Carver Owners Forum

Now that the engines are more or less sorted out, I'm on to get some electric worries overboard by replacing and upgrading the current mix of factory and afterwards installation.

I found quite a number of original cable coding on various places. The plugs here and there are marked (numbered with a marker) as well.

I also have a rudimentary wiring scheme from the manual.

What I aim to do:

replace the ground busbar(s) as these are corroded
replace the aftermarket fuse/switch panels for a face plate with rocker switches and behind it blade fuses in two units.

add some intelligence in battery and shore power monitoring

create a wiring scheme that is correct to this boat (for which I found diagrams.net quite suitable)

If interested I can post my progress on this here for others to get inspired and to ask for information on details.

My thoughts/questions for now:

AC shore power: where is the original location of the shore power plug on a 26 / 28 sedan? Mine is right in the way (pointing to the left, mounted on the right inside the rear of the cockpit) when stepping aboard through the little door aft. I have seen some mounted on the very aft pointing aft, into the air so to speak. I have some stainless covers there.

I'm considering moving this to the other side where the cooking gas box is mounted on the swimming platform. And replace it for a Euro-plug version

DC power:
is there a list to get an idea of what AWG wiring I should use? Some part of the wiring is original but I find it hard to determine what AWG is used. There aren't many different sizes used but still, using the thickest cables everywhere is also has disadvantages.

Is there any information on what was plugged where? I have the basic scheme but how it was laid out in the boat is sometimes a bit of a mistery.

Especially the flybridge is a huge mess as the meters (dials) were replaced over time, the unused wiring not cut off, lots of loose and unisolated terminals and nothing bound together or fixed.

I'd appreciate it if someone has some pictures of the wiring too, for inspiration and I'll probably recognise some constructions on my boat that are not yet clear to me at the moment.

Can you scan and post the wiring diagrams you have for that boat? My older vintage Carver had some pretty basic diagrams, but there was plenty of information there if you looked hard enough. IIRC, every wire was indicated with an AWG and every connector with an index number.

On my boat, it appeared they used an "engine manufacturer's" wiring harness for the gauges, and it was just a little too short. I always wanted to replace that - essentially just splicing into each wire after the molded plug and running longer wires to each gauge. Then I could have dressed it in under the helm much cleaner. I kept putting it off because I wanted to get all the right color coding to match and didn't really want to buy full reels of wire, as I'd just need a handful of each color.

I have it digital (well, it was scanned originally) in the downloads from Carver. I'll post it here. It does mention some of that information, it is not complicated what is electrically connected. I'd like a little more on what is en route between the connections as I found plugs in various places and same color in different locations. Fly and inside stand are quite a mess. Lighting is blue/black but not everywhere and so on.

For the wiring harness, I used to get a used one, take it apart. Harvesting the colors needed and then extend, replace, repair with that. If you can find the same brand, you can use pins and sometimes whole plugs too.