Blue Sea 360 Panel

[Stillraining]

Thought Id go ahead and share an upgrade we are doing to my boat..

As well as a compleat rewire... I upgraded and changed locations of the electrical panel.

Irwin screwed the pooch IMHO mounting the origional panel where they did..it was so low you had to get on your knees to read the labels.

It is in a much better spot now at eye level even though I may have weakened a bulkhead a tad by putting it there.

I have killed two birds with one stone doing this...as I designed all the new cable trunk runs to alow for a future rebuild of my current stand only chart table to alow for a new forward facing sit down one...It will be smaller... but so much more useful and multi functional as well.

Tell me what you think so far.

[s/v Jedi]

Great job!

I am also considering a 360 panel (but also a Mastervolt panel). Did you custom order parts and if so, where? Was it easy to get what you wanted?

About the bulkhead: you didn't just cut a hole in it, you filled it up with an aluminium panel. So the question really is about the strength of the panel vs. the original material, plus how solidly it is fastened to the bulkhead. If the back of the bulkhead is inside a cabinet (or otherwise hidden), you could reinforce the circumference with fiberglass tape (like 4" wide) and epoxy. The corners need the most support (stress risers because they are not rounded) so overlap the tape there.

Are your really drawing 199 Amps from the batteries on that photo??

cheers,
Nick.

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Great job!

I am also considering a 360 panel (but also a Mastervolt panel). Did you custom order parts and if so, where? Was it easy to get what you wanted?

About the bulkhead: you didn't just cut a hole in it, you filled it up with an aluminium panel. So the question really is about the strength of the panel vs. the original material, plus how solidly it is fastened to the bulkhead. If the back of the bulkhead is inside a cabinet (or otherwise hidden), you could reinforce the circumference with fiberglass tape (like 4" wide) and epoxy. The corners need the most support (stress risers because they are not rounded) so overlap the tape there.

Are your really drawing 199 Amps from the batteries on that photo??

cheers,
Nick.

Thanks Nick...No thoes are just the plastic meter protector slip covers it shipped with..and thy thought it cute to print on some flux numbers..It isn't even powered up yet.


FWIW one thing I dont like about the panel is the mounting flange is way too small..this puts your N0# 6 mounting screws WAY!! to close to the edge of the cut out....so I made sure I cut small and filed it to fit gradually so as to get as much meat retention as I could possibly get.
I may eventually through bolt instead of screw and use some form of back up clip/plate for a more secure mounting.

[Stillraining]

Here is a shot of the before and after back sides...Im sure Irwin did not wire it this way originally but this is more then likely 25 years of accumulated Home tuner upgrading..

The new panel wiring is not quite finished yet in this picture

[s/v Jedi]

Stillraining,

you have good access to the back. I would recommend you reinforce the corners of the cut-out a bit, which is very easy:

Buy a couple of feet of 4" wide fiberglass tape and some epoxy/hardener. Draw 4" diameter circles (27- degree circle-segments to be exact) at each corner with the corner as the center (after some cleaning with aceton or even a little sanding too). Cut 4 circles out of the glass (mark first, incl. the center of the circle). Mix some epoxy and paint it on the marked area and immediately put the fiberglass on. a 90 deg segment will overlap the panel... using scissors, just cut into the circle a bit so that the rest goes nice and flat on the epoxy. Use the brush to add some more epoxy on the glass but not so much that it starts running. After some time the epoxy will gell, it will still be sticky. Use the scissors some more so that you can fold the fiberglass away from the panel onto the part that was epoxied (it will stick there on the sticky epoxy). Apply more epoxy over all of it, incl. the doubled up part.

This will disperse the stress riser at the corners and I estimate it to be an 1 hour job.

cheers,
Nick.

[Chief Engineer]

I opened one panel up and all the wires were RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Home tuner indeed

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Here is a shot of the before and after back sides...Im sure Irwin did not wire it this way originally but this is more then likely 25 years of accumulated Home tuner upgrading..

The new panel wiring is not quite finished yet in this picture

[witzgall]

Nice install. I ahve been thinking of doing the same thing - we have a sub panel that is 2 inches from the cabin sole - not great palcement in my opinion. A redo is $$$, so I am weighing our options.

Chris

[Stillraining]

Will do..Thanks

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Stillraining,

you have good access to the back. I would recommend you reinforce the corners of the cut-out a bit, which is very easy:

Buy a couple of feet of 4" wide fiberglass tape and some epoxy/hardener. Draw 4" diameter circles (27- degree circle-segments to be exact) at each corner with the corner as the center (after some cleaning with aceton or even a little sanding too). Cut 4 circles out of the glass (mark first, incl. the center of the circle). Mix some epoxy and paint it on the marked area and immediately put the fiberglass on. a 90 deg segment will overlap the panel... using scissors, just cut into the circle a bit so that the rest goes nice and flat on the epoxy. Use the brush to add some more epoxy on the glass but not so much that it starts running. After some time the epoxy will gell, it will still be sticky. Use the scissors some more so that you can fold the fiberglass away from the panel onto the part that was epoxied (it will stick there on the sticky epoxy). Apply more epoxy over all of it, incl. the doubled up part.

This will disperse the stress riser at the corners and I estimate it to be an 1 hour job.

cheers,
Nick.