metal water pipe or by driving a long copper stake into the ground. In addition to the ac ground we need a dc ground or return line a lightning ground and a rf ground plane for the radio systems.
It has been known to omit this wire to save a few cents no doubt to the socket and rely on a ground connection being made by the contact of the towball with the trailer coupling when hitched up.
Gallery of How To Ground A Boat
