# Help! Wiring Issues?



## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

Hey guys,

I've been recently wiring my 16' jon for LED under-deck lights and off road lights on the bow. Today was the big moment where I hooked up my battery, and with great anticipation went to flick the switches- where I had my ultimate Clark Griswold moment.

The battery is in the back of the boat with 8 ga. wires running from it to the switch and negative bus bar. This length is approximately ten feet. From the switch, I have some 16-18 ga. wire running the two LEDs in series (the negative of the first goes to the positive lead of the second, then the negative to the second back to the bus bar ground). The same setup goes for the 55-watt off road lights, except I am running about another 9-10 feet of 14 ga. to them from the switch and back. They will come on dimly, but the LEDs won't light up at all. When I tested it the battery was at 10.3 volts, but I didn't check the amperage. Anybody have any clue where I'm wrong? Thanks!


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Move your truck close to the boat and run a jumper from the truck to use that battery instead of the one in the boat. If it works it is your battery. If it does not work you have a poor connection.


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

Thanks DuckNut. The truck battery trick showed me that my marine battery is going bad, and that the off road lights are wired okay, although I thought they'd be brighter. It's mixed news, and also explains why my troller has been acting up. Unfortunately it did not explain why I cannot wire my LEDs in series. After a lot of testing and head scratching I rewired them individually.


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## firecat1981 (Nov 27, 2007)

I might be mistaken, but aren't most LEDs designed to be linked parallel? I'm not sure about which kind you are using, but the ones in my house needed to be linked that way.


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

> I might be mistaken, but aren't most LEDs designed to be linked parallel? I'm not sure about which kind you are using, but the ones in my house needed to be linked that way.


Aha! That explains everything, and that is the way they ended up wired last night.


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## levip (Dec 4, 2010)

yeah i was thinking in a series youd only get half the voltage for each and if you ran wires for one and then went + to + and the - to - to the other one you should get full voltage that would be in paralel- if thats the way you did it i dont see why it wouldnt work HOWEVER if you went
- to+ and + to - that would cut the voltage in half and thereby reduce your light output by half and that would be wired in series


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

> yeah i was thinking  in a series youd only get half the voltage for each and if you ran wires for one and then went + to + and the - to -  to the other one you should get full voltage that would be in paralel- if thats the way you did it i dont see why it wouldnt work HOWEVER if you went
> - to+  and + to - that would cut the voltage in half and thereby reduce your light output by half and that  would be wired in series


Thanks Levi. Yeah, you are correct and I also rewired my off road lights in parallel for that exact reason.


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