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RobertB wrote:Only LED light circuits use 14 AWG wire.

I agree with 4awg on battery however 14awg on an led circuit is complete overkill

Agreed it is more than needed - just the smallest I had. When I re-wired the second time, I tried to use wire I already had. Original time I re-wired, I had not gone over the LEDs yet.

The shorter the the cable run the less drop in voltage!Sabbath Day's M26 has 2 banks of 110 amp each band,deep cycle Optima Blue Tops. The banks are made up of 2 each 55 amp batteries and are located in the compartment directly under the companion way as is my 20 amp auto charger The manufacturer of my refer was adimate as to wire size. due to auto low voltage drop.All power supply and usage is in the back 1/2 of the boat.

Blowboater1 wrote:

The manufacturer of my refer was adimate as to wire size. due to auto low voltage drop

The problem is not the drop in voltage, but the amperage. You force a high number of amps through a narrow-gauge cable, the cable is bound to heat up and start a fire. At the very least, you may not have enough amps to start your engine.

I used to use an auto charger - until I toasted two marine batteries (WM was very nice to pay for one under warranty). IMO, auto chargers are to be used only in emergencies and only supervised. The ProMariner charger was a very good investment - my batteries have now lasted several years without incident.

FYI, my Jeep battery decided to up and die. It was still until warranty (2 years), so I took it back to Wal-mart, where they replaced it, no charge. Nice.

Plan to do the same with my X batteries if and when.