Generator wiring

[tds8268]

Adding AC this spring and possibly a 3.5 phazor too. Trying to come up with a simple wiring diagram which would tie to two together as well as allowing my to plug into shore power. The boat has a basic 12v breaker box system presently. I'm not looking to rewire everything I would just like to add shore power for the sole purpose of running the AC and maybe a battery charger as well as allowing the possible generator to feed those two items as well.
Thanks for any help.
Dan

[Pete Fallon]

Dan,
I am not an expert but have done a lot of marine wiring in the past 35 years of owning my 31 express.
I have a 125 volt 30 amp shore power inlet on the port side just aft of the engine box on the side panel.
Marinco or guest outlets are both good recepticals.(as long as the have a screw on or positive latch on the cover, to keep water out). I installed a Blue Seas 4 breaker panel board under my aft dinette seat on the out board side panel, The 4 breakers are Main 30 amp shut off, # 1 for battery charger,# 2 outlets(120 volt throughout the boat) and# 3 is a spare right now.(Maybe for Air Conditioner at a later date). The wire is 10-3 AWG Anchor Marine tinned copper wire. Connections are captive lugs with epoxey heat shrink connectors. The lenght of the main 10-3 wire on my boat is less than 72" so only one breaker on the main panel is needed, if over 72" you will need a breaker within 6" of the inlet connector(ABYC recommended).
If your boat is over 20 years old which most of ours are I would change out all the old Bertram 120 volt wires) the outter jacket looks good but the inner insulation covering the white, black and green wires are all dried out and will be a potential cause of electricial fire. Also while your at it change the duplex outlets in the head and galley areas to ground fault interupter outlets(any areas that can get wet should have GFIC outlets in place).
If your going to put in a gen set you will need a 30 Amp double slide style breaker on the panel board , so check Blue Seas catalog for the correct panel board. You will find that once you start wiring project it will snow ball and you will end up replacing all the old panel boards and most of the old Bertram single stranded color coded wiring. Just remember it's all for safety sake, I have inspected alot of 31's in the past 13 years and most have rats nests for wiring through out the entire boat. It's a time consuming job and can turn into an expensive project but it's worth it in the long run. Good luck with the project what ever way you tackle it.
Pete Fallon

[tds8268]

Thanks for the info.