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Equipment & products used on
Mad Dog Voyager
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The Mad Dogs Equipment & Gear page
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 Bluesea power panels
Mad Dog Voyager is outfitted with 2 power breaker panels from Blue
Sea Systems for our 12v DC systems. Originally delivered with an
undersized and restrictive 18 breaker panel from CR Yachts, our
systems improvements and expansion has demanded new updated
power panels.
Blue Sea Systems is one of the leaders of power panels, related
digital voltmeter/ammeter displays and other power products.
While they seem to regularly design, develop and release new and
innovative solutions, some of their designs and engineering
ideas leave us scratching our heads. Their products are top
notch, accompanied by excellent documentation and are easy to
retrofit, however, in our opinion, some of the Blue Sea
designers need to spend a day actually trying to retrofit and
install some of their products.
Panel #1 holds 36 circuit breakers, contains the
multi-functional digital 12v DC voltmeter/ammeter (with ability
to provide data on 3 different battery banks); panel #2 holds 18
circuit breakers. Nice finish and high quality standards are
evident and hallmarks of Blue Sea Systems.
Installing both power panels on Mad Dog Voyager was not a simple
"cut a hole and drop the panel in place". It appears they were
trying to save pennies on the aluminum faceplates by making them
as small as possible (and even too small in some areas). On the
other hand, the ready-to-connect electrical pigtails on the
digital voltmeter/ammeter and the prewired circuit breaker
mounts made quick and easy work of connecting the electrical
side of the panel.
A little redesign by Blue Sea and their power panels would
garnish a hands-down, 5-star award from The Mad Dogs.
Product review: Nice panel, poor layout (rear of power
panel) for installing any Blue Sea power panel. It would be nice
if the engineers that designed the Blue Sea Systems power panels
were also required to attempt to install them in various
applications.
Pros: Solidly built, well engineered and excellently
finished!
Cons: The layout on the back of the panel is ridiculous!
You can not cut a nice square hole to fit the unit due to
insufficient space around the border on the panel. You need to
cut a custom "free-hand" opening with little tabs in the wood to
give the mounting screws something to bite into. Without these
little mounting tabs in your wood, the mounting screws are way
too close to the edge of the wood!
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Rating:
♥♥♥♥♥
(5 out of 5 is the best rating possible)
Download free pdf instructions manual:
not available
Web links for this
item:
Visit
the official website
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