Today was the day I removed the floor foam from my 97 1856 GD. As was reported in earlier posts, it was saturated. I always stored it outdoors and only this year read about the floor foam here. I have a decent scale and weighed each bag as I filled them. Removed from the floor was 266 pounds of wet garbage that would only help sink my boat.
My last run was Wednesday to see if this old guy could launch and retrieve without my Lady. I can do it so it was on with the planned work.

I do have a question, with the floor off I might put my battery up front. What gauge wires did you gents use for that 16' run?
Thanks much

You just got a whole new boat


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Do a search. I think the threads discussing it said 4 or 6.

I used cheap jumper cables to run to the front of mine.


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I've used about 14' of #4 and it worked fine. Better larger than smaller!!!


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Thanks for the tips fellows. I did the search and since I use in pure salt water I ordered two lengths of red and black 22'. Because I plan on having a junction box in the rear for all my other electrical stuff I went all out. Tinned copper 2 ga, pricey yes but at my age only want to do this once. Copper tinned solder on lugs as well.
Glad I have this boat project to keep me busy as I ran out of 309 1/16 Tig wire for my exhaust build on the Kawi.

[b]I used # 3 fine stranded Welding cable have never had a prob. its pricey but the best going for a long run says Ronbow

Hydraulic crimper on a good tinned lug and weatherproof heat shrink, the welding cable will last a long time. Welding cable is usually real good stuff. There is a lot of really shitty stuff on the market so wiring, specifically wiring advertised for marine/automotive use, is really hard to buy.

Been working on my boat and the 2 ga wire is here. I ran it out and I can only see one down side. The welding cable may have been the better choice because of flexibility. I'm talking about the PD down to under the deck. We shall see how much harder it is to turn the motor? I might terminate the 2 Ga at the transom and for the last 4' run lighter (what we called the whip) welding cable. As pipe welders we always had a lighter electrode holding cable about 6' instead of always fighting the weight of the heavier stuff that ran for 100s of feet from the machine.

Update, Y'all may laugh but I run in mostly deep water. So flotation went back in. I'm also poor and wanted support for the decking. Moving the battery to the front was nice for the extra room back where I am. The decking is finished as is the revised electrical system. Those pics I'll post tomorrow.
BTW, I'm not a tree hugger and before the oil cans were installed I retrieved a gallon of oil by fully draining them.

You're probably going to get roasted for this but I think it's awesome. Be sure to send a pic of that to go devil


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I don't think that floatation is gona water log.


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I like it

I'd use a piece of metal pipe for the electrical in case you have a need to run another wire, fix what's there, etc after you put the floor down.

I like that idea for flotation. I might do that in my rig one day.

Why not sheets of Styrofoam though?

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I have no floatation, but I do have 24 inch sides and 2 bilge pumps. I do run alot of open water and it can get rough in a hurry.

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Styrofoam sheeting would water log, and you could potentially end up in the same spot a few years down the road.

Did you seal the oil bottle lids with anything?

I wonder if a bead of silicon around the rim would held keep them sealed over time?