[JpEater]

Perhaps you should look up the electrical codes for wiring around a swimming pool. As far as grounding. There is supposed to the a ground on everthing, but they should be made up inside of a dry box.

On a swimming pool you have to ground the light niche, the handrail, the ladder, the diving board, and every individual peice of coping if its a vinyl liner pool. But I don't see what bowfishing has to do with a swimming pool! :laugh:

 

[JpEater]

If your in doubt about wiring your boat. Use a GFCI.

 

[stickem247]

no i know my wiring is good i wanted a simple question answered and got it thanks all..my theory is my lights are grounded to the rail/boat...and the common ground runs from the genny to the rbbox to the light/rail/boat...so were good thanks all..

 

[Carpmaster]

Holy chit I am a tad cornfused after reading this one....

 

[stickem247]

lmao yup..i think i got the skinny of it tho...

 

[mudfish]

http://newboatbuilders.com/docs/portable.pdf
"
So where does this leave us? The only really safe place to use these generators is outside.
If care is taken to place the generator in the open, dispersing fumes away from the boat,
then carbon monoxide should not be an issue. If your boat’s ac electrical system is
properly wired and grounded then shock hazard should not be an issue.
"

http://marinegenerators.us/kohler/lit/SB460.PDF
"
U.S. Coast Guard and the American. Boat and Yacht Council, ... Generator sets installed in pleasure craft require a grounded.
"

 

[stickem247]

wow my thread made it as a sticky.....that's awesome!!!

 

[Team Hold EM Hook]

So, If I have a fiberglass boat what woul I do. Connect a ground wire to generator, attach it to piece of copper, and hang it over the side of the boat in the water? I am like some others now, clueless. Will probally be using something like drop cord to run lights since my lights will not stay on my boat all the time

 

[mudfish]

Really you would run the ground wire from light back to the genny.

 

[Clinton]

What if my boat is fiberglass? lol

 

[Team Hold EM Hook]

What if my boat is fiberglass? lol

Well you would be standing on a steel deck, with lights on it and there could be times when you have to put your hand in the water while on the deck Heck this is why I got my partner who's an electrician for, all I know is it ain't fun to get the chit knocked out of ya

 

[Ayres Outdoors]

why would you argue aout running a wire from your gennys ground terminal to the boat it only takes 5min max and it could save your life if it doesnt then your out 5 min if it does you wont know anyway. not only do the coast guard regs require it but grounding is required on everything in the nec. Ive been an electrician a long time and this to me is a no brainer if your genny is not grounded then you create a difference in potential between your boat and the genny if you get inbetween that potential you create a path for the circuit. Electricity doesnt follow the shortest path to ground it follows any path to ground. Thats my opinion and everyone is allowed to have their own but why take a chance with your life over 5min work.

 

[Naylor86]

If your in doubt about wiring your boat. Use a GFCI.

I don't doubt my wiring at all. I have been a Journeyman wireman for 10 years. I'm 110% i know what I'm doing. On the safe side if i take a kid fishing the last thing i want to worry about is someone getting "zapped" or "tingled". I always ground everything out and use a GFCI with ANYTHING wet. Dry box or not. I have had a fellow brother electrician that lost all his toes to 110V. S*** happens.I'm a farm boy to and have done some stuff half ** but just spend the extra 30 bucks and do it the right way. JP you do make some sick light housings brother haha. This is just my 2 cents.

 

[Istickem]

Swimming pools are really not a good comparison. Generators are a separately derived system. So the ground is "made"by the generators frame, the ground that is connected to the outlets on the generator are connected to that ground, not earth ground. That said to meet codes all non current carrying metal parts should be BONDED to the frame of the genny. The redundancy of actually running a wire from the genny lug to your boat is that if your light housings are grounded, and then bolted to the aluminum, that usually will provide more than enough of a BOND. And any fault that happens will short back to the frame of the genny, tripping the overcurrent protection. And of course they have these redundencies for those who wire things up weird.

 

[ELEVATED DEATH]

well I work with high voltage everyday and we ground EVERYTHING! my genny has a ground, my ballast box has a ground and every light is grounded mudfish is completly right you do not want to get hit with 120 there are way more people killed in this world by 110/120 volts than any other voltage out there simply because we think it will just give us a tingle and most of the time it will, its just that .003 miliamp it takes to stop your heart from beating. my kids and family are way more important to me for them to say at my funeral well he was just to lazy to spend 15 minutes and run a couple more wires. really whats it gonna hurt if they are there? Nothing!!!!!!!

 

[riverocket]

Here's the way it works. Technically it's not grounding, it's called bonding. The purpose is to make sure all metal and electrical parts maintain the same reference ground or 0 volts. In biger boats, these are the green wires running in the bilge. As long as everything works as it's supposed to, life is good. But I'm well acuainted with this guy named Murphy and his laws. For instance, if something shorts to a chassis and doesnt have a path back to the source (the geny) it holds potential energy (voltage). If you touch it and provide it with the path, you like Ben Franklin will feel the power of the electron in the form of current. Some times you can get leakage or induced currents in metal items that lie close to wires carrying high currents, like a radio antenna works. These voltages are usually small but you can get a tingle. Here's another possibility, just because your not in the boat doesnt mean your safe. If the geny shorts to the hull the boat becomes energized and someone grabs the boat while standing in the water, well you get the idea. If you run a metal hull in salt water definately bond to prevent your hull from becoming a battery and disloving. So basically, it's like a seat belt in a car, it's waste until you get in an accident. There are many reason to bond and I'm sure there's a couple reasons not too.

 

[redfish hunter]

Couple of questions: Are there any confirmed cases of injuries from electricity on bowfishing boats.....anybody???. From these actual factuals can we learn the true risk factor. If you know factuals please share .
If my 110v generator direct shorts out to my metal boat, either thru the wiring, fixture, or genny itself grounding out , wouldn't the amperage skyrocket and tripp the breaker on the genny immediately, gfci or not?
If as described "if any item(wire,fixture,genny,genny frame) is grounded to the boat then they are all grounded via the ground leg in the power cord" then what does an extra wire from ground lug to hull accomplish?? The light fixture has a ground wire and is bolted to the metal hull so the whole setup is thus grounded to the metal hull.....right??/
Assuming everything is grounded, ground lugged, gfci, etc. and somehow the hot leg of a wire rubs insulation off itself, doesn't hit metal, and your wet foot steps on it with the other wet foot on the metal deck. Are you now shocked, electrocuted, dead???? Or does the breaker trip?
I have indoor/outdoor 115v receptacles mounted horizontally on my deck. They have been through hevy rainstorms where they were definitely soaked as were we shooters (it was summer and actually felt good to get wet). Another time a full adult beverage spilled on the receptacle literally filling it w/ beer, while light was on, so i pulled plug out, let most beer drain down through outlet, and replugged it in ,,,,no tingle???????
Lastly, if this 115 v short, max amps the geeny can produce, is shooting through my metal hull it will soon get to the ground lug of myb very expensive 12v Yamaha outboard. That 115v would travel backwards through the 12v ground wire till it blew into the computer boards/modules etc. just a frying as it went??? That could cost a fortune to fix and strand you out at sea. Again, any actal factuals of this happening.?????

 

[bowfin]

The breaker is for over current protection of the breaker rating direct short to ground to protect equipment not people. GFCIs are to protect people sensing imbalance between hot and neutral around 4 to 5 milliamps. You should ground your genny to the boat if aluminum if fiberglass a ground in the water because you need an earth ground. The breaker will not trip on the resistance of a human body trust me ive had the crap knocked out of me and never tripped a breaker. A GFCI on the other hand you could have a skinned hot wire and touch it and your aluminum boat and it will trip and it will trip instantly. So you need to ground and use GFCIs. IBEW Local 725 20 yrs.

 

[chootem]

Two questions referenced fiberglass. One answer said steel deck. I have a fiberglass boat with a carpeted wooden deck. I can't really ground anything and it should be bonded through the ground wire on the plug.....

 

[riverocket]

You cant ground and bond your hull but the metal parts of you electrical components need to be grounded. If you wired them correctly it's already done with the green wire in the plug. Just make sure sure the housing of your lights is bonded to inside parts.