C28 - getting behind the power panel?

[JonR]

I own a 2014 C28 Cutwater. I have recently replaced my inverter. More about this later... In any event, I replaced it with a TruePower Plus 2000 pure sine wave (ps) inverter. It's great. I can finally make coffee on 'battery power' - popcorn??? - have yet to try the microwave.

Anyway, to the point: The remote for the inverter is different that the one that is originally mounted on the power panel at the entrance to the 'cave'. It appears that I need to get behind the circuit breakers in order to route to wire for the remote to the inverter located in the battery compartment. What's the easiest way to get behind the panel? Has anyone had any experience here?

I ask the last question because I can see why others may have problems. Early on, when I first owned my used boat, I met a man at Friday harbor who had just replaced his due to 'salt water' intrusion. We were talking inverters because I had questions as to why mine didn't seem to work correctly. It later became clear why salt water was an issue. If your shaft seal is dripping a little too much, it slings salt water in a plane in-line with the dripping shaft. Unfortunately, this happens to be right in-line with an opening between the engine and battery compartment for the bilge pump hoses, etc. Salt water gets slung right onto the outlet & plug of the inverter, mounted on the back wall of the battery compartment, that feeds the cabin wiring/outlets. An, if you have an outlet within the engine compartment, it is also right in that same plane, which, with the original design, had an 'outdoor cover' that had to be open in order to plug in the engine heater. Not a great design.... When replacing mine (for the 2nd time) I realized that the previous owner(s) had also replaced his inverter twice in the 4 years prior to me owning it. Just passing this on for others awareness

Things I've recently done to resolve the issues:
- Replaced the GFCI outlet and cover using a newer now accepted outdoor cover that can be closed when heater is plugged in
- Replaced my old seal with a dripless seal
- Because there was not enough wiring length to replace the plug and still reach the inverter, I put a junction box in the lowest hatch below the ice chest which allowed to to add wire length, replace the plug, and provide a proper wire drip loop for the plug. It was an easier path that replacing the full length.
- Replaced my aft bilge pump which checks every couple of minutes to ensure bilge is always empty.

But finally, I can have my cup of coffee 🙂 Any knowledge/experience with rewiring the inverter remove would be appreciated.

Jon

 

[Martin610]

Hi,

Most of the remote panels for inverters I have seen use an RJ-11 connector and 4 conductor flat wire. Basically the setup for a land line telephone. If that's the case for you then you can re-use the wire you have and plug the new devices on each end.

If your wire really is different you can try and snip off the cable ends and use the old cable to pull through the new cable.

On my 2013 C-28 the inverter is mounted under the hatch just forward of the cabin door. From your post, I think I'm glad.

-martin

 

[JonR]

Unfortunately, the cable for the new inverter is not the same as the old one. The newer inverter has the cable you speak of but the old one is different. I want to use the old cable to pull the new one through but I believe I still need to get behind the breaker panel.

 

[JonR]

In hindsight, the answer was so simple that no one probably felt the need to answer but I'll pass on what I learned. It's quite easy to pull out the circuit breaker panel. Once shore power and battery power are turned off, it's a simple matter of popping off the 4 cover plates on the top and bottom of the panel and then removing the 4 larger square headed screws. The panel pulls right out and gives you access to the inverter cable routing. Everything is zip tied and these must be clipped before you can pull the inverter cable. In my case, I used the old wire to pull the new RJ12 6 conductor wire through.

Because the new remote was different (round vs square) and smaller than the old one, after some attempts to find a suitable adaptor plate with no luck, I chose to make my own - I used a 3/16 inch piece of black plexiglass that I purchased at TAP plastics for $1.29 and with a little drilling/routing fabricated what I think was a pretty decent adaptor plate.

The end....