jgoedd99
Active Member
I am helping a friend do some winter work on his boat a 38' Jefferson Yachts with a Simpson Lawrence Sprint 1000 (since acquired by Lewmar) anchor windlass. The windlass manual says the working load is 60 amps and manual recommends 1 AWG or 1/0 depending on the length of the run (71' or 89' respectively). The solenoid box is in the bow of the boat and has 1/0 POS and NEG 12V wires running to it from one of the engine's battery. The run is probably closer to 60' or 70', so the wires from the battery to/from the solenoid box are more than adequate. There is a circuit breaker close to the battery on the 1/0 POS wire. I did not note the size of the breaker DUH.
So far so good, however the power wires from the solenoid box to the windlass motor (about 7 feet long (one way)) are only 10AWG. Seems to me like the wires from the solenoid box to the windlass motor should also be 1/0 or at least big enough to carry the amp rating of the windlass circuit breaker. I was looking into replacing the wires from the windlass motor to the solenoid box with a larger wire, but i am pretty sure that the motor is supplied with permanently connected leads and are 10 AWG. So it seems like i am going to be stuck with some length of 10 AWG in the circuit. This seems like a bad situation if i cannot upsize the wires all the way to the windlass motor. Any suggestions? Thank You.
So far so good, however the power wires from the solenoid box to the windlass motor (about 7 feet long (one way)) are only 10AWG. Seems to me like the wires from the solenoid box to the windlass motor should also be 1/0 or at least big enough to carry the amp rating of the windlass circuit breaker. I was looking into replacing the wires from the windlass motor to the solenoid box with a larger wire, but i am pretty sure that the motor is supplied with permanently connected leads and are 10 AWG. So it seems like i am going to be stuck with some length of 10 AWG in the circuit. This seems like a bad situation if i cannot upsize the wires all the way to the windlass motor. Any suggestions? Thank You.