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Has anyone modifed the switches on the dash (i.e. blower, bilge, ballast, etc) to only have power when the key is in the igintion and turned 1 click? I am not very mechanical, but hopefully this modification would not be that difficult. My kids like to climb in the boat and play, and occasionly a switch might get left on. If I hide the key, the switches won't work.
Thanks
There should be a small breaker switch wired near the battery. I believe this will kill the power to the dash and switches. I'm not absolutely sure, so maybe someone else here can help or try it yourself. I am sure that if it works it would be a heck of a lot easier to trip that breaker (just has a red button you push in to throw out the connection) than to rewire the entire panel.
Instead of modifying the ignition switch, add a battery disconnect, or better yet, with the disconnect, add a second battery. I added a battery and switch to allow me to use battery 1, 2 or both. This is good insurance when I float/anchor/beach for long periods of time with the radio on. I also turn the switch to off which disconnects the battery when I store the boat. When the switch is set to off, your rockers will not be functional for little fingers to play with.
Will
Lowdrag is correct. I found this out the hard way when I must have accidentally tripped it getting the boom stored. The boat ran fine but I had no accessory gauges such as radio or wake plate control. Luckily I stumbled on the breaker and tripped it back and everything worked fine. If you manually tripped this, I would think it would lock out the accessory buttons until you tripped it back.
I think I would check to make sure that the bilge will still work on automatic if you make this modification. If you trailor your boat or keep it on a lift then you probably don't care but I leave mine in the lake all summer and would not use a battery disconnect.
Andy