Potential fire risk from poor boat rigging??

While putting stuff back into compartments this week, I found some red plastic shavings in the bow compartment. See Pic 1. Looking more closely, I saw this. See Pic 2.

The Ulterra mount was secure to the bow with screws that were longer than needed and the trolling motor positive wire rubbed against one of them all last summer down to the copper wire.
I fixed it by: 1) replacing the long screws with shorter ones, 2) sealing the abrasion with liquid tape, 3) putting a piece of split loom around each wire and 4) zip tying the wires to a piece of plastic to act as a stand off so they cannot contact any protruding screws.

Was this a fire hazard? Not the most experienced in boat wiring, that’s why I had the dealer do the rigging. The bow deck is wood but if it was aluminum I would expect grounding a 36-volt positive wire to the boat hull would result in some serious $hit happening.

In addition, when I removed the Ulterra for winter storage in my basement, the slide, see Pic 3, that connects the part of the mount on the boat to the part of the mount on the motor needed to be pounded out. WTF!! Well, the rigger put in pan head screws in two of the holes towards the front of the boat where flat head screws were required in order to counter sink them. See Pic 4. The exposed screw heads left a mark on the underside of the motor, see Pic 5, and caused the two parts of the mount to be out of alignment such that the slide had to be forced in. I replaced the panheads with flatheads and could install the slide by hand.

Last year I ranted about some other aspects of the rigging of the new boat which resulted in extra trips to the dealer. If this wire issue would be a fire hazard with the bow deck being wood (I’ll wait for your opinions), then I’ll post the dealer’s name online. Otherwise you can PM me if you would like to know. That’s why I will always recommend Fish Electronics or some other professional rigger. I know not all dealerships have bad riggers, but I sure got a lemon!!

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If this is on your Pro-Guide, there’s a good chance there’s a sheet of aluminum on top of the wood platform, possibly providing a ground path. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, was the TM socket installed by Lund, or the dealer? I would not of thought that the factory TM socket wiring would have been long enough to reach the bottom-side of the platform.

HRG

Everyday you learn something new to look out for. Chalk it up to that.

I’d be mad as a wet hen to find that stuff rigged that way on my brand new boat.

Netguy wrote:

Was this a fire hazard? Not the most experienced in boat wiring, that’s why I had the dealer do the rigging. The bow deck is wood but if it was aluminum I would expect grounding a 36-volt positive wire to the boat hull would result in some serious $hit happening.

Agreed, it appears to be lousy workmanship. Grounding 36 volts to the hull SHOULD result in the breaker tripping to the off/open position.

You do have the system protected with a fuse or breaker, right?

Huntindave wrote:

Grounding 36 volts to the hull SHOULD result in the breaker tripping to the off/open position.

Possibly. Unless it’s just ticking off the screw while hitting things like waves. Then it sits there and randomly sparks.

Another issue comes when it doesn’t get noticed and water gets behind the sheathing the conductor starts corroding. After enough corrosion the wire is now undersized causing the wire to overheat during use and eventually catching fire. All without tripping the breaker.

I’d tell them to replace the wire, don’t just bandaid it.

Was this a fire hazard? Yes the potential was there. Huntindave is right on. There should be a breaker on the trolling motor and fuses on all the other circuits. Looks like you got a wam bam job by an unskilled worker not a skilled rigger. That and the fact that I’m retired are the reasons I rigged my own. Glad you found what you did before any serious damage was done. I assume you will double check everything the dealer touched. Good luck and smooth sailing from here on.

Back when I had my capt. license, I recall a safety section review. It stated that approx 35% of all fires on all vessels was electrical. This includes low voltage

It almost looks to me that a drill bit went through to far during installation and nicked the wire, but either way unacceptable.

Hot Runr Guy wrote:

If this is on your Pro-Guide,

Yes. Awwww, you remembered.

Hot Runr Guy wrote:

was the TM socket installed by Lund, or the dealer?

I don’t recall.

Huntindave wrote:

You do have the system protected with a fuse or breaker, right?

Yes, one breaker for the Ulterra and one for the Vantage.

munchy wrote:

I’d tell them to replace the wire, don’t just bandaid it.

I will call Rapid Marine in Shakopee to see if this can be done before the opener, otherwise my fix will be fine until mid-summer.

With the issues from last year, I already looked it over pretty carefully but didn’t expect this. I even gave them a list of how I wanted it rigged and they didn’t follow it. That’s what lead to return trips.

When they installed the water separator filter, they snapped off a fitting on the rear live well so when I used the pump it flooded the back of the boat. That’s how I found out the bilge pump has an automatic switch. At least I have that going for me!! I could go on and on and on….

Pretty scary. Glad that was not near the fuel cell.

I called the dealer and will drop the boat off next Tuesday to fix it. After describing the issue, he said, “Well we’ll look at it and maybe splice it”. I said, “No, you’ll run a whole new wire from the batteries.”
So we’ll see how it goes. From the rigging issues last year, I know the general manager on a first name basis. I’ll update this post with the outcome.

I’d replace the 2 screws myself, wrap some electrical tape around the wire. Then go fishing and never think about it again. That would be faster and a lot less stressful then bringing it back to dealer for such a minor issue.

Smoker wrote:

I’d replace the 2 screws myself, wrap some electrical tape around the wire. Then go fishing and never think about it again. That would be faster and a lot less stressful then bringing it back to dealer for such a minor issue.

I think when guys shell out $$$$ for that brand new boat, they rightfully expect that the boat will be ready to go and rigged up correctly from jump. When something costs that much guys obsess over the details and get bogged down in principles. “This is unacceptable, I shouldn’t have to deal with this crap for what I paid.” And while I completely agree with the OP that this kind of work is unacceptable, I also agree with Smoker that the OP is wasting his time. You’re taking your boat back to the same guys who rigged it that way, and expecting a better result? You’ve already done a better job “fixing” this problem on your own than they will do. I wouldn’t want them touching anything else on my boat.

There aren’t very many advantages to having a $6k boat over a $60k boat, but IMO this is one of ’em.

dirtywater wrote:

There aren’t very many advantages to having a $6k boat over a $60k boat, but IMO this is one of ’em.

The most reliable way to get things done right is to know how to do them and do them yourself. Waiting weeks to months in line for shoddy work is not high on my list of priorities.

Boat rigging is a simple job that can be done poorly or well and not be immediately apparent to most people – so unless you go somewhere with a strong reputation where their business is rigging to customers with high standards you’re just gonna end up dissatisfied.

Don’t assume because I paid to have it rigged that I couldn’t do it. The other 2 boats I’ve owned I rigged myself. This one was a little more difficult but not out of my capabilities and I thought since this should be the last boat I buy I would have it done “professionally”.

For the Ulterra mount, I replaced the 2 pan head screws with flatheads. I replaced the two flathead screws that were too long with shorter ones.

I fixed it so I could fish between now and Tuesday without worrying about. But in my mind, the right thing to do is have the dealer replace the wire. Plus they need to know about their poor job. You can’t improve if you don’t know you’ve done a poor job.

Stay tuned.

Smoker wrote:

I’d replace the 2 screws myself, wrap some electrical tape around the wire. Then go fishing and never think about it again. That would be faster and a lot less stressful then bringing it back to dealer for such a minor issue.

Feel free. However like I said earlier in this thread corrosion is the enemy. If water gets behind the sheathing it will corrode. The more it corrodes the more resistance is put onto the conductor. The more resistance the higher potential you have of an electrical fire before the breaker or fuse is able to trip.

Your safety is in your hands, and the OP’s safety is in his with how he proceeds. But telling someone to bandaid a fix and forget about it is irresponsible and dangerous.

Netguy- if they do just splice it make sure it is crimped(not just soldered) and fully sealed with a layer of adhesive lined shrink wrap and not just wrapped in electrical tape.

Soldering without a mechanical hold on high draw wire such as this can be just as dangerous as a nicked wire. It can heat up, loosening the solder connection and lead to (you guessed it) fire.

Netguy wrote:

I fixed it so I could fish between now and Tuesday without worrying about. But in my mind, the right thing to do is have the dealer replace the wire. Plus they need to know about their poor job. You can’t improve if you don’t know you’ve done a poor job.

You can also be aware of the bad work, not care, and continue to do poor work because you have more boats in line than you can possibly deal with by the promised dates. That seems like the most likely scenario here. YMMV and I sure hope it does!

Screws to mount the trolling plate???
How about stainless bolts, washers and nylon locking nuts?!

Denny O wrote:

Screws to mount the trolling plate???
How about stainless bolts, washers and nylon locking nuts?!

YES,,,,,,, threaded fasteners with a phillips drive are indeed called machine screws.
machine screw
[machine screw]
NOUN
a fastening device similar to a bolt but having a socket in its head which allows it to be turned with a screwdriver.

I haven’t ever seen a dealer that does satisfactory work. I have regretted every single time I have taken a piece of equipment to a dealer and most of the time I re-do anything they did. I have had bad experiences with boats, jet skis, pontoons, pickups, cars, and lawn mowers. I do not take anything to the dealer anymore including recalls and warranty work. I end up just fixing it myself because they all damage more than they fix in my experience. If someone could show me work done by a dealer that IS top notch I would be genuinely interested in seeing it. Most recent example was a hood replacement on a new F250 on an insurance claim. Brand new hood that has probably 30+ places where you can see runs or thickness variation or dust contamination in the paint…I just hate taking it in because they all do shoddy work. Another time I had a dealer put the wrong ATF in the tremec in my gto…list goes on for miles.

Adam Steffes wrote:

I haven’t ever seen a dealer that does satisfactory work. I have regretted every single time I have taken a piece of equipment to a dealer and most of the time I re-do anything they did. I have had bad experiences with boats, jet skis, pontoons, pickups, cars, and lawn mowers. I do not take anything to the dealer anymore including recalls and warranty work. I end up just fixing it myself because they all damage more than they fix in my experience. If someone could show me work done by a dealer that IS top notch I would be genuinely interested in seeing it. Most recent example was a hood replacement on a new F250 on an insurance claim. Brand new hood that has probably 30+ places where you can see runs or thickness variation or dust contamination in the paint…I just hate taking it in because they all do shoddy work. Another time I had a dealer put the wrong ATF in the tremec in my gto…list goes on for miles.

I am thinking the same myself.I have an Ulterra(2020)with a noisy steering module.Everything within reasonable driving distance from LaCrosse area seems like over-priced hacks/butchers.Probably will be worse after it visits an ASC(under warranty)like most of my experiences.

Should just party until it pukes,then replace module myself.

It’s a good thing to catch and fix, but you were fine.

Back to the original question, to put your mind at ease, that bare wire likely did not present a fire hazard.

#1 Your trolling motor batteries aren’t (or at least shouldn’t) be grounded to the boat. A spark or dead short could only have occurred if that bare spot were to touch a bare spot on your ground wire returning to the batteries.

#2 Your TM wiring has a circuit breaker (or at least it should). A dead short should trip it in a heartbeat, preventing any sort of heat build up (melting wires, fire, etc)

I’m in agreement with Adam Steffes. I don’t limit it to dealers. Most shops. Not to say there are not some good ones, but I’ve not found them when I needed them unfortunately. Literally, everytime there was an issue. Even the time I was ill and had the wife pay to get the oil changed. Only oil change where I paid to have it done in my life, and they cross threaded the drain plug and sent it home with her leaking oil. I bought a new 21ft Ranger back in 2012 from Cabelas. What a s*%$ show that was. Only some of the addons were present when I picked it up. And then the quality issues from the manufacturer. I literally found a trash bin under one of the covers on the port side while installing wiring for electronic equipment. Empty bottles, paper towels, misc trash and even a couple cigarette butts. That, I surmise, was done at the factory. The list of issues with the dealer and the manufacturer are way too long to list, but include improper wiring, livewell/pump plumbing hooked up way wrong, star cracking in gel coat due to improper installation of the bump rail and ladder, trailer set up wrong in several regards including one of the trailing arms off two splines and one off one spline (tandem axle, so they got it 50% correct, which I figured out after noticing crazy tire wear problems). After one unsatisfactory trip back to the dealer, I refused to take it back and finished/fixed it all myself. Installed all of the snaps on my full enclosure (drilled a ton of holes in my glass), but I was not about to let them do it after they installed several components out of alignment (gunwale rails were a mess). No regrets in doing that given the shoddy work I was dealing with as the alternative. I could go on and on with all of the dealer/shop horror stories that have rendered me as my own service provider for pretty much everything.

To the original question, I see that as frustrating for sure but fairly minor compared to what I’ve seen with new boats over the years. Run a new cable and done. Personally, I would get them to pay me to run the wire which would save them money and give me comfort knowing it was done right (just give me the materials at no cost and we’re good). Just don’t touch my boat, please.

Denny O wrote:

How about stainless bolts, washers and nylon locking nuts?!

Huntindave wrote:

YES,,,,,,, threaded fasteners with a phillips drive are indeed called machine screws.

They did use stainless machine screws, washers and unlocks. The screws I use were stainless with flat heads.

Picked up the boat today. They replaced the wire.

I asked the service manager if they are still going a billion mph? He said, “Yes and I wish we could go faster.”

They are having trouble getting graphs and trolling motors to rig the boats they’ve sold. The manufacturers of said items can’t get the parts to make them.

I hate that I had to drop it off to get in line. I could have fished a lot between when I dropped it off and when my turn was coming up. I suppose most places are like this. My only other experience is with Hannay’s. Drop it off in the morning of the day they will work on it and pick it up in the evening.