Fish house wiring...

[Kylersk]

Just finished the floor of my fish house (pics are in the ice fishing forum) now I'm starting to think more on how to do the wiring. I ran a piece of conduit from the front of the house to the rear end (where my bench will be). I figure this would be a good starting point for all the wiring. Now, I'm not sure what to do next. How to run wires to outlets, lights, ect...

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[JohnMickish]

If it where me I'd have stubbed the conduit into the wall so you can have access to it from the inside. Build the walls and run more conduit in the walls to whatever box you want. Sure is nice to be able to repull wires if something goes wrong. You can also think about running all the conduit exposed to give it that "industrial" look that is so popular now and it makes moving things real easy if you change your mind.

[MJCatfish]

Your plans are looking good. In order to get to your wires easily and quickly for troubleshooting, you may want to consider using what is called wire channel or wire mold. It's like conduit, but is used inside for surface wiring. If you do a search on the web for wire channel or wire cover, you'll see lots of examples. I do believe you can either get it in metal or flexible plastic.

good luck!

MJ

[JohnMickish]

The trade name is wiremold and you can get it at your favorite big box home impovement store. Personally, I'd rather run 1/2 inch EMT conduit, it's faster, easier to work with and much cheaper but some people don't like the look.

[hanson]

Kylersk-

Question #1 is how are you going to power your shack?

Batteries or Generator. Or maybe Both.

Question #2 is where are you going to put your batteries in your house?

You may want to consider putting them forward to increase your tongue weight a little bit.

12v wiring is really simple. I just made sure to solder all my connections good. I didn't want anything coming apart behind the walls. I also just ran my 12v wires right behind the paneling in my house. Conduit would have been a good idea though.

You'll also have to run separate wiring for your trailer lights but that should be simple enough.

Unless you are going for the "exposed" conduit look, I would put everything in the walls if possible. I don't think you'll like how it looks when you are done, it just doesn't look clean & professional in an ice shack.

[Kylersk]

Quote:

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Kylersk-

Question #1 is how are you going to power your shack?

Batteries or Generator. Or maybe Both.

Question #2 is where are you going to put your batteries in your house?

You may want to consider putting them forward to increase your tongue weight a little bit.

12v wiring is really simple. I just made sure to solder all my connections good. I didn't want anything coming apart behind the walls. I also just ran my 12v wires right behind the paneling in my house. Conduit would have been a good idea though.

You'll also have to run separate wiring for your trailer lights but that should be simple enough.

Unless you are going for the "exposed" conduit look, I would put everything in the walls if possible. I don't think you'll like how it looks when you are done, it just doesn't look clean & professional in an ice shack.

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At first, I'll just power it with batteries, but I'm thinking I'll want the ability to use a generator.

I thought I'd have the batteries in the rear bench seat. The propane tanks will be installed on the front (side) of the V.

Since I'm using 2x2 studs, I'm not sure how to run them in the walls. I wouldnt think drilling a 3/4" hole through an 1.5" stud would be wise, but maybe I'm wrong?

[JohnMickish]

We run 1/2 EMT in 2" walls all the time so it can be done. Now if you really wanted to have something neat you could run the conduit in the walls, terminate in shallow boxes with the correct mudring for the wall thickness you will be using and cover them with white blank plates and then drill the plate out for the device you want to have there.

I would for sure run the trailer light wiring in conduit. You will be glad you did.

[lexingtonfisherman]

I built a house 2 winters ago now. And i had my cousin who is an electrician wire it.

All of the wiring runs to a bench in the front of the hosue that is part of the dinette. they are all hooked in to a fuse panel, a breaker panel would have worked better, but this small of one was extremely pricey for each breaker (125 a peice) and he had thsi fuse panel laying around. All of the wiring runs up the wall to the celing because i put in a drop in ceiling which makes it easy to access the wires. They are then ran down the wall next to the stud where needed. Also a generator hook up is always a good idea, might not always need it, but you cant use it if you dont have it. The generator runs an outlet in the bench for a battery charger, and also i put a 110 outlet above the coutner just in case and the generator runs that. i usually use 2 deep cycle batteries when i go up north and they will last about 5 days, depending how much t.v. i watch. Just my thoughts. Good luck!