Moving battery to the bow

Gents,
Running #2 battery cable under the bench seats along the side of a 14' aluminum boat and looking for something to use for a chase to protect the cable. 1-1/2" PVC pipe has 2" OD and was looking for something in little lower profile. Any ideas?? I was looking at the residential wire chase stuff at Home Depot. It was pretty cheesy and would probably sag between the seats. Thanks Guys!!!

With no great thought given on my part, the first thing that comes to mind is a length of old garden hose. Certainly durable, and can be easily suspended above or below the seats.

Best wishes.

Why not go with a smaller sized PVC?

Another option would be Smurf, aka ENT. Electric Non-metallic Conduit. It’s typically used as conduit in concrete pours. I used it instead of PVC in my boat and it worked great. Relatively cheap, it can be strapped like PVC, cold bent, and they make a bunch of different fittings for it.

Well, I didn't see you get a response to your suggestion, but I'll tell you -

I thought it was a great Idea and I am going to use it in MY boat for the very same thing that Tucker99
was going to do - move the battery to the bow.

Thanks for the tip!

Not knowing the layout of your boat, and not knowing if the pvc would running under decks or out in the open, I would say go ahead with the PVC it’s quite cheap but use “schedule 80” PVC that is the grey stuff. It’s very strong you get some cold bend strength out of it, but it is also UV stable which the white stuff is not (that’s why electricians use it, because it won’t get brittle and crack over time. I used 1/2” on my boat and it worked great for all of the #14 wire that I ran from back to front. For a couple of battery cables 1/2” should be fine 3/4” if you want to run some other stuff in it.

what about pex waterline tubing. It comes in 1/2", 3/4" and 1" '

This is what I used on my boat. Split Loom. Bought mine from Amazon though. Lowes and Home Depot and others sell too.

-Kurt
1436 PolarKraft & 9.5 Evinrude

I think one of the issues Tucker is trying to overcome is it will take a pretty large diameter rigid PVC to accommodate a couple #2 battery cables.

If you do decide to go with PVC, I'll just toss out that it is very easy to get a permanent bend to fit the contour you need using a heat gun.

I also like the split loom but understand you don't want it to sag between the seats and I'm sure drilling holes for wire clips isn't desired. Maybe use some self-stick velcro straping or adhesive cable tie mounts to provide support between the seats. BTW, when I use the adhesive cable tie mounts I apply a small dab of aluminum friendly glue to the adhesive pad. I find that otherwise they come loose.

Thinking outside of the box, that rectangular plastic wire chase stuff ("cordmate brand) carried at Home Depot might be worth considering. It is lower profile. Can be painted. You can use double stick foam tape to adhere it along the hull. Another potential advantage, unlike split loom, is that you are not likely to snag it and rip it away from wherever it is mounted.

That's some pretty heavy duty cable to run front to back. Most boats I've seen or help mod leave the starting battery in the back, close to the outboard. Moved plenty of fuel tanks and deep cycle batteries to the front. Had one move the starting battery to the front and ran the cables under the main deck with pool hose. It was a mod v with plenty of room in the v to run everything. Good luck with your mod.

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