Question on wiring at the helm - existing bus and fuses

Hello, CSR! I'm hoping I can get some guidance from the forum on the topic of the existing wiring at my helm.

In the photo below I've got what appears to be 4 open slots at the fuse block and a 3 open slots on the bus bar below. I'll soon be removing my existing VHF and chartplotter and replacing them while also adding a NMEA network (which needs to be switched). I plan to use the existing power leads for the plotters and VHF.

Does anyone see any risk in using the pictured fuse block and bus bar as the connection for my switched NMEA 2000 power drop? I realize there are likely some limits to what is allowed to be added to the OEM setup but I do not believe the NMEA network draws significant current.

Before I tied in I just figured I'd ask. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

And yes....it needs to be cleaned up under there

I just did exactly that. I had a blank slot for a Carling switch on the helm. Wired up to that. It provides power to NMEA 2000 backbone, my AIS Transponder, and the AIS/VHF Splitter.

Jaybeaux said:

I just did exactly that. I had a blank slot for a Carling switch on the helm. Wired up to that. It provides power to NMEA 2000 backbone, my AIS Transponder, and the AIS/VHF Splitter.

Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for sharing. And so far your boat is still afloat so this must not be "highly inadvisable"!

The N2K network draws almost no power so you have no issue overloading your fuse block. The bus bar with the three open slots at the bottom is your common ground. If you had to you could just add another bar and tie it to one of the other two to give you additional slots.

We just had a radar, 2 MFDs and Vessel View Link installed on our 2003 360DA. The installer recommended we might want to upgrade our fuse block (similar to yours) to one that has an enclosure with an access door. He said it keeps all those power connections and fuses in better shape. We have not done that upgrade, but plan to look at it as it should be very straight forward.