12V LED Strip not lighting up

[Cadence]

Why does boat wiring seem to be a rat's nest so often. Actually his looks relatively good. Several contributors seem to come from an aircraft background can they believe what they see on some for sale pics? Do the boats come that way or is it owner add on problems?

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Why does boat wiring seem to be a rat's nest so often. Actually his looks relatively good. Several contributors seem to come from an aircraft background can they believe what they see on some for sale pics? Do the boats come that way or is it owner add on problems?

Photo #3 scares the hell out of me.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Photo #3 scares the hell out of me.

It is better than some that look like someone used an egg beater in a bunch of wire. At least they look dressed. I was just curious because I see so much of it from broker pics. They would scare me off. Buy this boat an accident looking for a place to happen.

[svpandion]

YES! Exactly the issue here! Before I pulled the wire, I noticed the screw was loose on the other side of terminal block. Enough to get a voltage reading but that's it. So hard to see back there!

I remember using those little testers back in the day. Super handy!

[svpandion]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Why does boat wiring seem to be a rat's nest so often. Actually his looks relatively good. Several contributors seem to come from an aircraft background can they believe what they see on some for sale pics? Do the boats come that way or is it owner add on problems?

Yea. To be fair, it's not that bad. They certainly tried to keep it neat and tight. And there was an attempt to label some of the wiring, though the Sharpie is pretty worn off. I think there is also a case of adding equipment after the main wiring was done.

I've seen some of those nightmare boat wiring pictures! Some serious WTF going on out there!

[captainwireman]

Sounds like you solved the problem. I would NEVER tell anyone what to do but I once troubleshot one of those cigarette lighter style 12 V convenience female outlets. Replaced the receptacle, cleaned all connections, battery was strong, was replacing all crimp on connections then noticed the wire was green almost two feet from both receptacle and connection from the other stateroom. Marine grade wire is not cheap, cheap wire is not good.

[svpandion]

For sure. I found some green copper up there and replaced it with tinned Anchor wiring. I'm thinking this is going to be a common scenario, so I bought a 100' spool.