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Hey guys so I bought a boat yesterday. It's a 14' flat bottom with a 13 hp Honda motor on a long tail kit. I was curious if there is a way to have the motor charge the battery while it is running so I don't have to worry to much about getting home and throwing the battery on a charger after every trip. I am also curious about how to hard wire my nav lights and install them to the boat ( the guy I bought it from has been using a walmart kit that runs on AA's)
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Also when I plug the trailer into my truck I have brake lights, signals, and hazards but no running lights. Any thoughts on what could cause that and how to fix it?
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I’m guessing your wiring harness on your trailer is is a 4 way which is just signal, brakes, and will turn on with hazards. They don’t have running lights. Now if it is a 7 way there is prob a short in the wiring somewhere. But with most smaller boats they use a 4 way that’s why I’m guessing the way I am. Hope that helps.
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Can't help you with the boat and motor questions.
Trailer lights even with a 4 flat plug, if it's wired correctly you should have tail and running lights.
A 12 volt test light helps a lot to find the problem.
Assuming you have a 4 way plug there should be green, yellow, brown and white wires. If following the correct wiring procedure.
Yellow will be left turn signal and brake light.
Green will be right turn signal and brake light.
Brown will be tail and running lights.
White is ground.
Need to find out if there's power to the plug on the truck, which is where the test light comes in. If it is a factory installed wire harness there could be a separate fuse for the wire plug.
The plugs on the truck and trailer could have corrosion and not making a connection.
Make sure the wire plugs are clean and making a good connection. See if you can find any broken wires. If the white ground wire is not attached to the trailer in some way then it is grounded through the hitch ball, which is not a great way to do it.
Would only take a few minutes to test it if you are close to where I live.
Rambled a little, hope any of it helps.
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Bryce Lowder
I do what the voices in my wife's head tell me to.
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Yes it is a four pin I was not aware of that thank you!
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Awesome I will have to look into that and see thanks for the input!
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Sorry I was thinking day time running lights not running lights like when the lights are turned on, that’s my bad. Thank you for clarifying and teaching me more than I knew. I would have been lost if I would have been tested which color was which
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First question. is the 13hp motor electric start, i assume it is but i try not to assume, it generally make an a$$ outa ume. if it is it should be charging while running, you might have to get a volt meter, cheep at walmart will work, should read about 12.5, when the engine is running should be higher about 13 to 13.6.
Lights are easy, buy led ones, take not LED lights are polarity sensitive.
you will need a bow light, stern light, switch, 2wire loomed, speaker wire will work good, 18 gauge wire, here is a wiring diagram, sorry its hand wrote, if you wanted a head light it would be wired in the same way.
hope it helps and does not confuse you.
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O.C.F.D.
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Yes the motor has an electric start. But at the moment its not wired to a battery the guy was just using the pull start. so I need to go buy a deep cycle battery in the near future and a switch plate so I can run nav lights on a switch and the light bar up front on a switch. But I haven't had time to check yet about where the wires are on the motor to be able to try the electric start cause he only had some little battery he was running the light bar off of so I am trying to redo the whole system where I don't have to worry about coming home and hooking the battery up to a charger after every trip. I was thinking of mounting just a switch plate like this to be able to run the lights.
[url "https://www.amazon.com/Fastronix-Lighted-Weatherproof-Rocker-Switch/dp/B013C4IRPK/ref=sr_1_28_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1521226425&sr=8-28-spons&keywords=boat+light+switch+panel&psc=1"]https://www.amazon.com/Fastronix-Lighted-Weatherproof-Rocker-Switch/dp/B013C4IRPK/ref=sr_1_28_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1521226425&sr=8-28-spons&keywords=boat+light+switch+panel&psc=1[/url]
Thank you for the response I will definitely use the diagram when I get the time and weather and money to dig into it all.
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You will need to verify that the engine does indeed have a starter motor because it seems strange to me that you would not be able to see the wires running out of the motor and why would anyone pull start a motor that has electric start[:/]. It is possible that the starter motor went out and he just never fixed it because of the cost but something sounds fishy there. Anyway most motors that have electric start also have an alternator to charge the battery.
As far as your nav lights, there are a couple of ways to go. One is to buy the type where you remove the light when not in use, like this model:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CI..._i=3398721
You just install the base and put the light in when needed, the advantage to this is that you do not damage the light, getting into or out of the boat. If you want the type that you leave on and never remove you can go with this type:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B4C..._i=3398721
Unless you plan on wiring in a lot of other options, you only need one toggle switch for this system to work but if you are planning to put in other options, like a bilge pump or any other items then you will need that 4 switch panel.
If your other trailer lights are working and the parking lights are all that you are missing, it is likely that you just have corrosion in your plug connection, just get a small knife blade and scrape the inside of each female connection, if that does not work, try just wiggling the connection back and forth and see if the light come on. I have this issue every Winter after the boat has been sitting for a while.
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Ya the motor is a Honda GX390 4 stroke. Where your keys goes its got the off, on, and start sections marked out just like the ignition on your vehicle has. I believe I am going to go with the removable lights that have the socket attached to the boat. I can take some pictures when I get home cause maybe I just over looked something.
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OK, so you are saying this On/Off switch is located on the motor or is there some sort of dash on this boat?
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On the motor itself.
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I'm sure the switch pack will work. Just put the fuse before the switches. I just had to buy a deep cycle. 95$ at Napa. There's better ones but the price goes up. Lights are by preference. But use LED they use about a fourth of the juice. Remember the are polarity sensitive. Make sure they work before you crimp. Get the good connectors with heat shrink. Dielectrical grease helps to.
Just a thought, if on your trailer the tail lights are bulb type and Not LED be sure to unplug from your truck or it will blow bulbs out when they get wet.
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So I was totally wring I found the wires that run the electric start haha so technically all I have to do is hook it to the battery and it should charge it right?
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I sure can't tell you that is 100% true but in general that is the case with other boat motors. You should be able to tell after the motor is started by checking the battery voltage. If the battery is reading, say 12.6 volts before the motor starts, it should be reading a higher voltage after the motor starts, if it has an alternator.
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