Fish-Hawk.Net

Hi all,

I just picked up my very first fish finder the other day (Lowrance Elite 3x) for a good deal but when I opened it, I realized the power cables were exposed wire tips and I have no idea how to attach them to my marine battery. I called Lowrance and they told me to attach 18 gauge leads to the exposed wires and then clamp them onto the battery but I'm not sure which ones to buy. I found something like this: http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/batte ... cRXHPlVhBc but wasn't sure if it's too big for the wires... This one is rated at 25amp and goes as low as 5amp... Which one should I get and how do I properly attach the clamps to the leads and the leads to the wires that came with the unit? Thanks in advance!

David

Just remember red is positive (+) and black is negative (-) and I'm sure you won't have a problem. Put an inline fuse on the positive wire for safety.

Those clips will work fine. There should be screws on them that you wrap the wire around and tighten them. I prefer ring terminals myself, which would need to be soldered or crimped, and would only work for you of your battery posts have wing nuts... but much less likely to cause a mishap.

The reason for the short power cable is that your fishfinder is usually put on a console near the fuse box. It is usually long enough to be mounted to the console and then fed into the fuse panel. If you don't have a fuse panel on your boat, 18g wire can be used to extend it directly to the battery. 18g wire is easliy found as it is the same size used for small speakers or lamps of you don't care that you have a black and red wire.

Secondly, I also prefer the ring terminals as well. When I was hooking up my TM, the chandlery had some that had solder inside them. You place the terminal on the wire and then heated it up and the soldering was done. I also used some shrink tubing to ensure a water tight seal. you could use the crimp style ones that come in the crimper kit but they are a little weaker than the soldered equivalent. An inline fuse (I think that unit calls for a 3amp) is required as well.

They are not all that hard to hook up once you get all of the required supplies. Good luck and enjoy your new toy!

Thanks for the tips, guys. I ended up getting the ring terminals crimped and heat-sealed onto 18/2 wires and it's good to go now! Only thing is that I didn't realize the two top posts on my battery were different sizes (positive is 3/8", negative is 5/16") so took two trips to Canadian Tire but at least it's done.