I’ve watched too many of these videos and this one was hands-down the best. Very straightforward and easy to understand.

I have been fixing boats for about 100 years and just now and again one's head hurts and you cannot see for the fog of memories!! Just such an occasion yesterday when fixing up a float switch and bilge pump - your video saved my skin. Thanks and love the videos and the no nonsense approach. Cheers Mate.

Your videos are the best, period.

I am a Charterboat captain/owner. Never cut your wires short because there are other reasons your pump can fail besides pump failure. Low battery, stuck float switch ect. A stuck float switch once the water has been pumped off will air lock and not pump water once it has risen high enough again even with the pump running constantly. Good video...keep up the good work.

these videos are brilliant - nothing more to say other than i love the fact always a cold beer to hand

Hey Stu. I installed my beige pumps x 2 in my boat , I followed your instructions to the letter , and everything works perfectly. Thank you EB .

Beyond the "Wiring a Boat Pt1" video, the key thing that helped me that I learned from this video was to prep your wiring harness, connectors, cabling etc before even touching the boat. That way you aren't in a cramped space trying to solder, crimp, strip etc...

i am adding a second bilge pump with a sensor switch and an on/off/auto as you did here. thanks for your great videos. i hope you are having fun with the BRUPEG gang!!

A trick I use to make a long wire 'short' for neatness is too wrap a section of the wire around a pen/pencil, making a 'coil effect'. This keeps the wire length short but can be pulled straight, if as you said, need to pull it through the dash.

Love your videos, your sense of humor, and your ease at self-deprecation. Sail on!

I have just started on a restoration of 21 ft savage marlin I have found all your videos so very helpful good to see down to earth tutorials

Just referred back to this video as your explanation of required wiring was excellent- thanks again! Iooks like your trip up north is going well!

Thanx again for an xlnt video. You are a wonderful teacher, cool , down to earth, etc. All the best from Oslo Norway ;-)

Thanks for the close up of the connections

Another great video mate! Always easy to understand your wiring diagrams, makes it easy for us to get our head around them. The green machine is progressing along quite well!

Subscribed and bought a shirt! Figured I owe you that much for the money you’ve saved me! You gave me the confidence to do it myself. Thanks for the awesome and informative videos. Ben from Florida

Good and well explained video. I'd never seen liquid electrical tape before - I'll have to get some.

These videos are so helpful. Thanks for sharing your expertise and advice.

Thank you Stu for making these videos. They have helped me a lot.

Great video man. I learned a few new tricks. I use the liquid electrical tape also, then heat shrink over it. I always have trouble figuring out those pump switches. Thanks again.

Another excellent video. One thing I've done in the past for folks boats is add a simple push button at the back of the boat by the bilge for those that tend to be a bit more excited about a little bit of water in the and as a test. They'll throw a cup of water at the pump while holding the button down to verify the pump turns on and pumps water with no leaks in the plumbing. Definitely not a necessity however.

How convenient, my boat I just bought has that exact same switch! Having problems with the green light, it doesn't illuminate, but the automatic setting does indeed work.

How about a quick video about the history of the Green Machine ? I bet their are lots of fun memories ? Great bilge pump video by the way !

Thank you. I hope I can wire my boat on my own. Video definitely helped

Love the cowling paint job...And the bilge pump install great job...

Wow I really love watching you videos you make learning fun and very educational. Thank You!

Always fuse hot, never ground. One wire at fuse connected to center switch and then long wire to ground block. Just a personal, i prefer shrink at all terminals (multiple pita i know) for overall safety.

Your videos are grate, I learn a lot from them

Excellent vids, thankyou. Clear and clever thinking and some great tips along the way. Gives me more confidence to tackle my own bilge pump wiring.

Yes it was. I am going to wire my boat soon ,thank you

Love the video! Clear and to the point

My first viewing and so impressed......I’m having a go at this and your vid will be invaluable I’m sure! Many thanks from a pure novice👏

Thanks, Stu ,very helpful, plus fun to watch

Excellent, yet again. I am worried about you wearing an insulated vest when it's the hottest part of summer (100 degrees here in Texas) you must have the flu. Very satisfied with your videos, I have searched several boat maintenance topics and you keep popping up. Gig 'em Aggies!

Thanks again great job on the green machine

You really are the best out there

Excellent video! As clear as a bell!

Helpful and interesting bit of how to info.

Great video ! Maybe add a Hour Meter to the Bilge Pump circuit ! Then you will know how long the Pump was running when you were away ! Thank you for the video ! tjl

Why is the fuse on the negative? what if the pump shorts to ground.... fuse won't do anything

love all your videos best online!

As a preference, I use a fused permanent live to the sensor/float switch, and an on/off switched live, also fused. This gives the redundancy of there always being a source for the bilge pump, and it being impossible to accidentally leave the boat without a pump available, if the switch is not moved to auto. I also add a buzzer to the negative side, so that it's easy to test. This helps if the pump is below a deck, or further away, and is harder to see. Perhaps not so important on the Green Machine, but certainly a consideration for bigger boats, like the Trawler. All our boats are dual battery, dual engine, and each has multiple bilge pumps, so they're split between both batteries for greater safety. For the boats I maintain (3 46ft Newtons, various other smaller boats), I use the same circuit for every bilge pump. This makes diagnosis easier, and it's easier for our captains to move between boats. Standardisation in this way lightens my workload :) All our boats live on moorings, so being able to be confident to leave them, knowing they have a small chance of losing bilge pumps, is very important here.

you deserve more subs these videos are very informative and great

love your videos mate, very informative, best ive seen so far, keep up the great work, go the green machine 🤘🤘

Thanks again for a great video. Your a top bloke stu 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Another great video! Thanks for sharing. I was a bit concerned at beginning of video when "New Engine" wasn't scratched out (lol). The Green Machine is looking pretty awesome!

love the video... and the e36 in the backdrop:)

Excellent as usual my friend.

How dare life get in the way of another excellent video! ;)

Great vid Bro you would make a good teacher. thanks and Jah Bless.

Having watched a little bit more, I'd like to suggest something that might be better for your uses than liquid electrical tape - - try self-amalgamating tape. It wraps around just like conventional adhesive insulation tape, but there is no adhesive to turn nasty, and as its name suggests it amalgamates into one rubber piece. When I was in the electronics trade, we used tons of the stuff when installing aerials or satellite dishes, and it stands up really well to water, UV etc.

Thanks for all the info. Cheers.

I think it's better if you put the fuse in positive line

Really enjoy your presentations! Question: the panel comes with a 10 amp fuse and my pump only specifies a 3amp. Can I just replace the 10amp with the 3 amp and good to go? Also, your diagram has the fuse connecting to the negative side of the battery and pump. I thought the fuse was supposed to be on the positive side. Does it matter??

Thanks the Vid was a great help.

Awesome video! easy explained as always. I'll try it in my boat. Hey.. one thing I'd like to suggest is that probably you could mention or add a link on the parts you're using on the installation on your videos so they're easy to find and buy (and don't mean you do publicity but to help us on how to find them). thanks for all the videos! :)

Great video, but ensure the fuse is on the POS+ leg. You want that fuse to trip if the line shorts out; otherwise, you'll have a boat fire.

Thanks, very nice video for my wiring job, PS your work bench is almost as messy as mine.

Very informative. thanks.

Why is the fuse on the (-)? Should'nt it be on the (+)? Congratulations on your videos, so far, I like them all!

watching this it reminds me I had a near death experiance. I was out in my boat similar to the green machine in a very cold day with sub zero temperatures and my boat seemed to have a bad leak kilometers from the slip way. Only found out about the leak when there was like 200 litres of water in the boat already and my bilge pump was frozen solid due to the cold weather and water was pooring in FAST. Couldn't get my boat up to plane because of the weight of the water in the back of the boat and I could litterally beach my boat minutes before it was about the go down. So always be carefull when boating in freezing temperatures.

another great and helpful video

More star work 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

*he is such a good teacher awesome keep it up

I like these videos and I don't have a boat

an old garden hose makes a great wire conduit , flexible, water tight, and cheap.....

Hello, I'm in the process of restoring an old Cutter runabout and your videos are AWESOME! Very helpful. I have one question regarding what gauge wire I should be using in all these applications? Obviously the batter leads are heavier but what about the main lines from battery to the block, block to bus bars and then each individual wire for the accessories? Thanks for the help!

Why not eliminate some of the wiring by putting the fuse inline with the power to the switch?

I don't like the fuse in the negative side, Steve in Thailand.

sensor switch small electric current can set up electrolysis in ally boats in damp wet areas

What on earth is the feild sensor switch?? It's an auto bilge pump,to the 3 way switch. There is no float. Very confusing

If you need to in large a small hole and can get to both sides like on the transom . I you can clamp a block of wood behind the hole so the polite bit has something to bite into.

Very informative as all your videos are,but how did you secure mounting plate to hull?.

Hi mate I love your work! Just a question Why did you choose to put the fuse on the negative instead of positive? The reason of my question is a bit of concern in this unfused positive having a short circuit with a unfused negative, Wouldn’t be a better idea having all positives with a fused protected and all negatives without fuses? Just some thoughts!

Do you always put the fuse on the negative end of circuit? This could drain your battery if there is a ground. Example is current leak under water in bilge go's to ground. You still have current flow

My understand is that you have a fuse before the pump in order to protect the pump from burning out if it became blocked

Informative video Stu...ready for the next storm I am sure now. Good to see the Mad Max outboard cowling tradition continues...will the stern light be cowl-mounted like before ?

Not sure if you realised (don't want to read all the comments to find out) but there is a typo in the title for this one. You've got "blige" instead of "bilge". Probably won't show up in searches. Cheers.

When talking about the spade connectors at around 12:30, why bother putting spades on the short wire, when you could just pull wires through the dash and connect straight to the back of the switch with a spade?

I'm turning a peddle boat into a motor boat. Gonna use a trolling motor, and wire some lights. Not the most handyman​so we will see how this experiment goes!

Hi... I live in Sydney and enjoy your vids..... As backing boards if I don't use plywood I cut up those poly kitchen cutting boards I buy from the Reject Shop. Where do you source the poly board that you mounted the bilge pump onto ?? It looks more appropriate than chopping boards.

You should heat shrink those spade connectors and crimps just to make sure that the don't come apart. You can always cut the heat shrink off if worst comes to worst

I don't understand why you fused the "ground" side of the pump rather than the positive side. Is the boat wired as a positive ground?

Great vid mate, Just subscribed! One question. Why not mount pump and sensor on opposite sides of centreline? Equidistantly of course.

My brand new whale feild sensor switch just activate as soon as I hook it up to the battery. Did I wired it wrong?

I have baisicaly the same switch and a new automatic/ manual pump float enclosed.no sensor .how is the best way to wire without a seperate float and no senseor?Thank's for great videos

Hope all is OK on your latest venture. Weather outlook up the coast wasn't nice. That said, keep up the good work.

Super useful thanks. I just replaced my old pump and float with an integrated ‘smart’ whale supersub pump that I wired into the old switch panel that was actually designed for separate float switches (mine is integrated in the pump) so I’ve left the panel’s designated float switch wires unattached on the panel. I’m doubting what I’ve done so wondering if the better idea is to go direct to a switch like you have.. any thoughts?

Great video as always! Will the little green light run down the battery if you leave it in auto mode? I have the same switch and I might not be back to the boat for a month at a time, just wondering about the power draw for the led (I am assuming it is relatively small!)

I am new to boating but I know electronics. Is there a reason you did not put the fuse on the + side of the circuit, That would seem safer, for the senors and the circuit.

wondering if he glues the poly board to the bottom of the bilge?

Tout all the time, only install fuses on positive side as in motor vehicle

You didn’t use heat shrink connectors. All should be heat shrink even at the switch.

Any concern putting a molding on those aluminum holes in the dash to prevent cutting the wires off on their sharp edges? Does the bilge pump plate want to bounce around not being fastened down?

Hi how are you, just wondering how do you choose the appropriate bilge pump for boat size ? Mine is 19ft. If duel pumps were nessasary do you need duel float switches ?

So I know this doesn't pertain to this video but is it possible to remove a livewell out of a stratos bass boat and upgrade to a bigger one

Is there any way to wire the pump through a fuse block directly to power to be auto while also having a manual switch in addition? Instead of having a switch that does both.

Close up on the switch and float pump with different lead would help understand better.

Your videos are simply great! Do have a question as you show the Rule 41 3Way switch with the fuse lead going to the negative on bus/fuse box. The old boat I just purchased, has the same switch and fuse connector going to the positive on the fuse box.....What am I missing here?

try to avoid using corrugated/spiral hose when venting bilges...it decreases the pumps efficiency, smoothbore hose, preferably clear, really works better as the pump works less to move more water...check it out...