Newboy Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 How does the auto switch for a bilge pump wire up? So is it fully auto, or do I still need to wire it to a manual switch (as well as the auto switch)? Another thing is that I have 'this' in my boat which is in the fuel supply line to the engine. My guess is that is fuel filter. Do I need to change it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick Martin Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 Newboy The picture is indeed that of an in line fuel filter/water separator, this will seperate any crud and water from your fuel line. These are usually fitted when you have integral/built in fuel tanks as they can suffer from condensation and therefore water in the fuel. It is good practice to change them when the engine is serviced, at only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coddy Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 Hi Newboy I suspect the pump has two wires, a feed supply and a return wire. Normally these are Red & Black or Brown and Blue. Conect the +ve supply to the Red or Brown wire from the fuse, (you have fused it havn't you) and the Black or Blue wire to the -ve supply. When the float lifts with the water it makes a switch and starts the pump, when the water drops it drops down and turns off. If the boat is on a wet mooring you need it connected to the battery all the time otherwise I would include an isolation switch. Hope this helps Coddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newboy Posted July 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 Do I wire it to a switch, so that the switch controls the float switch? or do I connect it straight to the battery, ie, at all time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afishionado Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 Ah, another good question.......... If the boat was on a mooring and there was a recharge method for the battery (Solar or wind gen') then yes direct might be the thing to do. But for a trailed boat I would always run it via an on/off switch to the float as well as the float switch itself. It might be an ides to have it wired to the feed sie of the battery master switch so it comes on live as soon as you turn the battery on. but I still think a separate switch is best Mad Mike PS when I'm wireing up a boat I draw a schematic and in doing so frequently find it is easier to rub out a pencil line than find I am running wires where I don't need them or visa versa have a bit of equipment and no power source. I might add that drawing schematics, making cock ups, rubbing them out untill the paper has a hole worn through ir, ripping the paper to shreds and screwing it up, and throwing it at one of the dog is very good for the temperment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swainiac Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 Mikey, how effective are these solar panels for re-charging 12v batteries???? Ta muchly, Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afishionado Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 Mikey, how effective are these solar panels for re-charging 12v batteries???? Ta muchly, Rich I believe these days pretty good. I have no direct experiance of them but in the days when the posh yottie shops sold them for hundreds of squid they were only slightly better than useless. Like a lot of 21cent technology todays solars are quite inexpensive and claim quite good charge rates. So it's not as though it's going to cost hundreds of quid to find it don't work. I've seen them advertised at around the Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam F Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 I have one fitted to the tonneau cover of BW. I out it one everytime I get home after a trip and basically it just trickle charges / stops the batts draining. Dont know how effective it is, but I have never charged the batts and I always have full power when I go out. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newboy Posted August 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 I used to have a small one plugged into my dad's car which wasn't used for long time. It worked fine provided it's plugged in constantly and alarm etc are not switched on. However, I think you can get massive solar panels the size of a food tray and they should work very well (working on the assumption it's 8x the little one). If you are parking the trailer outside your drive, get a battery mate, about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
great white Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 Looking at the picture it is a fuel filter/water trap and with that amount of rust an imediate change is needed before it splits and dumps all your fuel into the bilge. the water inside looks to have rusted it almost through. That would be pricey but more importantly potentially lethal 1. because of the danger of fire/explosion in your bilge 2. putting all your fuel to bilge will soon stop your engine, with a ruptured in line filter you can not get it running again without a lot of ingenuity and a few tools. and while doing this you are stood on a slippery deck up to your ankles in petrol. It happened to Ow Much with his Diesel filter and he had a long tow back to Poole by the RNLI We use solar panals on our nav lights at work they keep a lights 12v battery charged as long as it has a light cell to turn off the lamp in the daytime. They can struggle in the winter with short daylight and a lot of dark rainy days. But to trickle charge to compensate for a short run of a bilge pump they would be adequate. Your original question a bilge pump switch panel has 3 poitions Auto, Off and Manual[On] You feed this switch from the battery and run a three core cable to the area of the float switch and pump Pos and neg then go to the pump from the switch in the manual position the positive from the auto position goes through the vacant third core to the float switch, then from the float switch to the pos input to the pump[ shared with manual above pos] That way when the flost switch closes the pos gets to the pump and as it is connected already to a negative it runs until the float switch opens again. The off poition is as expected not connected, it is usually the centre of a three way rocker switch. On my boat the wires for the float and pump are connected by a Choc Block to the wire from the switch panal, this is then fastened to the engine water inlet pipework to keep it out of the bilge The above is from memory and I may have got it wrong and the switch should be on the neg side but I am sure someone will say if I have, and I am not sure if it makes any differance anyway. I hope that helps Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.